Religious Tuohy's

1891: Father JT Tuohy of St. Louis, a renown Catholic theologian, return to his studies at Catholic University in Washington DC

Father Edwin Wallace of Brooklyn was hit with poison gas on the battlefield, refused treatment and pulled 24 men to a nearby hospital before he died.

Davitt, William: Father Davitt was shot through the heart while tending to the wounded, just 30 minutes before the First World War ended.

O'Connor, William. Father O’Connor was cited for bravery six times in 22 days durin g World War One.

O'Flaherty, Patrick: During World War Two, Father O’Flaherty, already wounded in action, was killed by a German bullet as he pulled dead and wounded American boys from a fox hole.

O'Callahan, Joseph S.J, During a battle in World War Two, although wounded himself, Father O’Callahan crawled from one wounded sailor to the next on the deck of the USS Franklin after the ship was hit with a Kamikaze attack. O'Callahan survived the war and died in 1964 at the age of 70.

O'Rourke, Simone: Father O’Rourke was First United States Navy Chaplain killed in the first world war, Fr. Timothy Murphy was the first United States Army chaplain killed in the second world war

Sampson, William: In 1813, a New York court compelled Jesuit Father Anthony Kohlman to disclose matters told him in a confession. Sampson, an Irish Presbyterian lawyer and one of the exiles of '98, took the case and justified Kohlman's refusal to reveal the information taken during confession. He won the case (since incorporated in statute law)

McCloskey, William George: The first Catholic Bishop of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1859, he was appointed the first rector of the American College at Rome, being the unanimous choice of the American bishops. He was rector until his promotion to the See of Louisville in May, 1868.

During the civil war, despite all of his efforts and diplomatic skills, he w as unable to keep most of his flock from the Southern cause. . He introduced many religious orders into the diocese, the Passionists, the Benedictines, the Fathers of the Resurrection, the Sisters of Mercy, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Franciscan Sisters, and the Brothers of Mary. He also built several catholic schools.

Duffy, Francis Patrick: A Canadian by birth, and a grammar school teacher by chosen profession, Duffy was assigned to become a Military Chaplin during the Spanish -American war and later to the fighting 69th regiment during world War one.

"ours was a picked lot. They came mainly from the irish county societies and from the Catholic Athletic clubs. A number of these latter Irish bore distinctly German, French, Italian, or Polish names. They were Irish by adaption, Irish by associa¬tion or Irish by conviction" Father Francis Patrick Duffy, Chaplain to the 165th Infantry, the fighting 69th.

It was Duffy who was the ghost writter behind the now famous Al Smith reply to the Atlantic Monthly when it published a blistering attack on Smith and the Vatican stating that a Catholic loyality to the Church and the Pope would disqualify them from searving as President of the United States.

The Smith/ Duffy reply was " "I believe in absolute freedom f conscience for all men and equality of all churches, all sects and beliefs before the law as a matter of right and not as a matter of favor"

The reply outraged parts of the Catholic community, proving the theory that you can not please most of the people most of the time on the subject of religion.

After the war, he went on to write his biography and to become editor of the New York Review. Duffey held a Masters in Education and Doctorate in Logic and Metaphysics

In 1920 he became pastor of the Holy Cross Church in New York, a post he held until his death in 1932. Of all the events that filled his gallant and exciting life. Duffy was ashy and peaceful man and felt that being a modest Parish priest was the greatest accomplishment of his life, and he may well have been right.

Spellman, Richard Cardinal: No other churchman so dominated the Catholic America church during last half of the 20th century as did Cardinal Francis J. Spellman abd he is still referred to as the American Pope.

His power within the city of New York was almost immeasurable.

Spellman was a master player of the political game. He was smart enough to be sent to the North American College in Rome for his seminary training, and as luck would have it, most of his Itialian class mates would go on to take powerful positions within the Vatican during their careers.

He returned to Boston and was assigned to the staff of the old Pilot newspaper. He worked dutifully there under the wacthful eye of the very autocratic Cardinal William O'Connell who had taken an almost instant dislike for the young Spellman.

But Spellman was as shrewd as he was smart. In his spare time, and there was a lot of it, he translated the works of his powerful Itialian mentor Monsignor Francesco Borgongini-Duca, a rising star in the Vatican department of State.

In 1925, Spellman was assigned to escort a group of wealthy Bostonians for a Holy Year Pilgrimage to Rome. He of course made it his business to see a great deal of Monsignor Borgongini-Duca while he was there.

When it was time to return to Boston, Spellman was notified by the Pope Pius the XI that he was to be reassigned to Rome to run a childrens playground to be built there by the New Haven based Knights of Columbus.

It must have seemed like an odd choice to Cardinal O'Connell back in Boston. Spellman was almost completely with out humor, and it was difficult to imagine him induling the dozens of screaming Itialian children in a Roman slum. Then it all became clear.

