A NEW AMERICAN CARDINAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 2, 7 May 1886, Page 5

A NEW AMERICAN CARDINAL.

The Most Rev. James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, will be raised to the purple in the March Consistory. This is an honour conferred upon him by the Holy Father not only in consideration of the wisdom and prudence he disp ayed as Apostolic Delegate, in presiding over the third Plenary Council, but also in recognition of the general esteem entertained for hia piety and lalrnts. Two years ago, when Archbishop Gibbons, of Baltimore, with the other American archbishops, was summoned to Rome to confer upon the affairs of the Church in the United States, he was the recipient of marked favour from Leo XIII. The Pope appointed him Apostolic Delegate, with power to preside over the third Plenary Council, which assembled in Halticuorc in November, 1884. This was the largest and mo9t imposing ecclesiastical gathering that has ever taken place in the United States. The success of the Council was due in a measure to the zeal, energy, and extraordinary ability of the President. When the Acts and Decrees of the Council were transmitted to Rome they weie, after mature consideration, approved by the ecclesiastical authoiities, and Leo XIIL, at the same time, was pleased to signify his appreciation of Archbishop Gibbons'? sei vices. Archbishop Gibbons was born in Baltimore in 1836. His parents were from Ireland ; and, when a boy, he was taken home, where he remained for several year 3. At the ap;e of seventeen, he returned to America, and soou after entered St. Charles's College, near Ellicott City, Md., to study for the priesthood. Here he remained four years, and was then transferred to St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. He was ordained in 1800, his first mission being the obscure parish of St. Bridget's, Baltimore. Archbishop Spalding soon discovered his merits, and he transferred liim to the cathedral, and made him his secretary. His rise was rapid and brilliant. In 18C8 he was made Vicar- Apostolic of North Carolina, with the rank of bishop, and in a few years he was elected to the See of Richmond. When Archbishop Bay ley died, in 1875. the Right Rev. Dr. Gibbons was appointed his successor in the Sec of Baltimore. Thus, at the early ago of forty, he had attained the highest ecclesiastical position in the United States, for Baltimore is the oldest American Sec. ' The archbishops of Baltimore have always been men of distinguished ability. The immediate predecessor of Archbishop Gibbons was James Roosevelt Bayley, a member of a prominent Now York family, and a nephew of Mother Seton, the founder of the Order of Sisters of Charity in the United States. His predecessor was the learned Archbishop Spaldinpr, whose beautiful voice was conspicuous in the great Council of the Vatican. — Nation,