January 6, 2008 - Yesterday & Tomorrow

The Epiphany is the story of Wise Men who came from far away to the Bethlehem stable dear to the Christmas story in search of a star that announced His birth. Epiphany is the tale of a Light to the Nations. Lumen Gentium (Light of the Nations) is the title of the Vatican II document that underlined the Epiphany’s power. The Church of Christ brings the Light to the nations. We have a lot to say to our world. Those who depict Vatican II as a Church trying to catch up with the modern world ought to re-read Lumen Gentium. The Church does not have to apologize for our participation in today. We bring Christ, an eternal truth. Sadly, today’s world does not kneel in reverence; it presents few gifts, nothing as valuable as what the Magi brought. Nevertheless, the Church stands strong in the 21^st century offering the virtues of honor, truth, beauty, wisdom, humility, justice, piety, courage, faith, hope, and love. Most of all, we offer the embodiment of all those eternal verities, Jesus Christ alive today and risen forever.

Thanks to all Holy Namers who joined me on New Year’s Eve with worshippers from Fourth Presbyterian Church. Mark your calendar for a gathering next year at Fourth Church of God’s Christian people in the Gold Coast/Magnificent Mile/Cathedral District/Streeterville area. We will give thanks for 2008; and will prepare for 2009.

Jeremiah Kinsella died on January 6, 1875 – 133 years ago this Sunday. Father Kinsella was the founding pastor of Holy Name Parish. He was Irish-born and a relative of Father Paul Cullen who became Cardinal of Dublin in 1849. As a deacon preparing for priesthood, Kinsella left New York where he had been in the seminary after emigrating from Ireland and where he certainly knew Chicago’s first bishop William Quarter, also an Irishman and a priest of New York. Perhaps it was Quarter who told Kinsella of Chicago’s desperate need for priests. Kinsella arrived on May 29, 1844, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Quarter 39 days later at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Kinsella served St. Mary’s as an Assistant Pastor mainly connected to a preparatory school associated with Chicago’s first parish. On November 29, 1844, Father Kinsella was appointed by Bishop Quarter as the first President of the University of St. Mary of the Lake, a Catholic school of higher education chartered on December 19 – three weeks after Kinsella’s appointment, five months after his ordination. The University building would be erected on the block bounded by Chicago, Cass/Wabash, Superior, and Wolcott/State – the same block on which Holy Name Cathedral stands today. The property previously belonged to Chicago’s first Mayor, William Ogden. Anxious to attract settlers, the Protestant Mayor donated half the land to the Catholic Church. The University of St. Mary of the Lake was the first institution of higher learning chartered in Illinois. Building began in the fall of 1845. The Metropolitan Almanac described the features of the University. “The system of government will be firm and strict, yet mild and paternal. The strictest attention will be paid both to the intellectual and moral education of the pupils. Their deportment and manners also will be watched over with care and attention. During their walks and recreation, as well as in the hours of study, they will be under the vigilant care of a Prefect. The course of instruction will embrace Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and English languages, Poetry, Rhetoric, History, Mythology, Geography, Book-keeping, Arithmetic, Algebra, Mathematics, Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry. TERMS: Board and tuition, per annum $150. Half-boarders $75. Payable half-yearly in advance.” The building was constructed on the south half of the block, facing about 100 feet off Superior. Three stories erected on a brick basement, the University was built with spacious lawns dotted with oaks, lindens, and elms. It cost $12,000 to build. Classrooms were on the first floor; the second floor was divided between the library and living quarters for Father Kinsella and the professors. The third floor was the student dormitory. In the center of the first floor was the Chapel of the Holy Name. The scattered immigrants who populated the land north of the Chicago River in the 1840s were German and Irish. The Germans had St. Joseph Church constructed on the northeast corner of Wabash and Chicago, now on Orleans. Mass was in Latin. However, sermons and confessions were in German. The Irish came to the Chapel of the Holy Name at the University. Father Kinsella recognized their need. A free standing, small Church was built on the southwest corner of the University’s grounds. Holy Name became a parish on November 18, 1849. Officially, Kinsella is listed as pastor from 1849-1851. Still, the administration of the parish/University remained intertwined in the same clerical hands. With Bishop Quarter’s death, the administration never was close to the second Bishop, James O. Van de Velde, a Belgian Jesuit from St. Louis. They did agree that Holy Name needed a new Church. On August 3, 1853, a cornerstone was laid by the Bishop at the southeast corner of State and Superior, across the street from where we pray today. That Church, built of brick, rose slowly. The roof was long delayed. Bishop Van de Velde, never comfortable in Chicago, finally got the Pope to appoint him to Natchez, Mississippi. His successor, Bishop Anthony O’Regan, an Irishman from a St. Louis seminary, immediately was at odds with the administration of the University and of Holy Name. Some of the tussle was financial. Some was over the bishop’s offer to Father Arnold Damen and the Jesuits to take over Holy Name. When Damen decided to build Holy Family on the West Side, Bishop O’Regan tried to lure the Holy Cross Fathers from South Bend. A new Holy Name Church opened on Christmas Day, 1854. The entire administration – Fathers Kinsella, Howry, Breen, and Hoey – resigned from parish and University the next month. Parishioners met (1) to express confidence in the priests; (2) to pledge themselves to completing the new Church if the priests were returned; (3) to express their respect to Church and bishop; and (4) to appoint a committee to draft their grievances to be forwarded to Rome. An internet search traces a Father Kinsella to St. Raymond Church in the Bronx, then to Immaculate Conception in Westchester County. I think that’s our friend. On Sunday, pray for Father Kinsella, our founder. It does not seem that he would share our warmth for our parish. He never realized that he had founded what would be recognized in the 21^st century as one of America’s great Cathedrals and the premier major seminary in the USA which operates in Mundelein, Illinois, under the original charter as the University of St. Mary of the Lake. Father Kinsella was our founder. God bless him.

Monday, January 7, will be my 6^th anniversary as pastor of Holy Name Cathedral. For all that has been, thanks be to God. For all ahead, thanks be to God.

Fr. Dan Mayall