Peter Joseph Baltes

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Roman Catholic Church
EducationCollege of the Holy Cross
Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary
Grand Seminary of Montreal

Peter Joseph Baltes (April 7, 1827 – February 15, 1886) was a German-born American

Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Alton
in Illinois from 1870 until his death in 1886.

Biography

Early life

Peter Bates was born on April 7, 1827, in Ensheim,

Rhenish Palatinate in the Kingdom of Bavaria (today a part of Germany). He was the fourth child of the carpenter and tinsmith Andreas Baltes and his wife Susanna née Walljan. In 1833, the family emigrated to the United States, settling in Oswego, New York.[1]

After attending the

Grand Seminary of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec.[1]

Priesthood

Baltes was

ordained to the priesthood in Montreal for what was then the Diocese of Chicago on May 21, 1853.[2] After his ordination, Baltes returned to Chicago, where he received a pastoral assignment to a parish in Waterloo, Illinois.[1]

In 1855, Baltes was incardinated, or transferred, to the Diocese of Quincy, with a pastoral assignment at a parish in Belleville, Illinois. While in Belleville, he placed both the local parochial school and the Young Ladies' Academy of the Immaculate Conception under the care of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, He also constructed St. Peter's Church in Belleville.[3] In a reorganization in 1857, Belleville became part of the new Diocese of Alton and Baltes was incardinated there.[3]

In 1866, Bishop

apostolic administrator of the diocese. In 1868 or 1869, he persuaded the Illinois General Assembly to pass a law allowing Catholic congregations and institutions to incorporate.[3]

Bishop of Alton

On September 24, 1869, Baltes was named the second bishop of the Diocese of Alton by

John Luers, assisted by Bishops Augustus Toebbe and Patrick Ryan as co-consecrators, at St. Peter's in Belleville, Illinois.[2] As bishop, Baltes quickly instituted a constitution that outline practices with all the parishes.[3]

In 1870, Baltes issued a pastoral letter criticizing the Freeman Journal, a Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper that supported the rights of priests. He said that by allegedly supporting discord between priest and their bishops, the Journal editors and readers were opening themselves up to divine punishment. Baltes issued another pastoral letter in 1879 that banned Catholics in his diocese from reading newspapers or journals that criticized the Catholic Church. The ban on the Freeman Journal was rescinded a few years later.[4]

Baltes held annual

missions, 13 hospitals, three orphanages, two homes for the elderly, two men's colleges, a boys' high school, nine girls' academies, and 102 parochial schools with 11,000 students.[5][3]

In 1878, Baltes went to Germany to visit Ensheim. While there, he celebrated a mass in the

kidneys, bladder, and liver, Baltes was also unable to attend the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884.[3]

Death

In the summer of 1885, Baltes traveled to a resort on the Atlantic coast at the recommendation of his doctor. However, he soon became incapacitated and spent two months in hospitals in New York City and Montreal. In September 1885, Baltes was well enough to return to Alton, but then suffered a relapse. He recovered again, but on February 12, 1886, became very ill.[3]

Peter Baltes died from liver disease on February 15, 1886, in Alton at age 58.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Alton". Catholic Encyclopedia.
  2. ^ a b c "Bishop Peter Joseph Baltes". Catholic-Hierarchy.org.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Clarke, Richard Henry (1888). Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States. R. H. Clarke.
  4. ISBN 978-0-8091-4493-8
    .
  5. ^ "History of the Diocese of Springfield". Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Archived from the original on 2009-06-09.
  6. ^ Jakob Bisson, "Sieben Speyerer Bischöfe und ihre Zeit", Pilger Publishers, Speyer, 1956. page 191, 192.
  7. ^ "THE CONVENT VICTIMS BURIED.; IMPRESSIVE FUNERAL SERVICES AND A LARGE CORTEGE OF MOURNERS". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2022-06-14.

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Bishop of Alton
1876–1878 		Succeeded by
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