Michael Joseph Ready (April 9, 1893 – May 2, 1957) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

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 the Diocese of Columbus in Ohio from 1944 until his death.

Biography

Early life

The second youngest of 14 children, Michael Ready was born on April 9, 1893, in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, to Michael T. and Mary A. (née Ellis) Ready. His parents were Irish

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

who moved to the United States in the 1880s. In 1900, he and his family moved to

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, and later to Barberton, Ohio. Ready studied at

St. Vincent Seminary Saint Vincent Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Father Boniface Wimmer in 1846, who came from Saint Michael's Abbey in Metten, Bavaria, to establish Saint Vincent Archabbey as the first Benedictine ...

in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, at St. Bernard Seminary in Rochester, New York, and at St. Mary Seminary in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Priesthood

Ready was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

to the priesthood for the

Diocese of Cleveland The Diocese of Cleveland ( la, Dioecesis Clevelandensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. Pope Pius IX erected the diocese April 23, 1847, in te ...

by Bishop John Farrelly on September 14, 1918. He then served as an

assistant pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

, teacher, and director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the diocese. In 1931, he was named Assistant

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of the

National Catholic Welfare Conference The National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC) was the annual meeting of the American Catholic hierarchy and its standing secretariat; it was established in 1919 as the successor to the emergency organization, the National Catholic War Council. It co ...

, becoming its general secretary in 1936. He was raised to the rank of

monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

in 1934. In 1939, Ready joined Bishops John Gannon and James Griffin in a visit to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

to confer with Archbishop Luis Martínez. They were discussing the founding of a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

in Las Vegas, New Mexico, to supply priests for the Mexican Church, since seminaries were at that time illegal in that country. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

in the late 1930s, Ready denounced the Spanish government for its anti-clerical polices. Ready gave the benediction at the 1941 inauguration of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

. Later that year, he met with Roosevelt after the latter made controversial remarks regarding the status of religious freedom in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. In 1942, Ready declared that "the liberty and institutions" of the United States were threatened by the same "rampant

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

military forces which harass the Church and all that the Church has built," in an implicit reference to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In 1944, Reverend Stanislaus Orlemanski returned to the United States from a visit to the Soviet Uniton to meet Premier

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

, who signed his written support for religious freedom. Ready described the priest's trip as "a political burlesque...staged and directed by capable Soviet agents," saying, "What we need from Stalin is his declaration of full religious freedom in Russia, not his signature." Ready also opposed military

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

in the United States, favoring volunteer recruiting

Bishop of Columbus

On November 11, 1944, Ready was appointed the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Columbus by

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

. He received his episcopal consecration on December 14, 1944, from Archbishop Amleto Cicognani, with Archbishop John McNicholas and Bishop Edward Hoban serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

, at St. Matthew Cathedral in Washington, D.C. He was formally installed at St. Joseph's Cathedral on January 4, 1945. One of Ready's first tasks was overseeing the erection of the

Diocese of Steubenville The Diocese of Steubenville ( la, Dioecesis Steubenvicensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church covering thirteen counties in southeastern Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the Un ...

from the eastern and southeastern portions of the Diocese of Columbus, as well as the consolidation of portions of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati into Columbus. He established the Catholic Welfare Bureau and appointed a director of charities for the diocese. Ready was a critic of the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

Board of Trustees decision in 1951 that all campus speakers had to be cleared by University President Howard L. Bevis in advance. During his tenure, Ready also served as chair of the Bishops' Committee on Motion Pictures; he reported that

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

produced more films with "wholesome and moral qualities" in 1952. Ready also organized 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 ...

, a Parent-Teacher Organization, the Council of Catholic Women, the Catholic Youth Council, and the

St. Vincent de Paul Society The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP or SVdP or SSVP) is an international voluntary organization in the Catholic Church, founded in 1833 for the sanctification of its members by personal service of the poor. Innumerable Catholic parishes have ...

in the diocese. He created 18 new

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

and oversaw the construction of nine elementary and five high schools. Ready founded two nursing homes, the diocesan Child Guidance Center, and the Catholic Student Center at Ohio State University. He worked with his fellow Ohio bishops to start the Ohio Catholic Welfare Conference. Ready died in Columbus from a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

on May 2, 1957, at age 64. He was buried at St. Joseph Cemetery in

Lockbourne, Ohio Lockbourne is a village in Franklin County and Pickaway County, Ohio, United States. The population was 236 at the 2020 census. Lockbourne is located near Rickenbacker International Airport, and had initially provided its original name of Lockbou ...

. Bishop Ready High School in Columbus is named in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ready, Michael Joseph 1893 births 1957 deaths Saint Vincent College alumni St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry alumni Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology alumni Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Religious leaders from New Haven, Connecticut Roman Catholic bishops of Columbus 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States American people of Irish descent People from Mansfield, Ohio People from Barberton, Ohio Catholics from Connecticut