On August 15, 1790, Reverend John Carroll...
became the first Catholic bishop in the United States of America. He was born in Upper Marlboro, Maryland in 1735 and was the brother of Daniel Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. After receiving a Jesuit education at Bohemia in Cecil County, Maryland, he studied abroad at Jesuit colleges in Europe. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1769 and remained in Europe teaching philosophy and theology. But when Pope Clement XIV dissolved the Jesuit order in 1773, he returned to Maryland, built a chapel on his mother's estate at Rock Creek, and began the life of a missionary. He refused to accept an assignment elsewhere by Father John Lewis, former Superior of the Jesuits in Maryland.
After the Revolutionary War, a series of events took place at Sacred Heart Chapel at Whitemarsh in Bowie, Maryland which led to the selection of John Carroll as bishop. On June 27, 1783, six priests, including Fr. Carroll, met at Sacred Heart Chapel to discuss how the Catholic Church in the new nation would be governed and organized. Out of this and subsequent meetings, they developed rules and regulations for the "Body of the Clergy." They also established a Board of Trustees to administer the Catholic properties, and petitioned the Vatican in Rome to appoint Father John Lewis as Superior of the American Missions. Because of Fr. Lewis' old age, and through the influence of Benjamin Franklin, the Vatican instead appointed John Carroll.
In this period after the American Revolution, Carroll and his fellow priests were concerned that the American Catholic Church would be perceived by other Americans as an agent of a foreign power--the Pope in Rome. Since the United States was a former British colony, the Pope's representative in London, the Vicar Apostolic, had direct authority over the American Catholic Church. Carroll and the other priests wanted to address this issue, so a second set of meetings was held at Sacred Heart Chapel. Out of these meetings emerged the need for a Bishop who was American and, in the spirit of the new American nation, elected in a democratic fashion by American priests--rather than appointed by the Pope. On March 12, 1788, Frs. Carroll, Molyneux, and Ashton sent a petition to the Vatican seeking permission for the North American Clergy to elect one of their own. The petition was approved and on May 18, 1789, the priests met once again at Sacred Heart where they elected John Carroll bishop with twenty-four votes. Two other candidates, Ignatius Matthews and Henry Pile, received two votes.
Carroll travelled to England where he was consecrated a bishop on August 15, 1790 at Lulworth Castle, England--home of his good friend Thomas Weld. Bishop Carroll returned to Baltimore on December 7, 1790 where he took up residence and preached his first sermon in St. Peter's church. Baltimore was chosen to be the seat of the Catholic Church in America because
...this town situate in Maryland which province the greater part of the priests and of the faithful inhabit, appeared the most conveniently placed for intercourse with the other States, and because from this province Catholic religion and faith had been propagated into the others.A Short Account of the Establishment of the New See of Baltimore in Maryland, ...
p. 14, printed 1790.
The Capital and the Bay, ca. 1600-1925
