John Hughes | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of New York | |
 Photo byMathew Brady,c. 1860–1863 | |
| See | New York |
| Installed | December 20, 1842 |
| Term ended | January 3, 1864 |
| Predecessor | John Dubois |
| Successor | John McCloskey |
| Other post(s) | Coadjutor Bishop of theDiocese of New York andTitular Bishop ofBasilinopolis (1838–1842); Priest of theDiocese of Philadelphia (1826–1838) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | October 15, 1826 by Henry Conwell |
| Consecration | January 7, 1838 by John Dubois |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1797-06-24)June 24, 1797 Annaloghan,County Tyrone, Ireland |
| Died | January 3, 1864(1864-01-03) (aged 66) New York City, US |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic Church |
| Alma mater | Mount St. Mary's Seminary |
| Signature | .png) |
John Joseph Hughes (June 24, 1797 – January 3, 1864) was an Irish-bornCatholic prelate who served as Bishop (and laterArchbishop) of New York from 1842 until his death.[1] In 1841, he founded St. John's College, which would later becomeFordham University.
A native of Ireland, Hughes was born and raised in Augher in the south ofCounty Tyrone. He emigrated to the United States in 1817, and became a priest in 1826 and a bishop in 1838. A figure of national prominence, he exercised great moral and social influence, and presided over a period of explosive growth for Catholicism in New York. He was regarded as "the best known, if not exactly the best loved, Catholic bishop in the country."[2] He became known as "Dagger John", both for his following the Catholic practice wherein a bishop precedes his signature with a cross, as well as for his aggressive personality.[3] His sisterAngela Hughes was a nun and oversaw the opening of 15 schools and convents in New York.
Hughes was born in thehamlet of Annaloghan, nearAugher, inCounty Tyrone, part of theProvince of Ulster in the north of Ireland. He was the third of seven children of Patrick and Margaret (née McKenna) Hughes who were from Errigal Truagh,County Monaghan.[4] In reference to the anti-Catholicpenal laws of Ireland, he later observed that, prior to hisbaptism, he had lived the first five days of his life on terms of "social and civil equality with the most favored subjects of theBritish Empire."[2] He and his family suffered religious persecution in their native land; his late sister was denied a Catholic burial conducted by a priest, and Hughes himself was nearly attacked by a group ofOrangemen when he was about 15.[4] He was sent with his elder brothers to aday school in the nearby village of Augher, and afterwards attended agrammar school inAughnacloy.
Patrick Hughes, a poor but respectabletenant farmer, was forced to withdraw John from school and sent him to work one of his farms. However, being disinclined to farm life, he was placed as an apprentice to Roger Toland, the gardener atFavour Royal Manor, to studyhorticulture. His family emigrated to the United States in 1816 and settled inChambersburg,Pennsylvania. Hughes joined them there the following year.[5] He made several unsuccessful applications toMount St. Mary's College inEmmitsburg, Maryland, where he was eventually hired by itsRector, theAbbéJohn Dubois,S.S., as a gardener.[4] During this time he befriended MotherElizabeth Ann Seton, who was favorably impressed by Hughes and persuaded Dubois to reconsider his admission.[3] Hughes was subsequently admitted as a regular student of Mount St. Mary's in September 1820.[2] In addition to his studies, he continued to supervise the garden, and served as a tutor inLatin and mathematics as well asprefect over the other students.[6]
At that time, the president of Mount St. Mary's was the brilliantSimon Bruté, who also lectured on Sacred Scripture and taught Theology and Moral Philosophy. (Bruté would later become the first bishop of theDiocese of Vincennes, Indiana.) Hughes would on numerous occasions consult with his former teacher for advice long after he had left Emmitsburg.[6]
As aseminarian, Hughes resolved to serve his homeDiocese of Philadelphia, then governed by BishopHenry Conwell.[6] The bishop, while performing acanonical visitation of his diocese, met Hughes at his parents' home in Chambersburg and invited him to accompany him on the remainder of his visitation.[4] On October 15, 1826, Hughes wasordained to thepriesthood by Bishop Conwell atOld St. Joseph's Church inPhiladelphia.[1]
Hughes' first assignment was as acurate atSt. Augustine's Church in Philadelphia, where he assisted itspastor,the Rev. Father Michael Hurley,O.E.S.A., by celebratingMass, hearingconfessions, preaching sermons, and other duties in theparish. Later that year he was sent to serve as amissionary inBedford, where he secured the conversions of severalProtestants.[4] In January 1827, he was recalled to Philadelphia and named pastor of St. Joseph's Church.[6] He labored afterwards at St. Mary's Church, whose trustees were in open revolt against the bishop, and were subdued by Hughes only when he built St. John the Evangelist Church in 1832, then considered one of the finest in the country. Previous to this, in 1829, he founded St. John's Orphan Asylum.
