John T. McNicholas

John Timothy McNicholas, O.P. (December 15, 1877 – April 22, 1950) was an Irish-born American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Cincinnati from 1925 to 1950. He previously served as Bishop of Duluth from 1918 to 1925. McNicholas was a member of the Dominican Order.

Biography

Early life and education Timothy McNicholas was born in Kiltimagh, County Mayo, the youngest of eight children of Patrick J. and Mary (née Mullany) McNicholas. In 1881, he and his family emigrated to the United States, where they settled in Chester, Pennsylvania. He received his early education at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Chester, and then attended St. Joseph's Preparatory College in Philadelphia.

In 1894, at age 17, McNicholas entered the Order of Friars Preachers (more commonly known as the Dominicans) at St. Rose Priory in Springfield, Kentucky. He continued his studies at St. Joseph Priory in Somerset, Ohio.

Priesthood McNicholas was ordained to the priesthood at St. Joseph Priory by Bishop Henry K. Moeller on October 10, 1901. Following his ordination, the Dominicans sent McNicholas to Rome to study at their studium at the Basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva. He obtained a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree from there in 1904.

In 1909, McNicholas was appointed the national director of the Holy Name Society, headquartered in New York City. However, Chartrand rejected his appointment. Smith lost the election to US Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover.

After the conversion of 70 African-Americans in the archdiocese to Catholicism, McNicholas said,"I earnestly ask all our colored citizens to consider the position of the Catholic Church, to study her teachings, to realize that her ceremonials, her processions, her music, are full of a profound meaning which, if understood, could not fail to stir the deepest emotion of the colored race." During his tenure as archbishop, McNicholas raised the level of Catholic education at all levels throughout the archdiocese and the country. He served as president-general of the National Catholic Education Association (1946–1950) and national chairman of the Catholic Student Mission Crusade. He held a 13-year membership on the Episcopal Committee for Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.

Death and legacy On April 22, 1950, at age 72, John McNicholas died from a heart attack at his residence in the College Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati. Archbishop McNicholas High School in Cincinnati was named in his honor.

Viewpoints

Denunciation of Nazism In 1938, McNicholas condemned the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany and elsewhere, declaring that the German treatment of Jews "deserves the condemnation of all right-thinking men" and was "irrational and inhuman."

Ecumenism In 1931, McNicholas joined clergymen of various faiths in participating "The Church in the Air", a CBS radio program.

Media morality In response to Archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani's call for a movement to counteract the influence of "salacious cinema", The organization, which claimed at its high point a membership of 22,000,000, sought to influence decency standards in filmmaking and boycott films that it deemed offensive to Catholic teaching.

Social justice During the Great Depression of the 1930s, McNicholas advocated "conscription of excess wealth" as "wholly in harmony with the principles of Christian social justice" and named extreme concentration of wealth as one of the "crimes of the country". He also said the state could not place on charity the full burden of caring for the unemployed.