NEW YORK, ARCHDIOCESE OF. – City and archdiocese in the State of New York. The foundation of the diocese of New York coincided with the multiplication of dioceses in the United States, when the diocese of Baltimore became, on 8 April 1808, an ecclesiastical province with the following suffragan sees: New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville). At the time of its creation, the see of New York included the territories of the dioceses of Albany, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Ogdensburg, Rochester, Syracuse, Newark, and Trenton; that is, the entire State of New York and also part of New Jersey.
Catholic life in the archdiocese is ancient, dating back to the explorers Verrazano and Gomez, who visited the banks of the Hudson River at the beginning of the 16th century. Calvinist Dutchmen then obtained the founding of New Amsterdam to establish a new colony. To prove their loyalty to the established church, the Calvinists decreed that the Christian Reformed religion should prevail according to the doctrines of the Synod of Dordrecht. The Catholic rite was therefore not tolerated, but the Dutch governor William Kieft and the inhabitants of New Amsterdam were very generous toward the Jesuit Bl. Isaac Jogues, the first priest to exercise the sacred ministry in the State of New York, and also toward his confreres Joseph Bressani and Simon Le Moyne. The first chapel in which Mass was celebrated was begun on 18 November 1655 by the Jesuits Claude Dablon and Pierre Chaumont under the title of St. Mary. The Church was established on Manhattan only in 1664, when the Duke of York claimed the territory as an English colony. Twenty years later, the Catholic governor Thomas Dongan fostered religion and established religious freedom in New York; the first Mass was celebrated on the Island on 30 October 1683.
After the fall of James II and the succession of William of Orange, the Catholic colony of New York suffered persecution; Catholics were excluded from public office, and in 1686 Lord Bellomont secured the death penalty against Catholic priests. In 1690
NEW YORK, ARCHDIOCESE OF – The Washington Arch in New York.
New York, archdiocese of – The “Madre Cabrini” hospital built by Antonio de Pace.
there were 30 seminarians. Abp. Hughes also convened the first diocesan synod (28 August 1842). In 1858 construction began on St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the Gothic style. The work lasted until May 1879, being interrupted during the Civil War. This cathedral, which measures 398 feet in length and 174 in width, has two towers 300 feet high. The total cost was $4,000,000. It is the eleventh largest basilica in the world by length. Given the ever-growing importance of the see of New York, the second archbishop, Abp. John McCloskey, who had been consecrated coadjutor on 10 March 1844, became a cardinal with the title of S. Maria sopra Minerva on 15 March 1875 (d. 1885). His successors were Abp. M. A. Corrigan (1885–1902); Card. J. Farley (1902–18); Card. P. Hayes (1919–38); it is currently governed by Card. Francis Spellman since 15 April 1939.
The archdiocese comprises a territory of 4,717 square miles with a total population (1951) of 4,000,000, of whom 1,288,469 are Catholics. In addition to the cardinal archbishop, it has 4 auxiliary bishops, 2,205 priests (of whom 1,068 are religious belonging to 20 different congregations), 387 parishes (many of them Italian), 484 chapels, 80 missions, 993 brothers, 96 female congregations (with 8,044 sisters), 2 diocesan seminaries, 20 religious or scholastic seminaries, 11 colleges and universities (among them the famous Fordham University run by the Jesuits) with 19,860 students, 11 orphanages, 15 general hospitals and 6 specialized ones, and 10 homes for the elderly. In 1949 there were 3,874 conversions.
The ecclesiastical province is composed of New York, Albany (1847), Brooklyn (1853), Buffalo (1847), Ogdensburg (1872), Rochester (1868), Syracuse (1886).
Gastone Carrière
THE UNIVERSITY OF FORDHAM. – Founded in 1841 along Fordham Road, New York, under the name of St. John’s College, by Abp. John Hughes, then auxiliary bishop of New York and later first archbishop of the same see. The college’s first president was Rev. J. McCloskey, who later became the second archbishop of New York and the first cardinal of the United States. For the first five years the college was under the direction of diocesan clergy, but from 1846 it was entrusted to the Jesuits, who came from Kentucky at the invitation of Abp. Hughes. In those early years, St. John’s College was joined to the diocesan seminary, but in 1862 the seminary was transferred elsewhere.
In 1906 the faculties of arts and sciences were joined by those of law and medicine, and in that year the college began to be called Fordham University. The faculty of medicine was suspended in 1921, but subsequently other faculties were added: pharmacy and commerce, as well as various schools: of education, of social service, and of graduate studies (called Graduate). More recently, in 1950, an institute of contemporary Russian studies was begun. Religious women from various congregations, who come to Fordham from all parts of the United States, reside in a separate house, “St. Mary’s Hall.” Special courses and readings are given to some select students for their intellectual and moral ability; enrolled in the so-called “Honors Program,” they study for a year at the Institut Catholique and at the Sorbonne in Paris. Thus it is hoped to form a superior type of Catholic “leader.”
From its humble beginning in 1841, with only six students, to the present day, when it numbers about 13,000 students (including women, who are admitted to some faculties), Fordham University has become a considerable force in the American academic world. Among its 31,000 alumni it counts two cardinal-archbishops of New York, Cardinals M. Farley and Spellman, more than a dozen bishops, hundreds of priests and religious, politicians, generals, judges, diplomats, etc. In keeping with the custom of American universities, Fordham has also granted honorary degrees to various distinguished figures, among them His Holiness Pius XII, who, during his visit to Fordham as Cardinal Secretary of State in 1936, received an honorary doctorate in law there; also worthy of mention are Cardinals Tisserant and Griffin, Dr. Salazar of Portugal, President Truman, Hon. Alcide De Gasperi, etc.
As for publications, in addition to the university newspaper and various literary and cultural journals edited by students, the university’s professors exert a wholesome influence in philosophical and cultural circles through the quarterly Thought, and in the field of law through the Fordham Law Review. The history department was recently entrusted with overseeing the reprinting of The Catholic Encyclopedia.