A New Century and New Ventures

Chapter 4 A New Century and New Ventures he men who would lead the province withdraw the Society from any parish that did not in the first decades of the 20th century have either a college or at least the prospects of a would bring to their post a variety of college attached to it. While Fr. McKinnon was not experiences. With the resignation of Fr. anxious for the Society to lose the parish where so Purbrick 47-year-old Fr. Thomas Gannon, much effort had just been expended to build the TSJ, was appointed as his successor. Gannon had been new church, more importantly, he recognized that rector-president of St. John’s College (Fordham) for there was a growing need for a school that would four years and served several stints as socius to the cater to the educational and religious needs of the provincial. He would later serve as tertian instructor sons of wealthy Catholics in New York City.36 There and then have the distinction of being the first were a number of private day schools in Manhattan American Assistant to the Superior General when that catered to the children of the wealthy and it the United States was separated from the English was to these that the growing number of well-to-do Assistancy in 1915. He would be succeeded in the Catholics had often turned to educate their sons. office by Fr. Joseph Hanselman, SJ. Born in 1856 Rightly fearing - at a time when prejudice against and entering the Society in 1878, Fr. Hanselman Catholics was not unknown - that the atmosphere had spent most of his priestly life at the College in these schools was not conducive to the spiritual of the Holy Cross, first as prefect of discipline and development of Catholic young men, Fr. McKinnon eventually as rector. He was appointed provincial believed that the time had come to start a school. in 1906 and would later succeed Fr. Gannon as After the appropriate approvals from religious American Assistant in Rome. His successor, Fr. superiors and the archbishop had been received, Anthony Maas, SJ, was of a different sort. Born in ground was broken for Loyola School in February, 1857 and entering the Society at the age of 19, he 1899, on land which had been purchased by the had spent almost his entire priestly career before Society in 1880 at the corner of 83rd Street and Park his appointment as provincial in 1912 at Woodstock Avenue. College, first as professor of scripture and then as rector. His successor, Fr. Joseph Rockwell, SJ, had Classes began in October, 1900, but as the building been more mobile. He had taught at both Xavier was not yet complete, the parlor in the rectory and Boston College, where he also served as prefect was used for instruction. By December, 1900, the of studies, rector at Xavier and then at Brooklyn building was ready to receive the students and it College; he came to the office of provincial in 1918 was formally dedicated by Archbishop Michael at the age of 55, having been a Jesuit for 37 years. Corrigan on February 11, 1901. The structure made a very good impression on visitors. The New York The first years of the new century witnessed the Herald noted: “Altogether the building represents creation of two new endeavors in New York by the the highest degree of architectural excellence as Society. In February, 1901, the new Loyola School applied to schools.”37 The school began small, with was dedicated by the archbishop of New York and, only 18 students enrolled in its first year, but this was on property that had been purchased for $22,500 in intentional. With tuition pegged at $300 per year, the Hyde Park, N.Y., about 75 miles north of New York school was meant for a limited audience. As an early City, the new novitiate of Saint Andrew-on-Hudson brochure described it, the purpose of Loyola was “to received the novices, juniors and tertians from offer to Catholic boys of well-to-do families all the Frederick. advantages of the select, private day schools of New York; the Catholic boy should have training in his Loyola School was the dream of Fr. Neil religion, and should have the opportunity of enjoying McKinnon, SJ, who had been pastor of St. the atmosphere of a Catholic school; this quite Ignatius Church on Park Avenue and superior of naturally, cannot be had except in a school informed the community since July, 1893. During the early and filled with the Catholic spirit.”38 Initially the years of his pastorate the magnificent new Church school had a junior division comprising what would of St. Ignatius had been dedicated, but a problem now be the sixth through eighth grades of grammar was looming on the horizon. As with the parish of school, and a senior division comprising the four St. Joseph in Troy, there was pressure building to years of high school. As the latter fulfilled what for A New Century and New Ventures 15 the Society constituted a “college,” St. Ignatius parish novitiate and thus could then become the beneficiary now had its required college attached. of the privileges attached to this chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of the Way. Mr. P. J. Kenedy, a noted As Loyola School was taking its first few steps publisher, responded, and he eventually attached as an educational institution, on January 15, 1903, to this chapel, Della Strada, a mortuary where he 123 Jesuits arrived at their new home along the and his family could be buried. St. Andrews was to Hudson, some 3 miles north of Poughkeepsie.39 play a significant role in the formation of members The property, the former Stuyvesant estate, had of the province for much of the 20th century. The been purchased for $23,500 in July, 1899, by Fr. number of novices who would receive their initial Provincial Purbrick. In demolishing the old mansion, training in the Society at St. Andrews in its life as some 750,000 bricks were saved which were used in a novitiate (the novices moved to Syracuse on June the construction of the new building. The novitiate 13, 1969) was truly impressive. An average of about had been at Frederick, Md. since 1833, so, not 41 scholastic novices and 5 brother novices entered surprisingly, some found the move to be difficult, at Poughkeepsie each year. (It should be noted that but the trip from Frederick proved to be uneventful. while, for the first number of years, St. Andrews Superiors had even taken care that there would be no was the only novitiate in the province, in later years mixing of grades; the novices, juniors, and tertians there were times when a second novitiate existed— all occupied separate railway cars on the journey. Fr. at Yonkers (1917 -1923), Shadowbrook (1923-26), John O’Rourke, SJ, who had been novice master at Wernersville (1930-42), and Plattsburgh (1955-59), Frederick since 1890, was the first rector and novice the last three of which would become the single master in the new novitiate. novitiates of other provinces as the Maryland-New York and later the New York Province was divided.) Thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Thomas F. Ryan The tertianship was to remain at St. Andrews until a magnificent chapel was soon added to the building 1939, when it was moved to Auriesville. During the and was dedicated by New York Archbishop John 36 years the tertianship was in Poughkeepsie, there Farley in 1908.40 An additional chapel was located averaged 28 tertians per year in “third probation.” For on the grounds of St. Andrews, this one right by the a brief time, as well, in the early 1920s St. Andrews entrance to the property.41 It was built at his own was home to a number of first-year philosophers. expense by the contractor, James D. Murphy, who While the juniors were busy with their studies, had constructed the main building, with the hope that the novices at St. Andrews received their spiritual a benefactor would come along who would make formation not only in the novitiate itself but also a sizeable contribution to the building fund for the through outside experiments or “trials.” As early as The province novitiate, St. Andrew-on-Hudson. 16 History of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus 1919, novices were helping the Little Sisters of the the great Jesuit schools in Europe. It would have a Poor in the Bronx (and living at the newly established graduate school, professional schools, publications, novitiate in Yonkers) and later living at Fordham. and, of course, a scholasticate. In the Superior This “trial” was discontinued in 1924. For a few General’s mind, New York City was the logical years, an attempt was made to institute a pilgrimage location for such a school, and so he ordered the for the novices, and eventually an experiment was move of Woodstock College to the Bronx.42 Cardinal established at Auriesville. The most long-lasting of James Gibbons did not object to the move and these major experiments was the one associated with Archbishop Farley, Corrigan’s successor in New Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. York, and a Fordham alumnus, favored it as well. The major objection to the plan seems to have come from St. Andrew-on-Hudson was not only a house of Fordham itself, where there was a concern about the formation. Several of the priests attached to the impact that the addition of a couple of hundred clerics community were involved in apostolic work in the would have on the university.

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