IV. BALTIMORE

Neumann's appointment as the new Superior in America came as a shock. His task was not an easy one; he was in charge of some forty men scattered over the northeastern portion of the United States, with a debt of more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and ten parishes with numerous outmissions. There were two churches in Baltimore, two in New York, and one each in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Detroit, and Monroe, Michigan, and St. Mary's, Pennsylvania. The latter was a farm colony on the verge of bankruptcy.

Neumann had been chosen by the provincial in Belgium, Father de Held, who sought a man who would follow his instructions literally. De Held was convinced that the survival of the congregation in America required immediate retrenchment. He wanted no more houses, no more debts.

Despite his admonitions, Father Alexander had constantly bowed to the requests of the bishops and accepted new churches. In this, Alexander had the support of the Austrian Fathers. Hence, he had been replaced by Father Czackert, a year and a half earlier. Now Czackert was relieved of his post by Neumann.

To complicate matters, Neumann had been told of his appointment in a letter of February 17th, but instructed to await the arrival of Father Kannamueller in March who would bring the legal documents. Word of this arrangement leaked out, and caused considerable unhappiness among the men who considered Neumann a strange choice.

As de Held saw the problem, the congregation would survive in America only if three or four men lived together in each house, and carried out the prayers and religious exercises prescribed by the Redemptorist rule. This presented a grave difficulty, for these men were engaged in an active pastoral ministry. They could not observe the house-schedule without neglecting the needs of the people. Moreover, many of the priests were involved in preaching week-long missions in parishes all over the country. This left but one or two men home in each of their own parish churches.

With his appointment, Neumann was told not to accept any more foundations. He was ordered to cancel arrangements for taking over churches in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and Detroit. But the bishops objected strenuously. What was more, eight bishops were urging new foundations on the Redemptorists. In New York, Archbishop Hughes had forced the issue. He convinced Father Gabriel Rumpler, rector of Holy Redeemer Church on Third Street, to buy property on Canal Street for twelve thousand dollars and start the Church of St. Alphonsus.

One of Neumann's problems concerned the Church of St. Mary's in Washington, D.C. At the urging of Archbishop Eccleston of Baltimore, Father Matthias Alig had been sent there in 1845 to look after the Germans. Alig started a church and functioned as the pastor. Despite the urging of the Redemptorist superior that he live in the rectory in Baltimore and make the two-hour journey by rail each week-end, he felt he was needed full-time in Washington. He ignored the summons to come home.

Similar situations existed in Detroit and New Orleans. Neumann was in a dilemma. The bishops claimed the Redemptorists had promised to care for the German Catholics and could not abandon them. The men on the scene said that permission for this work had been obtained from the superiors in Belgium or Austria. The new Superior had no way of knowing where the truth lay.

To get a clearer picture of the American scene, Father Passerat, the over-all Superior in Austria, sent his assistant Father Martin Starck to America in the Summer of 1847. He had summary powers, and used them to dismiss one of the pioneer missionaries, Father Simon Saenderl from the Congregation. He accepted parishes in Detroit and New Orleans, and on departing for Europe, saddled Neumann with the twenty-four-year-old Father Ignatius Stelzig as a consultor. Stelzig had been a Redemptorist for only two years, and in America for but three months. The elder priests branded him an informer. Actually he did write regularly to Starck, frequently criticizing Neumann.

Neumann's governing difficulties arose from the complicated situation in Europe. Both the Belgian and the Austrian provinces were out of touch with headquarters in Rome because of the political situation. In turn there was no coordination between them. Hence Neumann's appointment was temporary while efforts were being made to regularize the American mission by making it a vice-province.

One of his more pleasant tasks was the assistance he gave to Mother Theresa and a group of the School Sisters of Notre Dame who left Munich to settle in America. They had been destined for the Colony in St. Mary's, Pennsylvania; but were thoroughly disheartened when they saw the hopeless conditions there. Besides, no word of their coming had been sent to Bishop O'Connor of Pittsburgh; and he showed his displeasure.

