More Bishops

In Vatican City last week Pope Pius XI appointed Very Rev. Francis J. Monaghan, president of Seton Hall College in South Orange, N. J., to be Coadjutor Bishop of Ogdensburg, N. Y. with the right of succession to that upstate see now administered by Bishop Joseph Henry Conroy, 77. Affable Monsignor Monaghan, 45, was ordained in 1915 from the North American College in Rome, alma mater of many an able U. S. prelate.

In Nashville's ornate Cathedral of the Incarnation this week, Most Rev. William Lawrence Adrian, 53, lately an obscure Iowa priest, was to be installed as the seventh Bishop of Tennessee's 32,300 Catholics. Consecrated in Davenport by the august Apostolic Delegate to the U. S., Most Rev. Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, Bishop Adrian later recalled how he had learned of his impending elevation : "There among my letters was a communication from the Holy See. With trembling fingers I opened it and read: 'The Holy Father has in mind to choose you Bishop of Nashville.' I was so overwhelmed with wonder that I could read no farther. I can only say that I am still wondering how it came to pass that I was chosen."

Bishop Adrian was undoubtedly chosen to build up Catholic schools and colleges in Tennessee, home of Protestant Vanderbilt and Sewanee (University of the South). Another North American College graduate, Dr. Adrian was long a faculty member and in 1932-35 vice president of St. Ambrose College in Davenport. A heavy-footed, horny-handed farmer's son, he coached football and baseball, taught Latin and manual training. Said he last fortnight: "I'm bringing two chairs I made to grace the Episcopal residence at Nashville."

Other new Catholic bishops lately in the news:

P: In Savannah Most Rev. Gerald Patrick Aloysius O'Hara, the tall, energetic Bishop of all the Catholics of Georgia, distinguished himself by storming violently at the Savannah Press. Reason: The newspaper ran a whimsical St. Patrick's Day editorial repeating the old fable crediting the Irish Saint with having granted women the privilege to woo during Leap Year.

P: In Philadelphia Monsignor Hugh L. Lamb, chancellor of the archdiocese since 1926, was consecrated auxiliary bishop, assuming the post Bishop O'Hara relinquished when he was sent to Georgia. Another prelate from the tight, self-sufficient archdiocese of Philadelphia's Denis Cardinal Dougherty moved up in the hierarchy when Most Rev. George Leo Leech became Bishop of Harrisburg, succeeding the late Bishop Philip Richard McDevitt. After a month at his new job Bishop Leech astounded his 200 priests by calling each correctly by his first name as he knelt to kiss the Episcopal ring.

P: In Marquette, Mich. Polish-born Bishop Joseph Casimir Plagens had by last week accustomed Italian, French, German and Polish Catholics to hearing him orate and converse fluently in their languages. Still vacant remained the post Bishop Plagens left to take over the diocese of Sault Ste. Marie & Marquette--the auxiliary Bishopric of Detroit, see of Bishop Michael James Gallagher.

Episcopal Bishops claim to belong to the same apostolic succession as Catholics. In Louisville last week presiding Bishop James De Wolf Perry of the Episcopal Church laid two hands on the grey head of Dr. Charles Clingman, who thus became Bishop of Kentucky. Dr. Clingman was born in Covington 53 years ago, went to Birmingham's Church of the Advent in 1924, declined the Bishopric of Louisiana in 1930.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.