Alexander Joseph McGavick (August 21, 1863 – August 25, 1948) was an American prelate of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He served as Bishop of La Crosse from 1921 until his death in 1948.

Biography

Early life and ministry

McGavick was born in Fox Lake,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, to James and Catherine (née Watt) McGavick. His parents were Irish immigrants who came to the United States from

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

in 1849. He received his early education in local public schools, and entered

St. Viator College St. Viator College was a Catholic liberal arts college in Bourbonnais, Illinois. It is no longer in operation. Today, the site is home to Olivet Nazarene University. History St. Viator's grew out of the original Bourbonnais, Illinois, Bourbonna ...

Bourbonnais, Illinois Bourbonnais ( ) is a village in Kankakee County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,164 at the 2020 census. History The village is named for François Bourbonnais Sr., a fur trapper, hunter and agent of the American Fur Company, who ...

, in 1879, earning his bachelor's (1884) and master's degrees (1887). McGavick was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Chicago on June 11, 1887 by Archbishop

Patrick Feehan Patrick Augustine Feehan (August 28, 1829 – July 12, 1902), was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first archbishop of the newly elevated Archdiocese of Chicago in Illinois between 1880 and his death ...

. His first assignment was as assistant pastor under Rev. Edward Joseph Dunne at All Saints Parish in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. On account of ill health, he went to

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

in 1889 in the hope that a change of climate would benefit him. He served as an assistant to Bishop Nicholas Matz at the cathedral in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

for a year and a half before returning to Chicago and resuming his duties at All Saints. After Reverend Thaddeus J. Butler was appointed

Bishop of Concordia The Roman Catholic Diocese of Concordia-Pordenone ( la, Dioecesis Concordiensis-Portus Naonis) is situated in northeastern Italy, at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea, between Venice and Udine. Since 1818, Concordia Veneta, has been a suffrag ...

in 1897, McGavick succeeded him as pastor of St. John's Parish in the Near South Side of Chicago. He earned a respected reputation during his first year at St. John's after paying off the parish's debts, renovating the church building, and establishing a Sunday school for Italian children.

Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago

On December 12, 1898, McGavick was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago and

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of ''

Marcopolis Marcopolis was a city in the late Roman province of Osrhoene. It is described at the beginning of the 7th century by the geographer George of Cyprus. History Siméon Vailhé, writing at the beginning of the 20th century, says that the native nam ...

'' by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

. He received his episcopal consecration on May 1, 1899 from Archbishop Feehan, with Bishop Dunne (under whom he served at All Saints) and Bishop Maurice Burke serving as co-consecrators, at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. McGavick's mother died a few days after his consecration and the shock from this caused his health to suffer. In June 1899, just a month after becoming a bishop, he was given a leave of absence and left for Europe under the advice of his physicians. After a few months abroad, he returned to the United States and stayed at

Battle Creek Sanitarium The Battle Creek Sanitarium was a world-renowned health resort in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. It started in 1866 on health principles advocated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and from 1876 to 1943 was managed by Dr. John ...

in Battle Creek, Michigan, for a time before finally returning to Chicago in December 1899. McGavick subsequently submitted his resignation as bishop to the Vatican in 1900, but it was not accepted. That same year, in addition to his duties as an auxiliary bishop, he was appointed pastor of Holy Angels Parish in Chicago. He became known as the "Father of the Yards" for his charitable work among the poor in the

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

areas around the

Union Stock Yards The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a central ...

. One of his assistants at Holy Angels was Father William Richard Griffin, who would again serve with McGavick as auxiliary bishop of La Crosse (1935–1944). In 1915, Archbishop

George Mundelein George William Mundelein (July 2, 1872 – October 2, 1939) was an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Chicago from 1915 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1924. Early life and ministry ...

appointed McGavick to be spiritual director of the

Holy Name Society The Society of the Holy Name, formally known as the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of God and Jesus, is a Roman Catholic confraternity of the laity and is one of several which are under the care of the Dominican Order. It is open to all C ...

in the archdiocese. He organized Holy Name societies in almost every parish over the next six years, growing the number of branches from 33 to 200. As part of this work, he also established many branches of the Big Brother program in the archdiocese to help juvenile delinquents. McGavick was an outspoken supporter of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

and condemned Chicago Alderman

Milton J. Foreman Milton J. Foreman (1863–1935) was a Lieutenant General, who served as Commander in Chief of the Illinois National Guard. Prior to that, he led the 33rd Division, Illinois National Guard. Foreman attended the Paris Caucuses in 1919 of the Amer ...

for his support of saloons.

Bishop of La Crosse

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

appointed McGavick to succeed the late James Schwebach as the fourth Bishop of La Crosse,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, on November 21, 1921. By that time, McGavick was regarded as "the best pulpit orator of the Roman Catholic clergy" in Chicago. He was installed at the

Cathedral of Saint Joseph the Workman The Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman is the mother church of the Diocese of La Crosse. The cathedral, designed by architect Edward J. Schulte, was completed in 1962. Built of limestone, it has a tall clock tower which rises above the surroundin ...

in La Crosse on March 21, 1922. During McGavick's tenure as Bishop of La Crosse, the diocese's Catholic population grew from 116,000 to 140,000. When he first arrived, there were 156 parishes, 78 mission churches, 90 parochial schools, and 189 secular priests with 51 religious. By his first 20 years, he had established more than 20 parishes and 41 schools. One of his proudest accomplishments was founding Aquinas High School in La Crosse in 1928, a regional coeducational school to which several parishes sent their students. In 1937 McGavick celebrated the golden jubilee of his ordination as a priest. That same year, Pius XI named him an

assistant to the papal throne The Bishops-Assistant at the Pontifical Throne were ecclesiastical titles in the Roman Catholic Church. It designated prelates belonging to the Papal Chapel, who stood near the throne of the Pope at solemn functions. They ranked immediately below ...

. After his auxiliary, Bishop Griffin, died in 1944, McGavick received Bishop

John Treacy John Treacy (born 4 June 1957 in Villierstown, County Waterford) is an Irish Olympian and former athlete, now a sporting administrator. Athletic career Treacy attended St Anne's Post-Primary School in Cappoquin, County Waterford, Ireland ...

as his

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...

with right of succession in 1945.

Death and legacy

Alexander McGavick died at La Crosse on August 25, 1948, at age 85. At the time of his death, he was the oldest Catholic bishop in the United States. In an editorial following his death, the ''

La Crosse Tribune The ''La Crosse Tribune'' is a daily newspaper published in La Crosse, Wisconsin, covering the tri-state area of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota in the United States. The paper was first founded in 1904, following a media scandal in which existin ...

'' wrote,

"For 24 years Bishop McGavick ably administered affairs of the diocese, he being unobtrusive, avoiding personal publicity, being ever occupied with diocese affairs. He pressed toward his objectives, adjusting difficulties along the path with success accomplished by tact and discretion."

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGavick, Alexander Joseph 1863 births 1948 deaths Clergy from Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago Roman Catholic bishops of La Crosse American Roman Catholic clergy of Irish descent 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States People from Fox Lake, Illinois Religious leaders from Illinois Catholics from Illinois