The bell Neumann gave to the preparatory seminary he established in Glen Riddle, Penna.

Mother Theresa took her troubles to Father Neumann in Baltimore. He suggested that she take over the school building next to St. James Church, and when she informed him that the Leopoldine Society was paying for her venture, Neumann sold her the building at its original price. She and the nuns quickly turned it into a convent.

A year later, Neumann took Mother Caroline of the Notre Dame nuns with a companion on a tour of the United States as far west as Mississippi. They visited the bishops and the various Redemptorist establishments on their return journey. This courtesy proved fortuituous. It explains the close tie between the Redemptorists and the Sisters ever since. They staffed schools in all the early Redemptorist parishes. In turn, the priests became their confessors and counsellors.

As Superior in Baltimore, Neumann wore two hats. Besides being the overall regent in America, he was the pastor of St. Aiphonsus Church, the magnificent edifice on Saratoga Street known as the German Cathedral.

As he had done in Pittsburgh, he gave a new zest to the parochial work, introducing religious societies, and organizing a we II-thought-out parish schedule. Nevertheless, he found time to extend courtesy to visitors, remembering the hospitality he had received in Linz, Munich, and Nancy. One of his callers was an Austrian priest, Father Michael Wisbauer whom he took on a sight-seeing tour to the nation's capitol, showing him the Congress and the Washington Monument. At this time he also took out papers to become a United States citizen. In a letter to the folks back in Prachatitz, he speaks of the great fervor of the German Catholics and says that in a year some eighty-five adults were received into the Church. A third of them were blacks.

Another of his more pleasant accomplishments was rescuing the Oblate Sisters of Providence from extinction. They were a congregation of black nuns founded in 1828 under Archbishop James Whitfield. The Sisters had done great work among the black children of the neighborhood. But they had encountered considerable difficulties from a lack of training and financial support. Archbishop Eccieston felt they could not continue as a religious group. Neumann disagreed. He sent Father Anwander to their rescue. They survived and prospered with many schools and convents all over the country and abroad.

Despite his increasing duties as administrator and pastor, Neumann did not neglect the children, frequently taking over religious instruction in the schools, and coaching the nuns on how to handle difficult youngsters. He wrote a child's and an adult's Catechism that were eventually published in both German and English. He also translated the Redemptorist regulations for novices into English from the Italian, and published it together with the Congregation's Rule.

He shifted the novitiate from Baltimore to Pittsburgh, and welcomed two priests, Fathers Kleineidam and Steinbacher, as well as two seminarians, John Duffy and Peter McGrane, into the congregation.

On his visits to the churches in New York, Rochester, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia he helped with local financial problems and encouraged his men to deepen their spiritual life while performing incredible tasks as parish priests and preachers, counsellors and confessors. In answer to one of his letters, Father Starck in Austria, under whose direct charge he now found himself, assured him that "Things are not as bad as you say. Most of the confreres have a high regard for you. What more do you want?"

What Neumann wanted was a clear, definite statement of his powers as Superior. This was not forthcoming. Instead, to his great relief, he was told that he was to be unburdened of his position. In his place there arrived a formidable Dutchman, Father Bernard Hafkenscheid, who had visited America with Father de Held in 1845. He was of great size and had a reputation as a magnificent preacher and confessor all over northern Europe. Besides, in his pocket he had clear orders appointing him as vice-provincial of the Redemptorists in America. One of his first actions was to make Neumann his chief consultor, sending young Stelzig packing to an out-of-the-way mission.

Neumann was delighted. He surrendered his position as pastor of the Church of St. Alphonsus in Baltimore to Father Rumpler, but continued to function as a parish priest. He took his turn on week-ends visiting nearby out-stations such as Elkridge and even Cumberland where he had purchased property as a future house of studies for novices and clerical students.