Heading up that program was none other then Monsignor Borgongini-Duca, of course, and since the Monsignor was attached to the Vatican Department of State, Spellman too, would work under that authority. It was a astute move, but then again, Spellman was an astute man.

Armed with a doctorate in Scared Theology, able to speak Itialian, Spanish, French and English fluently, a young man like Spellman could go far in the halls of the Vatican. Although not because of those accomplishments in education or language. The Vatican had hundreds of young men far more effulgent then Spellman, and some of them were Americans as well.

The diffrence was two fold. They had either been in Rome so long that they had become more Roman then the Romans themselves or they failed to adapt to the curial, virtually machlavelllan ways of the Vatican, or a combination of the two.

Spellman had always remained American in his outlook and his character. He was a New England Irishman who could translate the the American prelates that Rome so often misinterpeted.

To signal Spellmans position to the States, Pope Pius chose him to translate and act as English interpretor for his historic radio broadcast to the world in 1928. A year later he was called in to advise the Pontiff in his negotiations with Mussolini.

In 1929, Spellman latched on to the rising star of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the Vatican Secretary of State, who, ten years later, in 1939, would later become Pope Pius the XII.

The Cardinal took Spellamn with him across the world as a confidant, traveling companion and Chaplin, and when the Cardinal visted the United States in 1936, Spellman was there.

Invited to President Roosevelts estate in Hyde Park, Spellman and the president struck up a friendship that lasted until Roosevelts death. After the Hyde park visit, Roosevelt used Spellman as his contact with the Vatican, no small endorsement for a mere Priest, if in fact Spellman had been just a mere Priest.

During the war, Spellman was the Military Vicar for all Catholic members of the Allied forces. Spellman was an outspoken patriot and, since the Vatican was offically neutral, it was widely assumed that when Spellman spoke, so spoke the Pope in Rome.

In 1939, Spellmans new mentor became Pope, and in 1946 Spellman became Cardinal of New York, the largest and richest diocese in the Americas.

When Spellman took his new position in New York, it was assumed by American Churchmen that his word counted for more then theirs did in Rome and Spellman did nothing to counter the rumors. In fact he used his power, both real and imagined, in blatant displays.

Resentment from his fellow Bishops and Cardinals and antagonism from the social activist movement followed. Spellman, who was at heart a good, decent and pious man, was the wrong Cardinal, at the wrong time for the American Church.

The liberal fraction within the church was coming on to its own, laypersons were taking religous intiatives, there was a revival of the liturgy, there was a sense of progress and change.

Spellman made it known that he and the Pope stood soundly on conservative Catholic fundamentalist grounds, his actions showed his suspicious towards the exciting secular and intellectual changes going on with in the church.

To add to this picture, the cold war was in full swing and Spellman was one of the most outspoken champion's of the Hawk position in America. This brought him close to the hearts of the Catholic populace at large as well as the conservative wings, but brought him a fair share of enemies in the liberal detachment.

As the cold war, and then Viet Nam intensified, so did Spellman's anticommunist verbosity.

His repeated demands for federal monies to Catholic schools generally brought the concern, and Protestants and Eleanor Roosevelt against him and his incursion in to film censorship gave the civil libratarions nightmares.

In 1958, Pius XII died and America's Bishops and Cardinals made their move to shift leadership of the American Church to Chicago's Albert Meyer, but Spellman, a master at the political game, held on to the leadership of the Church in America until he died in 1967

O’Malley, Eugene: In 1944 Irish American Bring Crosby won the years Oscar for best Actor, Barry Fitzgerald for Best Supporting Actor and Leo McCarey for Best Director in the film in Going My Way,

The film was extremely successful and Hollywood followed up with the equally lucrative "Bells of Saint Mary" Both films were inspired by the life of Chicago's Father Eugene O'Malley.

The real O'Malley was the choir director of Chicago's oldest Catholic parish, St. Mary's Church on what was once the heavily Irish South Side of the city.

A stern taskmaster in musical matters one of O'Malley's choir members recalled "You feared him until you got to know him better. He could do more with a look then most people could do with a club. But sometimes he'd get so upset with you, he'd whack you on the head with his baton. When he broke it, we scrambled for the pieces for souvenirs"

O'Mally recalled that a group of Nuns traveled to Chicago to hear his choir after they won the International competition in Paris in 1912. When the performance was ended one of the Nuns walked up to O'Malley and said "Why don't you smile at those boys? You never congratulate them!"

O'Malley thought it over and said "Well they never congratu¬late me!" O'Malley was the choirs director until 1967.

Boys Town: One day Father Flanagan was making his way across the boys town village green in the midstof a storm when he came across two boys, the smaller one hoisted up on the shoulders of the taller one. Flanagan stop and spoke to the taller boy "Isn't he heavy?"

Flanagan was born in County Roscommon Ireland, but was educat¬ed in Maryland and New York, having arrived in the United States in 1904, through Ellis Island and was ordained a priest in 1912.

