McNamara's Blog
“If anyone says you love darkness, point to your colleges. Was it the love of darkness that stimulated a poor population to establish those institutions of learning? If anyone says you are disloyal to the country, point to every battle from the commencement of the country, and see if Catholics were not equal in the struggle, and as zealous to maintain the dignity and triumph of the country as those with whom they fought! Nor was it in the contest with Great Britain alone, against whom it is supposed we have a hereditary spite, but against Catholic Mexico, they fought with equal courage… And when allusion is made to their social qualities, may you not point as an answer to the fact that when pestilence and plague had spread their dark pall over your city, they were ready to go with others into the glorious works of charity and humanity; and if necessary, sacrifice their lives to mitigate pestilence and disease?”
Archbishop John Hughes, 1856
Archbishop John Hughes, 1856
John Hughes was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and came to America as a young man. He worked as a bricklayer and gardener before he entered the seminary. In 1826 he was ordained a priest. From 1838 to 1864 he led the Archdiocese of New York.
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