Neumann's advice is seen in Father Hafkenscheid's first moves. In Washington, Father Alig's request to be dispensed from his vows as a Redemptorist was granted. The connection with St. Mary's colony in Pennsylvania was terminated after a futile attempt at coming to an equitable agreement. Agreements with bishops, school Sisters, and other legal matters all show the fine hand of Neumann to whom Father Hafkenscheid entrusted these details.

At the close of his visitation in 1845, Father de Held had taken three young men back to Belgium with him. They were American-born converts who desired to join the Redemptorists. Father Rumpler had baptized two of them, Clarence Walworth and James MacMaster, and Archbishop Hughes baptized the third, Isaac Hecker. All three made the novitiate at the Redemptorist house in St. Trond. Walworth and Hecker finally joined the order. MacMaster was advised that he would do better as a journalist; and he did. As editor of the Freeman's Journal in New York, he became a leading figure in religious journalism.

Departing for America in 1849, Father Hafkenscheid brought the newly ordained Redemptorists, Hecker and Walworth with him. On the journey they discussed plans for inaugurating a mission band that would enable the American Redemptorists to engage in the work for which the order had been founded - giving parish missions.

The two newcomers were joined by Father Augustine Hewitt and Francis Baker, both converts to Catholicism and Father George Deshon, a West Point graduate. For seven years they traveled about the United States and Canada, attracting immense crowds and renewing the faith of thousands. When in 1857 their plan to found a house in New York for English-speaking Redemptorists was rejected, they separated from the Redemptorists and founded the Society of St. Paul.

Neumann, as the Redemptorist Superior, had encouraged these men in their vocation and paid for their education. During Hafkenscheid's absence in Europe in 1850, he had helped arrange their mission schedules, encouraging nearby Redemptorists to give them a hand with confessions and religious instructions when on large scale missions. In New York, Boston, St. John's Newfoundland, reports indicated that they drew immense crowds and usually heard between five and seven thousand confessions in the course of each two weeks.

In January, 1851, Neumann replaced Rumpler as rector in St. Alphonsus Church, Baltimore. He became the first canonically appointed pastor of the parish. He was now fully absorbed in parochial activities; served as confessor to seven convents of nuns, and counsellor to priests and prominent people in the archdiocese.

With the death of Archbishop Samuel Eccleston of Baltimore on April 22, 1851, Neumann lost a close friend. Of more import, Eccleston's passing was to affect his whole future. For the new Archbishop of Baltimore, Francis Patrick Kenrick, was the highly respected, handsome, Irish-born Bishop of Philadelphia. He quickly chose Neumann for his confessor, walking down from his residence on Charles Street to the Redemptorist house on Saratoga, each Friday afternoon.

Of the problems on Kenrick's mind that he did not discuss with Neumann was the selection of a new bishop for Philadelphia. There were several candidates of whom the most obvious was the Bishop of Pittsburgh, Michael O'Connor. But on consultation with his fellow bishops on the east coast, Kenrick came up with three names that were to be sent to Rome for final consideration. The first was Father Edward Purcell, brother of the Bishop of Cincinnati; the second was John Neumann, the third, Father William Elder, a professor in the Baltimore Seminary. Out of deference to the wishes of Bishop John McGill of Richmond, Kenrick had placed Purcell's name first. But he wrote to Cardinal Franzoni, prefect of the Propagation of the Faith in Rome, that he preferred Neumann because of his piety, learning, and administrative experience.

Kenrick had sent copies of this letter to all the American bishops. He asked them to write to Franzoni, making suggestions of their own. The Bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, Ignatius Reynolds, agreed heartily with Kenrick's choice, as did Bishop Richard Whelan of Wheeling. But Bishop O'Connor of Pittsburgh objected to the choice because he did not consider Neumann a preacher of distinction; and Bishop John McGill of Richmond joined him. He told Rome that Philadelphia needed a native American as bishop who could confront the hostility mounting against the Church by nativist Americans.

Window commemorating Neumann as patron of parochial schools.

Meanwhile, Neumann himself had got an inkling of what was going on. He wrote frantically to the superior in Austria and directly to Rome, begging the Redemptorist General Superior to have his name removed from consideration. In so doing, he was obeying the Redemptorist rule that forbade the acceptance of ecclesiastical positions and honors. But he was also truly convinced that he was not fit to become a bishop.