About this time Hughes became engaged in a public controversy over Catholic beliefs with the Rev. John A. Breckinridge, a distinguishedPresbyterian clergyman and son of theformer Attorney General in the Jefferson Administration. Several debates ensued between the two concerning whether Catholicism was compatible with American republicanism and liberty. Though it was predicted that the Irish immigrant would be outclassed by his better educated Protestant adversary, Hughes acquitted himself very well against his opponent's attacks on his religion. The debates resulted in the pugnacious Hughes' emergence as a vigorous defender of Catholicism in America. His name was mentioned for the vacant see ofCincinnati and as acoadjutor for Philadelphia.
Hughes was chosen byPope Gregory XVI as thecoadjutor bishop of the Diocese of New York on August 7, 1837. He wasconsecrated bishop atSt. Patrick's Old Cathedral on January 7, 1838, with the title of thetitular see ofBasilinopolis, by the Bishop of New York, John Dubois, S.S., his former Rector.[1] Although wishing Hughes no ill, many of the priests in the diocese had favored the popularRev John Power, Vicar-General. Power had been overlooked for the position in 1826 when Dubois won the appointment as bishop. The clergy demonstrated their disappointment by not attending the consecration.[7]
One challenge Hughes took on upon arriving in New York was the dispute between the trustees of various parishes in the city, who held the control of these institutions. This practice was known astrusteeism, and the bishop challenged both the practicality and the legitimacy of it. Hughes drew upon his experience with this situation in Philadelphia and was able to get a referendum passed by the Catholics of the city in 1841 supporting the authority of the bishop.[5]
In 1840-1842 Hughes led a political battle to secure funding for the Catholic schools. He rallied support from both the Tammany Hall Democrats, and from the opposition Whig Party, whose leaders, especially GovernorWilliam H. Seward, supported Hughes. He argued Catholics paid double for schools—they paid taxes to subsidize private schools they could not use and also paid for the parochial schools they did use. Catholics could not usePublic School Society schools because they forced students to listen to readings from the ProtestantKing James Bible which they believed undermined their Catholic faith. With theMaclay Act in 1842, the New York State legislature established theNew York City Board of Education. It gave the city an elective Board of Education empowered to build and supervise schools and distribute the education fund. It provided that no money should go to the schools that taught religion, so Hughes lost his battle.[8] He turned inward: he founded an independent Catholic school system in the city. His new system included the first Catholic college in the Northeast, St. John's College, nowFordham University.[9] By 1870 19 percent of the city's children were attending Catholic schools.[10][11]
Hughes was appointedApostolic Administrator of the diocese the following year, due to Dubois' failing health. As coadjutor, he automatically succeeded Dubois upon the bishop's death on December 20, 1842.[12] He took over a diocese which covered the entire State of New York and northernNew Jersey, having only some 40 priests to serve a Catholic population estimated to be about 200,000 at the time.[5]
In 1844 anti-Catholic riots instigated byNativist agitators threatened to spread to New York from Philadelphia, where two churches had been burned and twelve people had died. Hughes put armed guards at Catholic churches and, after learning a Nativist rally was scheduled to take place in New York, famously told the Nativist sympathizing mayor that "if a single Catholic Church were burned in New York, the city would become a second Moscow" – a reference to theFire of Moscow.[13] City leaders took him at his word, and the anti-Catholic faction was not allowed to conduct its rally.
