Eyewitness: 1921 -- Boy who survived flood grows up to be bishop
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Bishop Hugh Boyle
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Catholics lined the streets of East Liberty to greet Cardinal Dennis Dougherty when he arrived in Pittsburgh to preside at the ordination of a local priest as the region's next bishop.
"The crowds ... banked every foot of ground around the East Liberty [railroad] station ... and extended for a full mile in solid ranks along the sidewalks on the line of the procession," according to a story in The Gazette Times on June 29, 1921.
Dougherty, who headed the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, had come to town to ordain as bishop the Rev. Hugh C. Boyle, the pastor of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Homestead.
The Gazette Times coverage included a front-page story on the cardinal's arrival and an accompanying formal portrait of the churchman.
Pittsburgh priests had sent a letter, composed in Latin and inscribed on white vellum, or sheepskin, thanking Pope Benedict XV for selecting a local priest to head the diocese following the retirement of Bishop J.F. Regis Canevin.
"We have known him for many years, in varied careers, and we can give testimony to his learning, his zeal and his ability," they wrote, according to an English translation printed in the newspaper.
The next day's paper had a package of stories on Bishop Boyle's ordination in Oakland's St. Paul's Cathedral to become the sixth head of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The new bishop, 47, would oversee a flock of more than 500,000 Catholics.
"The splendor of the scene in the cathedral, the multitude of priests and people, the devotion of the throng during the impressive moments of the pontifical mass and the conferring of the symbolic gifts upon the young new bishop by his older predecessor, the Most Rev. J.F. Regis Canevin ... these conveyed to all present the conviction ... that Christianity is today a live and active force in the hearts of mankind," the anonymous reporter wrote on June 30.
First Published January 9, 2011 12:00 am
