Gibbons, James Cardinal

Gibbons, James Cardinal (1834–1921), Catholic prelate.Born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Ireland, Gibbons studied at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, where he was ordained a priest in 1861. Named vicar apostolic of North Carolina and consecrated a bishop in 1868, he attended the First Vatican Council in 1869–1870. In 1872, while retaining jurisdiction over North Carolina, he became bishop of Richmond, Virginia. Five years later, he was named coadjutor archbishop of Baltimore and immediately became archbishop at the death of his predecessor, James Roosevelt Bailey. In 1884, he presided over the Third Plenary Council, some of whose legislation continues to govern the U.S. Roman Catholic church. In 1886, he was named the nation's second cardinal—the first being John McCloskey (1810–1885), Archbishop of New York.

In Rome in 1887, he defended the Knights of Labor, a position that began the close identification between the Catholic church and organized labor, and gave an address praising American religious liberty. As the nation's only cardinal until 1911, he became the most prominent American bishop. In the 1890s, when the bishops divided over such issues as the Americanization of immigrants, the question of parochial schools, and the general attempt to accommodate the church to American society led by Archbishop John Ireland (1838–1918) of St. Paul, Minnesota, Gibbons supported Ireland's progressive proposals that culminated in the “Americanism” movement condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1899. Since his archdiocese included Washington, D.C., Gibbons was also chancellor of the Catholic University of America, founded in 1889, and acted as the principal Catholic spokesman to U.S. presidents, with some of whom, notably Theodore Roosevelt, he was on close terms. Near the end of his life, in 1919, he presided over the formation of the National Catholic Welfare Council.
See also Americanization Movement; Irish Americans; Roman Catholicisim].

Bibliography

John Tracy Ellis , The Life of James Cardinal Gibbons: Archbishop of Baltimore, 1834–1921, 2 vols., 1952.

Gerald P. Fogarty, S.J.