Carroll

CARROLL. — Under this surname two Catholic and patriotic families of Maryland of the 18th and 19th centuries should be remembered, united by a certain kinship through the female line. To the first, which came from England (1688) and enjoyed the favors of Lord Baltimore (v.), belongs the patriot CHARLES C. OF CARROLLTON (1737-1832), a politician and active supporter of American independence, senator of Maryland. Of the second, of Irish origin (early 18th century), are part DANIEL C. (1733-1829), an ardent patriot, representative of Maryland at the first colonial congress (1780-84) and at the Congress of Philadelphia (1789) for the revision of the American Constitution, and his brother JOHN C., father of the Catholic Church in the United States, first bishop and archbishop of Baltimore, b. at Upper Marlboro on 8 May 1735, d. at Baltimore on 3 Dec. 1815. After completing his studies at the Jesuit college of St-Omer (France), he entered the Society of Jesus in 1753 and was ordained a priest in 1769. When the Society was suppressed (1773), he returned to his Maryland, where he worked with other Jesuits for the evangelization of the region, actively promoting besides the cause of the independence of the United States of America. In 1776 he accompanied B. Franklin, S. Chase and C. C. of Carrollton to Canada to invite the Canadians to make common cause with the Americans for independence. When Pius VI separated the American Catholics from the jurisdiction of the vicar apostolic of England, John C. was appointed apostolic prefect of all the United States of America (1784); when the first episcopal see of America was created in the city of Baltimore (v.), he was elected its first bishop (1789, consecrated in England on 15 Aug. 1790) and archbishop (1808). On the occasion of the revision of the American Constitution (1789), John C. was charged by the Catholics with preparing a memorial for the defense of the rights of the Catholics, who had taken a large part in the war of independence. The memorial was presented to Congress by Washington and supported by Franklin, a personal friend of John C., and by the two Catholic delegates Daniel C. and Thomas Fitz-Simons, representatives of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Thus there came about the amendment to art. 3 of the American Constitution concerning freedom of religion, which is still in force today.

John C. is rightly called the father of the Catholic Church in the United States: finding it poorly organized, poor and persecuted by the intolerance of the Protestant sects, he left it at his death flourishing with bishops, clergy, seminaries, religious houses, schools and colleges of education. He favored in a particular way the Sulpicians (1791) and Mother E. Seton (v.), foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity. Exceedingly hospitable and charitable, pleasant in conversation, broadly tolerant of the opinions of others, he was a man of great piety and of a profound humility, so much so that he wished to die stretched out on the floor of his room.

Of the few writings he gave to the press, these are remembered: An Address to the Roman Catholics of the United States of America (Annapolis 1784), a reply to the apostate C. Whaston; An Address from the Roman Catholics of America to G. Washington Esq. President of the U. States (London 1790), a patriotic address to G. Washington on the occasion of his election as first president of the United States; A discourse on General Washington (Baltimore 1800), a funeral eulogy of the father of the country, delivered in the cathedral of Baltimore on 22 Feb. 1800.

A. Pietro Frutaz