KENRICK, FRANCIS PATRICK. – Archbishop of Baltimore, theologian, controversialist, born in Dublin on 3 December 1797, died in Baltimore on 8 July 1863, during the American Civil War. A student at the College of Propaganda Fide, he was ordained a priest in 1822; in 1830 he was appointed coadjutor bishop to Bishop Cornell of Philadelphia, whom he succeeded in 1842, and he governed the diocese until 1851, when he was transferred to the see of Baltimore, also receiving the office of apostolic delegate. In this capacity, he convened the First National Council (1852), which played such an important role in the history of the American Church, bringing, among other things, the schism provoked by the priest Hogan to an end.
In Philadelphia, where he founded the Seminary dedicated to St Carlo Borromeo, his episcopate was marked by two episodes: the cholera epidemic of 1842, during which his initiatives combined the heroism of the Sisters of Charity with a highly beneficial effect upon Protestants, and the anti-Catholic sedition of 1844, provoked and promoted by the “Nativist” movement, which sought to exclude Catholics from public office and from immigration. If the outbreak of anti-Catholic hatred did not then produce greater damage, this was due entirely to K.’s firmness and prudence and to his personal influence. As archbishop and metropolitan of Baltimore, in connection with the First National Council, he promoted the petitions of the American episcopate for
As a controversialist, he engaged particularly with the Episcopalian and Presbyterian sects, achieving many conversions. He founded the periodical Catholic Herald (Philadelphia 1838 ff.) and wrote: Theologiae dogmaticae tractatus (ibid. 1839–40); Theologia moralis (Malines–Baltimore 1866); The Primacy of the Apostolic See and the authority of General Councils vindicated (Philadelphia–Pittsburgh 1848); Vindication of Catholic Church (Baltimore 1855). He translated into English the text of the Latin Vulgate, comparing it with the original texts, of the following books: The historical books of the Old Testament, The Pentateuch (Baltimore 1859); The Psalms, Books of Wisdom, and Canticle of Canticles, (ibid. 1861); The four Gospels (New York 1849).