Hughes founded theUltramontane newspaper theNew York Freeman to express his ideas.[5] In 1850 he delivered an address entitled "The Decline of Protestantism and Its Causes," in which he announced as the ambition of Catholicism "to convert all Pagan nations, and all Protestant nations. ... Our mission [is] to convert the world –including the inhabitants of the United States – the people of the cities, and the people of the country, ... the Legislatures, the Senate, the Cabinet, the President, and all!"[14]
Hughes held a "strong commitment to the cause of Irish freedom" but also felt that immigrants, particularly his fellow Irish immigrants, "should demonstrate their unswerving loyalty to their adopted land."[15]
Hughes became anarchbishop on July 19, 1850, when the diocese was elevated to the status ofarchdiocese byPope Pius IX.[1] As archbishop, Hughes became themetropolitan for the Catholic bishops serving all the dioceses established in the entireNortheastern United States. He convened the first meeting of theEcclesiastical Province of New York in September 1854. After this he traveled to Rome, where he was present at the proclamation of theImmaculate Conception as adogma of the Catholic Church by Pope Pius.[5] Hughes served as President Lincoln's semiofficial envoy to the Vatican and to France in later 1861 and early 1862. Lincoln also sought Hughes' advice on the appointment of hospital chaplains.[12] On 3 September 1855, Archbishop Hughes traveled toSt. John's,Newfoundland for the consecration of the newRoman Catholic Cathedral.[16]
In an address in March 1852, Hughes lionized what he referred to as the "spirit of theconstitution,"[17] expressed hope that the "parties" of the republic would be completely "penetrated" by that spirit, and stated that the founders' achievements in the realm of religious freedom were "original" in history and that the constitution's "negation of all power to legislate" on "rights of conscience" made American law on that topic superior to that of other countries which had secured these rights "by some positive statute."[17] In the same address, Hughes also expressed sentiments of religious toleration, stating that "we are indebted" to the "liberality of Protestantism," in light of the fact that the framers of the Constitution "were almost, if not altogether, exclusively Protestants." He averred that the strong leadership ofWashington and the variety of opposing Protestant views were likely more influential to the framers' stance on religious freedom than was Protestantism itself.[17]
Hughes also stated that "the great men who framed the Constitution saw, with keen and delicate perception, that the right to tolerate implied the equal right to refuse toleration, and on behalf of the United States, as a civil government, they denied all right to legislate in the premises, one way or the other."[17] He affirmed the role of Catholic soldiers in American wars and declared, "I think I shall be safe in saying that there has not been one important campaign or engagement in which Catholics have notbivouacked, fought, and fallen by the side of Protestants, in maintaining the rights and honor of their common country."[17] Hughes also said that "It is... out of place, and altogether untrue, to assert or assume that this is a Protestant country or a Catholic country. It is neither. It is a land of religious freedom and equality; and I hope that, in this respect, it shall remain just what it now is to the latest posterity" and also that "Catholics, as such, are by no means strangers and foreigners in this land.... The Catholics have been here from the earliest dawn of the morning."[17]
While Hughes did not endorse slavery, he suggested that the conditions of the "starving laborers"[15] in the Northern states were often worse than that of those held in bondage in the South. He believed theAbolitionist movement veered towards ideological excess.[12] In 1842 Hughes had cautioned his flock against signingDaniel O'Connell's abolitionist petition ("An Address of the People of Ireland to their Countrymen and Countrywomen in America") which he regarded as unnecessarily provocative.[18]
Against what he saw as the Protestant republican agenda promoted by theYoung Irelander exileJohn Mitchel and his journal theCitizen, Hughes, nonetheless, took a stand on the issue. Mitchel had been uncompromising in defense of slavery,[19] denying it was a crime "or even a peccadillo to hold slaves, to buy slaves, to keep slaves to their work by flogging or other needful correction." He himself might wish for "a good plantation well-stocked with healthy negroes in Alabama."[20] At Mitchel saw it, Hughes copied the abolition press "to cast an Alabama plantation" in his "teeth."[21]
