Book review: Sons of Saint Patrick

Sons of Saint Patrick:
A History of the Archbishops of New York, from Dagger John to Timmytown

Author George Marlin & Brad Miner
Publisher Ignatius Press, 2017

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This book from Ignatius Press tells the story of the ten archbishops of New York, stretching from Archbishop John “Dagger John” Hughes – appointed in 1850 – to Cardinal Timothy Dolan in the present day. All ten men are “sons of St Patrick”, being Irish by birth like John Hughes, or else children or grandchildren of Irish immigrants thereafter. At 506 pages it is a hefty book, perhaps a bit daunting at first, but in fact makes for a surprisingly accessible, engaging and even gripping read. Reading it is made all the more pleasant by the natural and unobtrusive way in which the strong faith of the authors comes shining through in their words.

As I worked my way through Sons of St Patrick I began to realise just how ignorant I was of the contribution of Irish Catholic emigrants to American sociey. Growing up in Ireland, America was never far from one’s thoughts, with all those American aunts, uncles, cousins and eventually siblings living in the States – and I’m sure this is the experience of the vast majority of Irish people. And yet like most things that are on your doorstep, one tends not to give them much thought, and until I picked up Sons of St Patrick I have to confess I had not given much consideration to how the Irish emigrants to America helped forge the Catholic dimension of the most powerful nation on earth.

From the very early pages of Sons of Saint Patrick it is very apparent that the Irish emigrants of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were a force to be reckoned with. Their calibre is reflected in these ten prelates. This immense work of research presents the fascinating story of the heroic fortitude of the men who lead the diocese of New York since the early nineteenth century. The environment in which these ten archbishops laboured has by no means been an easy one. Since its inception as a diocese in 1808, and indeed before that, since the late seventeenth century, Catholics have had to struggle continually against the anti-Catholic prejudice of those for whom “American” meant “Protestant”. New York Catholics and their prelates had a constant fight on their hands against the misapprehensions (and sometimes plain bigotry) of the dominant Protestant ascendancy; it was a battle fought out in the newspapers, in the court of public opinion in general and in the field of education in particular. The sheer courage, and even pugnacity, of the archbishops in this environment is impressive. Famously when in 1844 Archbishop John Hughes went to see the then Mayor of New York to protest against planned demonstrations by the anti-Catholic “nativists”, the Mayor asked him whether he was afraid that some of the Catholic churches would be burned, Hughes replied: “No, sir, but I’m afraid that some of yours will be burned. We can protect our own.” It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the anti-Catholic atmosphere of mid-nineteenth century New York has been replicated in John Hughes’ native country – and perhaps we could learn a lesson or two from his fearless pugnacity in defending the rights of Catholics.

The book is divided into four sections. The first and shortest sets the scene: tracing the pre-history of the archdiocese starting in the seventeenth century with the missionary work of Isaac Jogues (who, when he arrived in what was then New Amsterdam in 1643, boasted only two other Catholics in a town of three hundred souls). The second part of the book spans a period of almost one hundred years, from the time of John Joseph Hughes in the mid nineteenth century through the lives of the four following archbishops, ending with Patrick Joseph Hayes who died in 1938. Those five archbishops established and consolidated New York as an archdiocese to be reckoned with. The third section takes us through the remainder of the twentieth century, beginning with the fascinating figure of Francis Joseph Spellman, with whom the archdiocese appears to reach the apogee of its prestige and influence, not just within the USA but worldwide. He is followed by the endearing figure of Terence James Cooke; it comes as no surprise to learn at the end of the chapter that his beatification process has begun. The section ends with another lion of the episcopacy: John Joseph O’Connor. The fourth and final section of the book is rather ominously titled: ‘The Church in Crisis’ and deals with the tenures of Edward Michael Egan and the present archbishop of New York, Timothy Michael Dolan. The crises referred to are primarily the “priest-predator crisis” but also the battles surrounding abortion, the LGBT ideology, and education. These issues are not limited to New York of course; they are worldwide in their scope, but perhaps they have taken on a special virulence in the New York diocese. Once again the archbishops of these crises have, for the most part, shown themselves to be up to the challenge. They have firmly defended the teaching of the Church and the rights of the Catholics of the diocese in the face of some ferocious opposition, and all this with a certain panache and, particularly in the case of Cardinal Dolan, a smiling optimism.

While reading about the Irish emigrant community which moulded the diocese of New York, I could not help but think of Pope Benedict’s admonition in his 2010 pastoral letter to the crisis torn Church in Ireland: “As you take up the challenges of this hour, I ask you to remember ‘the rock from which you were hewn’ (Is 51:1). Reflect upon the generous, often heroic, contributions made by past generations of Irish men and women to the Church and to humanity as a whole .…” The faith filled lives of our emigrant forebears described in Sons of St Patrick could certainly help us Irish to heed Pope Benedict’s admonition. It would make any Irish person proud to read of what has been achieved for the Church by our fellow Irishmen and women in the USA, and specifically in the archdiocese of New York.