First Bishop Ordained in America

On this day in 1800, Father Leonard Neale was ordained an Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Baltimore. The Bishop, John Carroll, was ordained in England, which made Neale the first Roman Catholic Bishop ordained in the United States. Born in Maryland, Neale joined the Jesuits and was ordained in 1773, just before the order was suppressed. Neale taught in collages and ministered in parishes on the continent before returning to America as a secular priest in 1783. After working in Maryland and Philadelphia, he was named President of Georgetown College in 1798. He succeeded Archbishop Carroll in 1815, but poor health plagued him until early death in 1817.