V. PHILADELPHIA

The day before he was consecrated bishop, Neumann obeyed a command of the Redemptorist Superior, Father Hafkenscheid to write an autobiographical sketch in German. It is a brief running account of his life with incidental reflections on the piety of his parents, the incompetence of some of his teachers, his hesitations and difficulties on his way to the priesthood. It includes details of his original adventuresome trip from Prachatitz to New York, the vagaries of his life as a pioneer pastor in Williamsville, and a brief outline of his career as a Redemptorist.

More of a chronicle than an autobiography, this document reveals a genuine, no-nonsense approach to life. It says nothing of the worries and inner struggles that occasionally troubled him in his younger days. Nor does it give evidence of the depth of his faith or religious fervor. It is what he was asked for, a brief account of his life. As such, however, it is a guarantee that at age forty-one, Neumann was a thoroughly mature individual, self assured and capable of tackling any task assigned to him. All these qualities were needed in the man who was to take possession of the Diocese of Philadelphia as its bishop.

Writing to his father, shortly after taking possession, Neumann said that from a strictly human viewpoint he feared he might not get a very warm reception. But he was wrong. The people had turned out in throngs to greet him. Even those who would have preferred a native-born American or an Irishman were taken with the simplicity and the earnestness of the little man - he was five foot two, but well built and vigorous - whose serious expression hid a quick and occasionally tart wit.

In the letter to his father, Neumann said he had over a hundred priests caring for one hundred and twelve churches with one hundred and seventy thousand Catholics. The territory included the eastern half of Pennsylvania, the lower half of New Jersey from Trenton to Cape May, and all of Delaware. It was in consideration of the vastness of this area that Kenrick preferred Neumann for the bishop. He knew that his man would not be tempted to lose himself in administrative details and the comfortable living of Philadelphia, but would tramp through the hinterlands searching out the people who considered themselves abandoned by the Church.

New parishes were being formed all over this territory by the people themselves, with the aid of struggling young priests and older missionaries who were determined to erect a chapel or church, and obtain for themselves and their children an opportunity for regular religious assistance. Word came to him from Trenton, Scranton, Reading, York, Columbia, Easton, Chester, and Wilmington of the work in progress and asking that he visit them as soon as possible.

In the city of Philadelphia, he had a heterogeneous faithful. The parishes of St. Joseph and St. Mary's dated from prerevolutionary times. Tombstones in their cemeteries recorded such great names as Commodore John Barry, Captain Rossiter, Thomas Fitzsimmons - people connected with the War of Independence and the formation of the New Republic. Pews were held in the splendid new church erected by Father John Hughes, now Archbishop of New York, by the Drexels, the Randalls, the Ewings, the Reppliers, and the Chandlers. They sent their children to the Jesuits at St. Joseph's College, to the Augustinians in Villanova, the Madams of the Sacred Heart at Eden Hall and McSherrington Academies.

The Redemptorist St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia, where Neumann made confessionsand obligatory retreats while bishop and where his body is now enshrined.

Father Patrick Reilly had a successful college of St. Mary's in Wilmington, and the Visitation and St. Joseph Sisters were struggling to start their own schools. Besides, he had several orphanages, a hospital staffed by the St. Joseph Sisters, a house of the Good Shepherd, and an asylum for widows. He also had smaller groups of Irish, German, French, and Eastern Europeans, living in the poorer sections of the city, clamoring for their own priests and churches. To all these people indiscriminately, he was determined to give full attention.

Although reticent and apparently shy in his ways, Neumann was a man of good education and simple but refined manners. While he did not go out of his way to cultivate the well-to-do families, as had his predecessor, and prelates from outside Philadelphia, he had no hesitation in calling upon them for advice and assistance.

Even those families who felt he was a little too European in his speech and gestures came to realize that he was a highly competent churchman, more fatherly than officious in his pastoral cares.

The day after his arrival in Philadelphia, he set out with Father Sourin on a quick tour of the parishes and institutions of the city. He preached each evening in one of the larger churches, and held confirmations. In the schools he had little medals and pictures for the children. At Eden Hall Academy, he spoke to each of the young ladies individually, giving them a small souvenir of his visit. In thanking a group of German people who serenaded him at his residence one evening, he reminded them of the need the Church had of their loyalty and obedience.

On being informed that there were two Polish men in the county jail awaiting trial for murder, he went directly to see them, and persuaded them to receive the spiritual ministrations of a Polish-speaking priest. He accepted an invitation to address the Philopatrian Institute and read this learned Catholic literary society a well-thought-out paper on the place of literature in Catholic life. He demonstrated a commendable knowledge of European philosophies, the socialist and other movements, including the Brook Farm Experiment, then swirling through learned circles.

Less than two weeks after his arrival, he issued a pastoral letter to the Catholic people of Philadelphia. He thanked one and all for the warm reception he had received; asked their continued generosity, and urged the cause of the Catholic schools. He explained the purpose of the National Council of Bishops that was to gather in Baltimore, early in May, urging them to pray earnestly for its success. The following week, he sent a circular letter to all his priests assuring them of his affection, and requesting that they give him a generous hand in completing construction of the Cathedral started by Kenrick.

