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The
American Guild of Organists will meet in Chicago this coming week.
Founded in 1896 and currently serving 20,000 members, the AGO
promotes the organ in its historic and evolving roles, encourages
excellence in performance of organ and choral music, and
provides a forum for mutual support, inspiration, education, and
certification of Guild members. The
AGO conventioneers are invited for worship at 4th Presbyterian, St. James
Episcopal, and Holy Name Cathedral at 8:45am on Tuesday, July 4.
Here at Holy Name, that prayer will be a Mass offered by Bishop
Joseph Perry. The music will
synthesize the Parisian tradition of Mass settings for two organs (the
Flentrop Orgelbouw 1989 in the gallery and the chancel Casavant Freres
1981) and choirs with the current work on restoring dialogic and proper
Gregorian chants to the liturgy. The major work will be the Messe
en l'honneur de Saint-Louis
by Albert Alain. Music Director Matthew Walsh will conduct organists
Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin and Dr. H. Ricardo Ramirez and three Holy
Name Cathedral Choirs. You are invited, too.
(Note – no 6:00, 7:00, or 8:00am Masses on the 4th;
there
will be a 12:10 & 5:15pm.) ___________________________________ I
remember on Independence Day my predecessor as pastor of Holy Name
Cathedral, Bishop John McMullen. He
was the first; I am the ninth. McMullen
died on July 4, 1883, - 123 years ago this coming Tuesday.
John McMullen was born in Ireland on January 8, 1832, the youngest
child in an immigrant family first to Quebec, then Ontario, then
Ogdensburg, New York, before moving to Lockport, Illinois, and eventually
the south side of Chicago. At
age 20 he was graduated from the University of St. Mary of the Lake which
stood on the very site of today’s Cathedral.
Eventually, he completed theology studies in Rome where he was
ordained in June, 1858. In the
first three years of his Chicago priesthood, McMullen worked at St.
Mary’s, Chicago’s original Catholic Church; he founded the Magdalen
Asylum or House of the Good Shepherd for unwed mothers; and, as pastor of
St. Louis Church, he oversaw establishment of parishes across the northern
tier of Illinois. In 1861,
while war ripped America apart, 29-year old Father McMullen returned to
the University of St. Mary of the Lake as President.
Boldly, he tried to maintain a school of theology, medicine, and
law! Financial difficulties
and a rift between the administration and Bishop James Duggan forced the
University’s closing in 1866. After
accompanying the bishop to the Council of Baltimore, - remember the
Baltimore Catechism written at that Council? - McMullen was assigned as
pastor of St. Paul’s Church on the south side.
He was one of four priests suspended by the increasingly disturbed
and eccentric Bishop Duggan in 1868. McMullen
represented their case during a trip to Rome where he was heard, but
counseled to come to an understanding with the bishop.
When McMullen returned, he discovered that Bishop Duggan had been
committed to an asylum in St. Louis where he sadly would remain until his
death in 1899. The appointed
administrator of Chicago’s Church restored McMullen and appointed him
pastor of a parish in Wilmington, Illinois – 70 miles away from Chicago.
When Bishop Thomas Foley arrived from Baltimore as Chicago’s
bishop in 1870, he immediately appointed McMullen pastor of Holy Name,
Chicago’s biggest Church. A year later, in the Great Chicago Fire, the
city and the parish buildings burned down.
McMullen himself bravely retrieved the Blessed Sacrament from the
flaming Church. McMullen,
Foley, and others courageously traveled Catholic America begging for money
to rebuild the Church of Chicago. With
those funds, the present Holy Name Cathedral was opened in 1875.
In 1877, Father McMullen was appointed Vicar-General of the
diocese. He handled the
day-to-day operations of Chicago’s Church.
On Bishop Foley’s death in 1880 and funeral in the new Holy Name
Cathedral, McMullen was chosen to administer the diocese in the interim.
When Chicago was elevated to the status of Archdiocese and
Archbishop Patrick Feehan of Nashville was transferred to Chicago in
September, 1880, he asked McMullen to remain as both Vicar General and
Rector of the Cathedral. Then,
on June 14, 1881, it was announced that Father John McMullen had been
named by Pope Leo XIII as the founding bishop of the diocese of Davenport,
Iowa. The first consecration
of a bishop ever to be held in Holy Name took place on July 25, 1881, when
Chicago’s Archbishop Feehan assisted by Bishop John Hennessey of
Iowa’s original diocese, Dubuque, along with Bishop John Lancaster
Spalding of Peoria, ordained John McMullen to the episcopacy.
He was 49 years old. His
brief accomplishments in Davenport most especially included the
establishment of St. Ambrose College (now St. Ambrose University where my
youngest niece is studying early childhood education).
Bishop McMullen died after a brief illness on the 4th
of July 1883. I think we
should say a prayer Tuesday. John
McMullen had a lot to do with the reputation our church enjoys today.
He spent a good piece of his interesting priesthood on the block
where our parish Church and Chicago’s magnificent Cathedral stands
today. The funeral remarks of
his brother bishop, John Lancaster Spalding, are puzzling, yet sufficient
in properly acclaiming the first rector of our Cathedral.
“The quality that strikes me when I first think about (Bishop
McMullen) is his strength. He
fell a victim to his energy… Akin
to his strength was his perfect sincerity, his complete honesty…Not a
faultless man…not one whom either the world or the church would
canonize, not a great orator, not a master of style, not a profound
thinker, not an enthusiastic reformer, not a skillful organizer of
philanthropic schemes…But a plain, brave, and genuine soul.”
I would accept that obituary. On
the holiday, the anniversary of his death, pray for our former pastor and
the builder of our Cathedral and its good name, Bishop John McMullen. ___________________________________ Check
the notice in this bulletin about the History of the Archdiocese of
Chicago – a 330-page, hard-covered, beautifully illustrated 11’X11’
gem. To claim a copy at the
unbelievably modest $35 price, you must sign-up in the Cathedral
Books & Gifts Store
on the lower level of the Cathedral by Monday.
The number of orders taken on Monday will be all the books we will
order. By registering, you
commit yourself to nothing more than an e-mail/phone call from us when the
books arrive saying your book is here.
If any are left unclaimed, we may have something left to sell in
the fall. But I wouldn’t
take that chance if I were you. Go
to the bookstore today and order your $35-copy – now! ___________________________________ Especially
to all in the service of the United States of America & their
families, to all who stand proud at the playing of the Star
Spangled Banner,
happy 4th
of July! Fr. Dan Mayall |
