January 5th is the Memorial of Saint John Nepomucene Neumann (1811-1860), Bishop in the Catholic Church of the United States. John was born in 1811 in the city of Pachitz, ninety miles southwest from Prague in the modern day Czech Republic. As a youth, John showed his strong intelligence and decided to apply it to studies for the priesthood. After completing his preliminary schooling, John entered the seminary at Budweis for his priestly formation. While in the seminary, John showed a strong desire to become a missionary in the Americas, studying English and French on his own with hopes that he would be able to use these languages in the United States or Canada. After completing his seminary studies, the bishop of Prague would not ordain him, although he was near the top of his class in his studies, because the diocese of Prague could support no new priests. An opportunity to travel to America and be ordained for a bishop there showed itself to John and he accepted it. In 1836, John was ordained in the Diocese of Buffalo by Bishop James Dubois, and in the following four years worked in several different parishes throughout the diocese. At the age of twenty-nine, he made a decision to join the Redemptorist order and became the first of this order to profess vows in the United States. After joining, Fr. Johns missionary work expanded outside of New York to much of Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio. While doing this work, he became very popular with the German immigrants, partially because he could speak their language. German speaking immigrants always remained close to the heart of Fr. John. He authored two different catechisms in German and worked to improve the situation of German immigrants wherever he went. Fr. John soon gained renown for his holiness, spiritual writing and preaching. In 1852, Fr. John was consecrated as the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia. As Bishop of this diocese, he reorganized the parochial schools into a diocesan system, increased the enrollment numbers, and brought many religious communities of both men and women into the diocese to work in various ministries. The School Sisters of Notre Dame consider Bishop John as a secondary founder of the order for his work in establishing the order in America. Bishop John also began the Forty Hours Eucharistic devotion in his diocese and wrote a rule for Third Order Franciscan women dedicated to spreading the newly proclaimed Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Bishop. John worked hard for his people and showed his great love for them until he died in 1860. Bishop John Neumann was declared venerable in 1921, beatified in 1963 and in 1977, he became the first American bishop to be canonized. Let us pray, O God, who called the Bishop Saint John Neumann, renowned for his charity and pastoral service, to shepherd your people in America, grant by his intercession that, as we foster the Christian education of youth and are strengthened by the witness of brotherly love, we may constantly increase the family of Your Church. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. St. John Neumann, pray for us. From a letter to Cardinal Barnabo by Saint John Neumann, bishop I have labored with all my powers to fulfill the duties of my office Indeed, I have apparently delayed too long in writing to the Holy See the letter promised by the Archbishop of Baltimore in the name of the council. However, this delay was not without reason. For the council was scarcely finished and I was discussing the division of Diocese of Philadelphia and my translation to a new see with one of the Fathers of the council, when the Father intimated to me [that he did not know] whether that could more probably be hoped for, since the Holy See thought that I would resign from the episcopate, or wished to resign. In the same way when the Archbishop of Baltimore informed me of the designation of a coadjutor, he added that in the event that I should persevere in the desire to resign, the Holy See would permit me to give the title of the ecclesiastical property to the same coadjutor. I was no little disturbed by the fear that I had done something that so displeased the Holy Father that my resignation would appear desirable to him. If this be the case, I am prepared without any hesitation to leave the episcopacy. I have taken this burden out of obedience, and I have labored with all my powers to fulfill the duties of my office, and with God’s help, as I hope, not without fruit. When the care of temporal things weighed upon my mind and it seemed to me that my character was little suited for the very cultured world of Philadelphia, I made known to my fellow bishops during the Baltimore council of 1858 that it seemed opportune to me to request my translation to one or the other see that was to be erected (namely in the City of Pottsville or in Wilmington, North Carolina). But to give up the episcopal career never entered my mind, although I was conscious of my unworthiness and ineptitude; for things had not come to such a pass that I had one or the other reason out of the six for which a bishop could safely ask the Holy Father permission to resign. For a long time I have doubted what should be done…. Although my coadjutor has proposed to me that he would take the new see if it is erected, I have thought it much more opportune and I have asked the Fathers that he be appointed to the See of Philadelphia, since he is much more highly endowed with facility and alacrity concerning the administration of temporal things. Indeed, I am much more accustomed to the country, and will be able to care for the people and faithful living in the mountains, in the coal mines and on the farms, since I would be among them. If, however, it should be displeasing to His Holiness to divide the diocese, I am, indeed, prepared either to remain in the same condition in which I am at present, or if God so inspires His Holiness to give the whole administration of the diocese to the Most Reverend James Wood, I am equally prepared to resign from the episcopate and to go where I may more securely prepare myself for death and for the account which must be rendered to the Divine Justice. I desire nothing but to fulfill the wish of the Holy Father whatever it may be.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:00:01 +0000
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