Neumann's first month was a whirlwind of meetings, visitations of local convents and institutions, administrative decisions, reception of visitors, prominent Catholics, priests, civic leaders, and the handling of correspondence. "A Bishop in America," he informed his aged father in Prachatitz, "had to do everything himself, and by his own hand." He did not have the luxury of a well-established chancery office to carry out church business. Neumann felt that his priests were more necessary in parishes rather than in an office. As he prepared to go down to Baltimore for the Bishops Meeting, he informed Kenrick, "I commence to feel somewhat more easy.

Arriving in Baltimore, Saturday May 8, 1852, he was met at the station by his Redemptorist colleagues, and escorted to the Rectory of St. Alphonsus where he lodged during the meeting. He was one of thirty-one prelates, a large number of religious superiors and theologians who descended on the city for their first nation-wide consultation.

The Council had been called by Kenrick with Rome's approbation. It was to give the Church in the United States a uniform policy in regard to the Mass and liturgical ceremonies, the administration of the sacraments, dealing with canonical procedures, problems with priests and people. One of the more pressing problems was how to handle the lay trustees who were taking control of the church and property, and claiming the right to call in their own priests as pastors. This was the procedure among the Protestants, and considered in keeping with the American spirit of independence. It ran counter to the Catholic tradition in which the bishop was the center of authority in the Church. It also made for great difficulty in safeguarding the faith and the practice of religion in keeping with Catholic teaching. Known as trusteeism it was repudiated by both Rome and the majority of Catholics.

During the discussions, considerable attention was given to the need for Catholic schools. They were considered the only sure way of preserving the faith of the new generation of American Catholics. The question of proper instruction of the Germans, both children and adults came up, and in the course of the debate, Neumann revealed that he had composed a catechism for both adults and children. He was asked to publish the German version with the approbation of the bishops. He did so the following year.

On his return to Philadelphia, Neumann held a series of meetings in his episcopal residence with priests and prominent laymen to discuss the parish school problem. The result was the creation of a diocesan school system that would provide such instruction for the children in the poorer neighborhoods and gradually assist in recruiting teachers and textbooks for the parishes in the outlying districts of the diocese. This was the first such organized Catholic school system in the country, and is considered the model on which today's Catholic schools were formed.

Part of the new system was an Education Fund and Neumann brought in experienced churchmen to address his committee. They included Archbishop John Hughes of New York, and Bishop Loras of Dubuque among others. These men advised the committee that while they should continue to battle for public funds from the state, they should not await such aid. No matter what the cost, the Catholic school system should be sustained. These men agreed with Neumann that while a uniform curriculum and formation should be urged on each school, the local pastor should be responsible for hiring the teachers and supervising the instruction.

In an account of his activities written to his father in 1853, Neumann boasts that whereas on his entrance to Philadelphia there were only about five hundred children in Catholic schools, now there were five thousand. Three years later, some nine thousand children were registered.

In September, 1852, Neumann informed the Archbishop of Vienna to whom he wrote for assistance in finding priests to come to America, that he had already visited half the churches in his diocese, and found the majority of German immigrants neglected. To his old counsellor, Canon Hermann Dichtl in Prague, he confided his great anxiety about this situation, and requested the mission-minded prelate to take a special interest in his situation. One of his great disappointments shortly after his arrival in Philadelphia was the withdrawal of the Vincentian Fathers who had been running the seminary. Their General in Rome had ordered this move and Neumann felt he had to respect it, remembering his own difficulties when he was superior of the Redemptorists less than a decade earlier. He had no recourse but to scour his own diocese for a few men to replace them.

To care for the city's Italians, Neumann bought an unused Protestant church and formed the Parish of St. Mary Magdalen del Pazzi. A Florentine Carmelite nun of the sixteenth century, this saint enjoyed great renown in Italy. She was a favorite of the group of Philadelphian Italians who formed the nucleus of the new parish.

On his rounds of the diocese, the new bishop encouraged the building of new churches and chapels in Lancaster, Drumore, Gettysburg, Scranton, Delaware City, Chester, and Trenton. "Thirty new churches have been completed and paid for," he wrote to his father in November, 1853. During his first three years, it amounted to the completion of a new church every month.

But all did not run smoothly. Often he had to arbitrate between the English-speaking and the foreign groups. He laid down strict rules for both pastors and peoples in regard to sharing churches between the Irish and the Germans in particular; and reluctantly accepted the compromise of having each group erect their own church.

On his first swing through eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware, Neumann preached, heard confessions, said Mass and gathered the children together for instruction in private homes, courthouses, concert halls, schoolrooms and the rough hewn chapels and churches that dotted the villages and towns he visited. He travelled by train, stagecoach, lumbering omnibus and farmers carts or wagons - whatever would get him to the towns or settlements where groups of Catholics eagerly awaited his coming.