On January 26, 1852, Monsignor Alexander Barnabó placed these various documents before members of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome. After a day's deliberation, the prelates suggested to Pope Pius IX that despite Neumann's reluctance, he was by far the best choice. On February 1st, the Holy Father took their advice. He ordered the bulls of Neumann's appointment to be published, and commanded the Redemptorist to accept.

In mid-January, Kenrick had word from Father Bernard Smith, Rector of the Irish College in Rome, that Mons. Barnabó considered Neumann a certainty. The following Friday, after making his confession, Kenrick suggested to the Redemptorist over whom he towered, that he would be much taller if he went out and bought himself a mitre. The joking disturbed Neumann greatly.

Kenrick received official word of Neumann's appointment on March 1st. The next day he repaired to the Redemptorist rectory on Saratoga Street. Finding the pastor out, he placed the episcopal ring and pectoral cross he had worn as Bishop of Philadelphia on Neumann's desk. On returning from an errand, Neumann found the symbolic message. He spent the night in prayer in his room.

Word spread quickly. Reactions to the news varied from Kenrick's obvious delight to the less than enthusiastic welcome by the Bishops of Pittsburgh and New York.

In the instructions accompanying the appointment, Cardinal Franzoni suggested that the consecration of the new bishop take place without delay. Kenrick persuaded Neumann that the most opportune date was March 28th, Passion Sunday. Neumann acquiesced. It was his forty-first birthday, and he had chosen as his episcopal motto, the Redemptorist symbol, Passio Christi, conforta me - Passion of Christ strengthen me.

The haste with which the date of consecration was chosen made it impossible for most of the American bishops to attend. They were caught up in important pastoral functions. Hence Neumann was consecrated by Archbishop Kenrick, assisted by Bishop Bernard O'Reilly of Hartford, and the Sulpician Father L'Homme from the seminary. O'Reilly had been the pastor of St. Patrick's Church in Rochester, who had welcomed Neumann on his way to his first assignment in Waterville. He had also greatly disturbed the young priest by jocularly suggesting that his ordination might be unlawful. Bishop O'Connor of Pittsburgh was prevented from coming by illness.

Despite the paucity of bishops, the ceremony was attended with great solemnity. The German societies had collected funds to purchase the new bishop vestments, crozier, episcopal ring, and pectoral cross. The Redemptorists supplied him with a new purple cassock and biretta, and brought their seminarians from Cumberland, Maryland, to join with the choir of St. Mary's Seminary to provide the solemn music. A delegation of priests and people came from Philadelphia. They included Father Edward Sourin, his vicar general, who was invited to preach.

All of Baltimore seemed to turn out for the festive occasion. The streets were lined with people as the procession from the bishop's residence on Charles Street wended its way down Saratoga Street and into the new stately church of St. Alphonsus packed with some fifteen hundred priests, nuns, schoolchildren, and people. Festivities took up the next two days, as Neumann made the rounds of schools and convents and civic receptions bidding good-bye to friends and acquaintances.

On Tuesday morning, he boarded a train for Philadelphia. He was accompanied by the Redemptorist Superior, Father Hafkenscheid, and a group of priests from both Baltimore and Philadelphia. He had been given a gift of five hundred dollars by his Redemptorist colleagues and another six hundred dollars by the people of St. Alphonsus. Released from his vow of poverty, he would now be responsible for his personal needs. It was the least of his worries; but a fact he had to face.

Arriving in Philadelphia, Neumann was welcomed by a group of priests at the station, then whisked off to his new residence on Logan Square. That very afternoon, he took possession of the diocese in the pro-Cathedral of St. John, an impressive church built by Father John Hughes before he became New York's bishop. In a warm inaugural discourse, Neumann told the people that while he did carry a crozier as a sign of the authority given him by the Holy Father, his would be a fatherly as well as firm rule.