In 1914, while serving as assistant pastor of Saint Patric¬k's Church in Omaha Nebraska, he established the Workman's Hotel, a place of refuge for destitute men.

In 1917, he turned his attention to youth rehabilitation, setting up a home for homeless boys in Omaha with an initial group of five boys.

Operating on the belief that "there is no such thing as a bad boy" the home grew quickly and became famous, a few years later it was incorporated into a village and its doors were open to all boys of any race creed or color or religion and was governed by a mayor and six commissioner which were elected from among the boys themselves.

In 1937, Flanagan was promoted to Monsignor, and a film based on Flannagan and boys village was made in 1937 starring Irish American film great Spencer Tracy.

In 1947 Flannagan was invited by the U.S army on a tour of inspections of youth facilities run by the military in Japan.

Sheen, John Fulton: Sheen was born in El Paso Texas in 1895, and ordained a priest in 1919. Gifted with a brilliant mind and a clear vocal style Sheen was soon given an assistant professorship at the Catho¬lic Univer¬sity of America in 1926.

Not with out a strong ego and filled with ambition, Sheen positioned himself in to a star spot on the very popular radio show "The Catholic Hour" in 1930, he also managed to have himself assigned to a much coveted position at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan that same year.

He was promoted to Monsignor five years later, a remarkable leap for such a young man working within the slow confines of the very conservative American Catholic church of that decade.

In 1952 Sheen leaped on to the national scene when his television show "Life is Worth Living" went from a local once a week program to a nation wide audience.

At that time the airwaves were ruled over by Comic Milton Berle and his program "The Texaco all Star Comedy Hour"

Network executives had long ago given up any hope of beating Berle in the ratings wars and slapped Sheens program up against Berle and singer Frank Sinatra on the third network and gave up the ghost.

But surprisingly Sheens gave Berle a more then respectable run for his money and on several dates, actually beat him in the ratings. On one night both shows broke to a commercial at the same time, at that exact time several cities across the country reported a temporary water shortage from simultaneous toilet flushing.

Sheen wrote 15 books, five were best sellers, and convert several big name celebri¬ties to the church including Clare Booth Luce, Heywood Broun and Louis Budenz, the former chief of the American Communist party.

Sisters of Mercy: A convent founded in Dublin, Ireland, in 1827, by Catherine Elizabeth McAuley of Dublin, Ireland. (1787-1794) The Sisters assisted thousands of immigrant Irish in America through schools, hospital, orphanages, and homes for distressed women; that they ran.

Sister Anthony: Born at Limerick, her services in the field hospitals during the civil war won for her the title of "Ministering Angel of the Army of the Tennessee"

McCloskey, John (1810-1885): First American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Los Angeles Bishops: Leadership of the Los Angeles Catholic church by first and second-generation Irishmen was begun in 1917 with the administration of Archbishop Joseph Cantwell and continued with Francis Cardinal McIntyre, Timothy Cardinal Manning and Roger Cardinal Mahoney.

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral: New York’s Bishop John Hughes had an idea to erect a Cathedral “worthy of our increasing numbers, intelligence and wealth” The challenge was monumental, the Bishop wanted to construct the largest Gothic cathedral in the Western Hemisphere in a diocese mainly comprised of poor Irish immigrant parishes struggling to pay their mortgages and service their congregants.
Hughes chose one of the nation's foremost architects, James Renwick, and a building site at Fifth Avenue and 50th Streets and then set about raising funds, seeking out one hundred wealthy Catholics (like Charles Connolly) to contribute $1,000 each to a $100,000 start-up fund. Impatient and confident, Hughes set the date for the laying of the cornerstone with just $73,000 raised.
Twenty-one years later, Cardinal McCloskey presided over the dedication of the completed Cathedral. Taller than any other church at the time, it stood as a declaration of Irish Catholic arrival. St. Patrick s opened as the crown jewel of a religion whose members now made up one half of the City s population, with forty churches and property valued at more than two million dollars.

Ireland, John (1838-1918) American Roman Catholic prelate, first archbishop of St. Paul, Minn. (1888-1918) Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland.
Ireland emigrated to St. Paul as a child. He was educated at French seminaries, was ordained as a priest in 1861. He enlisted as a chaplain in the Civil War.
   After the war, he became a prominent cathedral pastor in St. Paul, and a
strong advocate of total abstinence, opposing the liquor interests, and as an opponent of political corruption.
   In 1875 he was made coadjutor Bishop of St. Paul and Bishop in 1884.
Ireland was an energetic spokesman for liberal American Catholicism, although he gained many enemies advocating state support and inspection of Catholic schools and by opposing the use of foreign languages in American Catholic churches, except in extreme need, and in parochial schools under any circumstances.
   He also favored Western settlement by immigrants, to help them escape the poverty of the Eastern urban environment. He continually made public statements on political matters, and he was a close personal friend of Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Strawbridge, Robert: An Irish immigrant who established the Methodist Church of America.