Once he had made his preliminary rounds, he called all the priests of the diocese together for a Diocesan Synod in April, 1853. Besides giving most of them a chance to meet each other and the bishop, this gathering was used to discuss their problems and to work out procedures for a uniform policy in the liturgy, teaching Christian doctrine, dealing with marriages and other problems. Neumann explained the regulations of the National Council of Bishops held the previous May, and suggested ways of conforming to these ideals.

The monstrance carried by Neumann.

One of his primary objectives was to introduce the Forty Hours Devotion - a three-day ceremony in which the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in a monstrance on the altar, and priests and people encouraged to keep a constant vigil in the church, honoring Christ's bodily presence among them. Neumann drew up the diocesan-wide schedule, recognizing the fact that while this practice would be fairly easy in the large city parishes it would be most difficult in the smaller settlements. His objective was to have this devotion in progress somewhere in the diocese, all year long.

He also opened a circulating library in Philadelphia, encouraged his people to buy books, and made gifts for spiritual reading.

The most difficult problem facing Neumann as he entered Philadelphia was a rebellious group of trustees in the German Church of the Holy Trinity. Ken rick had excommunicated them, and interdicted the church. No religious services could be held there. Neumann tried to bring these people into line but met with strong resistance. When one of them chided him as a German who would not side with his fellow-countrymen, he retorted, "I'm not a German, I'm a Czech." As the result of a civil suit in the courts, the trustees won control of the property.

Neumann sought advice from some of his fellow bishops; then decided to erect a new church for the Germans, a mile away. He built the Church of St. Alphonsus. It was an expensive proposition. But as he informed the Archbishop of Vienna from whom he solicited funds, without their own church, the German Catholics who were poorly instructed, easily fell away from their faith. They were tempted to join secret, anti-clerical societies, and neglected their children's religious instruction.

While the new church was being built. Neumann decided to appeal the decision of the lower court regarding the church and property of the Holy Trinity Parish. On the stand before Judge Woodward in March, 1854, the bishop explained the chain of command in the Catholic Church. It descended from the Pope to the bishop to the local pastor, and in keeping with the church's law, the laity had no control over the Church's teaching or property. Under questioning, he explained that to belong to the Church an individual had to be in union with Pope and bishop by obedience.

When his adversaries admitted to the judge that Neumann's testimony was correct, the magistrate gave them a tongue lashing for wasting the time of the judicial procedure and being a contentious lot. He instructed the jury that in their deliberation, they had to keep in mind the nature of the Church as an organization and its internal rules. Neumann's position was upheld. When several of the trustees defied the court order, they were thrown in jail. The bishop finally got control.l of the property, and reopened the church. He instructed the new pastor, Father Peter Corbon, to do everything possible to win over the dissidents. But the reopening of Holy Trinity put a greater burden on the financial situation at St. Alphonsus. Half its people moved back to their original church.

Neumann's other burden was the unfinished cathedral he inherited from Kenrick. While he wanted to see the great edifice going up on Logan Square take its proper place in the life of the diocese, he would not allow the priest in charge, Father Edmond Waldron, to go into debt. With all the obligations already confronting the parishes, he felt it would be highly imprudent to saddle his people with another sizeable burden. This policy brought him severe criticism from a number of priests and people. They felt the unfinished cathedral was an eye-sore and a disgrace in the face of the city's non-Catholics. Eventually their criticism earned Neumann the reputation of being a poor administrator which was far from being the case.

Neumann's life as a bishop resembled his activities both on the parish level in Williamsville and in his first years with the Redemptorists; only it carried much greater burdens. When home in Philadelphia, he celebrated a parish Mass, heard confessions in his pro-Cathedral, took sick calls, preached at nearby churches during the Forty Hours devotions, and attended receptions, plays, graduations, and other functions in the local schools and colleges. He held frequent meetings with various committees of priests and laity; and he worried over his debts and his state of soul.

He travelled to New York for the opening of the new Redemptorist Church of the Most Holy Redeemer on Third Street; spent two weeks in Buffalo preaching retreats to the German and the English-speaking priests; visited Pittsburgh for the consecration of the Cathedral; and spent considerable time with old friends round St. Philomena's.

Despite his own financially strapped condition, he was most generous in allowing clergy from outside to take up collections in Philadelphia. He housed the Irish priests sent to collect for the cathedral in Armagh, and for the proposed University of Dublin. He sent money to defray the court expenses of his famous namesake, the future English cardinal, John Newman; and he started collections for the Propagation of the Faith to be sent to the Holy Father in Rome.

Neumann s first two-and-a-half years as bishop had revolutionized the diocese. He had shown himself to be a man of untiring energy with deep human compassion, and good sense in pushing projects to completion or backing off gently when he ran into impossibilities. He was extremely kind in dealing with priests who had made mistakes or gotten into trouble with their bishops in other dioceses. And he had won the loyalty and love of the great majority of his people. He was known as cordial and receptive. Above all, his affection for the children was remarkable.

Those who criticized him for his failure to cultivate a high-level social life simply had no idea of what they were talking about. It was not an inability to meet people or engage in small talk that kept him out of drawing rooms and social affairs - it was simply a lack of time. When he completed his round of daily duties, said his prayers, finished his correspondence and personal chores, he was exhausted. And he was up each morning before five.