BORGESS, CASPAR HENRY

Bishop; b. Addrup, Oldenburg, Germany, Aug. 1, 1826; d. Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 3, 1890. At the age of 12, Borgess immigrated to the United States with his parents; he entered St. Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio and was ordained on Dec. 8, 1845. After 11 years as pastor of Holy Cross parish in Columbus, Ohio and a year at Immaculate Conception parish in Cincinnati, he was appointed chancellor of that archdiocese (1860). On Feb. 14, 1870, Pius IX named him coadjutor and administrator of detroit, Michigan, a diocese left vacant by the departure for Germany of Frederic Résé, its first bishop. Borgess was consecrated titular bishop of Calydon on April 24 in the Cincinnati cathedral, and he arrived in Detroit on May 8, 1870; he succeeded to the see at Résé's death the following year.

During his administration, Borgess worked to develop an indigenous clergy, to reduce nationalistic tensions among immigrant groups, and to extend Catholic education, especially by inviting the Jesuits (1877) to establish what later became the University of Detroit and to improve the administrative structure of the diocese. In 1881, he petitioned the Holy See for a division of his see; a year later the Diocese of Grand Rapids was established, reducing Detroit to the 29 counties of southern Michigan. Ill health, aggravated by several unpleasant experiences with recalcitrant priests, caused Borgess to resign on April 16, 1887, three years before his death. A hospital and nursing school in Kalamazoo were named in his honor.

[f. x. canfield]