It is a busy week of Indiana Catholic history events…
Today, January 8th marks the 161st anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese of Fort Wayne (now known as the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend):
By decree of Pope Pius IX, January 8, 1857, the northern half of the state became the Diocese of Fort Wayne, the boundaries being that part of the state north of the south boundaries of Fountain, Montgomery, Boone, Hamilton, Madison, Delaware, Randolph, and Warren counties. The remaining southern half of the state made up the Diocese of Vincennes, embracing 50 counties. It covered an area of 18,479 square miles extending from the north boundaries of Marion and contiguous counties to the Ohio River and from Illinois on the west to Ohio on the east.
Tuesday, January 10th is the 26th anniversary of the death of Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara. Born in Saint Louis and ordained by our own Archbishop Ritter, O’Meara served the Archdiocese of Indianapolis for about 13 years as Archbishop. He would have been 93 years old in 2017.
I’ll repeat the New York Times obituary which ran on January 11, 1992:
INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 11 – Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara, who headed Catholic relief efforts for war and disaster victims around the world, died Friday at his home here. He was 70 years old.
Archbishop O’Meara, the spiritual leader of the 200,000 Roman Catholics in the Indianapolis Archdiocese, was found last summer to be suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease.
The illness led him to resign in September as president and chairman of Catholic Relief Services, an agency in Baltimore that was created to help refugees during World War II and was expanded to a worldwide relief organization. Last year it distributed $230 million in aid to 74 countries.
He was elected to the first board of directors of Catholic Relief Services in the 1970″²s and became the agency’s president in 1987. Son of Irish Immigrants
Archbishop O’Meara, who headed a 39-county archdiocese that covers most of the southern half of Indiana, traditionally delivered the invocation before the Indianapolis 500 automobile race.
The son of Irish immigrants, he was born in St. Louis on Aug. 3, 1921, and was ordained there in 1946. He attended Kendrick Seminary in St. Louis and in 1952 earned a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
He was named auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1972 and was installed as the fourth Archbishop of Indianapolis in 1980. He died 12 years to the day after his installation.
In an interview shortly after his installment, Archbishop O’Meara said his affinity for the Catholic Church was rooted in his childhood.”I can never remember a time when I wasn’t drawn to it,” he said.”I liked to be around the priests. I liked what they did. I admired their wholesome life.”
Archbishop O’Meara left no immediate survivors.
It was seven years ago, January 14th that Bishop Christopher Coyne was named as Auxiliary Bishop of Indianapolis. It was historic in that we have not had an Auxiliary since 1933 when Joseph Elmer Ritter was named Auxiliary. Here is the story as it appeared in 2011:
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Father Christopher J. Coyne, a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston, as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. The Holy See made the announcement today in Rome.
Bishop-designate Coyne, 52, is a native of Woburn, Mass., a northern suburb of Boston. Father Coyne is currently pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Westwood, Mass. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston on June 7, 1986.
Indianapolis Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, O.S.B, will ordain the new auxiliary bishop during a Mass of Episcopal Ordination on March 2 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis. Details of the Mass are pending.
As auxiliary bishop, Bishop-designate Coyne will assist Archbishop Buechlein in serving the sacramental, spiritual and pastoral needs of the people of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis…
…Bishop-designate Coyne is the first auxiliary bishop to be appointed for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis since Father Joseph Elmer Ritter was appointed on Feb. 3, 1933. He became Bishop of Indianapolis the next year and was the first Archbishop of Indianapolis. Bishop Ritter was transferred to the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1946 where he was later elevated to Cardinal.
In December of 2014 Bishop Coyne was named Bishop of Burlington, Vermont. He was installed on January 29, 2015.
Also on January 14th, in 1849, the Right Rev. Jacques M. Maurice Landes d’Aussac de Saint-Palais, known to everyone simply as Bishop Saint-Palais, was consecrated as Bishop of Vincennes in the Cathedral of Saint Francis Xavier in Vincennes.
Born at LaSalvetat, France, on November 15, 1811. St. Palais was ordained a priest at Paris, May 28, 1836. He was Administrator of the diocese after the death of Bishop Bazin and named Bishop of Vincennes, October 3, 1848. He was consecrated by Bishop Pius Miles, OP, of Nashville, assisted by Coadjutor Bishop Martin John Spalding of Louisville and Very Reverend Hippolyte DuPontavice, vicar general of Vincennes. Died at St. Mary-of-the-Woods, June 28, 1877. His body is interred in the Old Cathedral, Vincennes.
Bishop St. Palais was one of the group that Bishop Brute brought from France in 1836. He oversaw the huge growth of the diocese in his time as Bishop and he helped to heal the wounds inflicted during the episcopate of Celestin de la Hailandiere.