Hughes served as archbishop until his death. He was originally buried in theold St. Patrick's Cathedral, but his remains were exhumed in 1882 and reinterred in the crypt under the altar of the newSt. Patrick's Cathedral which he had undertaken to build.[5]
Monsignor Thomas Shelley in his study on Hughes described him as a very "complex character," with one side that was "impetuous and authoritarian, a poor administrator and worse financial manager, indifferent to the non-Irish members of his flock, and prone to invent reality when it suited the purposes of his rhetoric." But Shelley finds this did not detract from the effectiveness of Hughes, who established 61 new parishes along with many other institutions.[12]
HistorianDaniel Walker Howe writes that Hughes "labored to bring a largely working-class Irish community into a meaningful relationship with Catholic Christianity" while at the same time working "to conciliate middle-class Catholics and Protestant well-wishers whose financial support he needed for his amazingly ambitious program of building." Howe continues, "Although no theologian, John Hughes ranks high for political judgment and in the significance of his accomplishments among nineteenth century American statesmen, civil as well as ecclesiastical. He successfully coped with fierce party competition in New York, bitter battles over the public school system, revolutions in Europe, the rise ofnativism across the United States, and soaring rates of immigration after theGreat Famine of Ireland. He encouraged his people to hard work, personal discipline, and upward social mobility." "Crucially, he combined his staunch American patriotism with staunch devotion to a nineteenth-century papacy deeply suspicious of all liberalism, especially American." Hughes "succeeded in fostering a strong Irish American identity, one centered on the Catholic faith rather than on the secular radicalism of the Irish nationalists who competed with him for community leadership." This achievement, however, came "at the cost of losing to the Irish-American community the Irish Protestant immigrants."[22]
According to his later successor,Patrick Cardinal Hayes, named archbishop of New York in 1919, Archbishop Hughes was severe of manner, and kindly of heart, but was not aggressive until assailed.[5]
In New York, Hughes founded St. John's College (nowFordham University) and, under his administration, invited manyreligious congregations to staff and administrate schools in New York, among them members of theSociety of Jesus (to whom he entrusted the care of St. John's), who also establishedFordham Preparatory School andXavier High School; theBrothers of the Christian Schools who foundedManhattan College; and he established as an autonomous congregation theSisters of Charity of New York, in which his sisterAngela was a member, who founded the Academy of Mount St. Vincent (nowCollege of Mount Saint Vincent). All of these institutions remain active to this day.
"Hughes Hall," the first purpose-built home of Fordham Prep, was named for the archbishop in 1935.[23] The building currently houses Fordham University'sGabelli School of Business on its Rose Hill campus.[23] There is also a dining space on the Rose Hill campus named "Dagger John's" in honor of Hughes.[24] A street near Fordham University is named in his honor (Hughes Avenue).[25] In addition, each year, Fordham recognizes a graduating senior who has demonstrated achievement in the study ofphilosophy with an award named in honor of Hughes.[26]
To the dismay of many in New York'sProtestant upper class, Hughes foresaw the uptown expansion of the city and began construction of the currentSt. Patrick's Cathedral onFifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Street, laying its cornerstone on August 15, 1858. It was not completed until after his death. At the time, due to its remote location in a still-rural part of Manhattan, the new cathedral was initially dubbed "Hughes' Folly" by the press for many years.[4] Ultimately, Hughes's foresight proved providential, as the rapid urban growth uptown would soon place the new cathedral in the emerging urban center ofmidtown Manhattan.
Media related toJohn Hughes (archbishop of New York) at Wikimedia Commons| Catholic Church titles | ||
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| Archdiocese Erected | Archbishop of New York 1850 – 1864 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of New York 1842 – 1850 | Elevated to Archdiocese |
| Preceded by – | Coadjutor Bishop of New York 1838 – 1842 | Succeeded by – |
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