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New Zealand Tablet, 6 April 1916, Page 24

CONVERTS AMONG AMERICAN PRELATES.

Here in the United States (writes the Rev. F. N. - Moynihan in the Missionary') within the past century, over 500 converted Protestant clergymen and 400 laymen have been admitted to the ranks of the priesthood. Of these distinguished converts more than a dozen have adorned our American Hierarchy. Three of them have occupied the historical See of Baltimore—namely, Archbishops Whitfield, Eccleston, and Bayley. The first on our roster, Most Rev. James Whitfield, was ’ born 'in England. After conversion he received minor orders in France at the hands of Cardinal Fesch, Napoleon’s uncle; was ordained in Lyons in 1809, and came to Baltimore. In 1828 he was consecrated Archbishop ,-dying in 1834. The Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, who also became Archbishop of Baltimore in 1834, was born of Episcopalian parents in Maryland in 1801. He died at the Visitation Convent, Georgetown, D C., in 1851. The third, the Most Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley, became eighth Archbishop of _ Baltimore, and was made Papal Delegate over two Councils of the American Church. He was a near relative to exPresident Roosevelt. His career was interesting and eventful. Born in 1814, near New York, he became an Episcopalian clergyman, but resigned his charge in 1841. He was received into the Church at Rome in 1842. Thereupon he was promptly disinherited by his uncle—of whom he was the. closest of kin—who built the Roosevelt Hospital, New York, with the funds intended for him. After two years’ studies in St. Sulpice, Paris, he was ordained first in old St. Peter’s Church, New York, by Bishop Hughes, whose secretary he later became, and whose life he wrote. In 1853 / Father -Bayley was consecrated first Bishop of Newark. ■; ’} One .of .the acts of his / episcopate was the founding of Seton Hall College and Seminary, named after his, aunt, Mother Bayley : Seton, founder of the American Branch of the Sisters of Charity, and herself a ■ saintly convert-- /- Later he , was consecrated Archbishop of V receiving the Pallium' from 'Archbishop Wood,; of Philadelphia. N -V- , ; ' . Archbishop Wood, just' referred to,, was also a convert. He was born in - Philadelphia^ in 1813, was ordained first in 1844, succeeded >to the - bishopric of

r y Philadelphia in, 1860. . -He it was who ; founded the diocesan < seminary of St. ‘ .Charles Borromeo, at Overbrook;, Pa. ’• d - The first incumbents of the bishoprics of Hartford, Erie, Columbus, Wilmington, and Ogdensburgnamely, Bishops Tyler, Young, Rosecrans, Becker, and Wadhams, respectively, were all converts. Another, Bishop Alfred ; A. Curtis, who was born in Somerset County, Md., in 1831, was received into the Church by Cardinal Newman. He acted as Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1896, and was afterwards Bishop of Wilmington, Del. Of living convert prelates we have the Archbishop of Oregon and the Archbishop of New Orleans. \'y Archbishop Alexander Christie, of Oregon City, was of Vermont Protestant extraction. He was ordained priest at the Grand Seminary, Montreal, in 1877, consecrated Bishop of Vancouver, 18$8, and transferred to, Oregon City in 1899. Archbishop James Hubert Blenck, S.M., was born in Germany of Lutheran parents : ordained priest in 1885, consecrated Bishop of Porto Rico in 1899, and transferred to New Orleans in 1906. ’■