Lawrence Scanlan

Lawrence Scanlan (September 28, 1843 – May 10, 1915) was an Irish-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. A missionary and pioneer bishop, he served as the first bishop of Salt Lake in Utah from 1891 until his death in 1915.

Early life Scanlan was born on September 28, 1843, in Ballytarsna, County Tipperary, near Cashel in Ireland to Patrick and Catherine (née Ryan) Scanlan. He received his early education at a private school in Cashel and at St. Patrick's College in Thurles in Tipperary.

In 1863, Scanlan entered All Hallows College in Dublin, which had been founded 20 years earlier to train missionaries for English-speaking countries. He studied for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Priesthood Scanlan was ordained to the priesthood in Dublin on June 28, 1868, by Bishop John Francis Whelan. Following his ordination, Scanlan returned home and celebrated his first mass at the parish church in Moyne.

The archdiocese first assigned Scanlan as an assistant pastor at St. Patrick's Parish in San Francisco. He arrived at Salt Lake City, Utah in August 1873. In 1875, he invited the Sisters of the Holy Cross to Utah, where they founded St. Mary's Academy and Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City. He turned the college's management over to the Marist Fathers in 1889.. In 1885, the Deseret News praised Scanlan for refusing to sign a petition to US President Grover Cleveland that called for restrictions on the LDS Church.

While Scanlan opposed polygamy, a tenet of the LDS Church, Scanlan refrained from being outspoken about his opposition. He told the Irish theologian Walter McDonald that polygamy was "not a whit worse—but better, if anything" than the private lives of some of its critics.

By 1886, Catholicism had grown substantially in Utah. Archbishop Patrick William Riordan petitioned the Vatican to erect an apostolic vicariate in the territory. In 1896, Utah achieved statehood. Construction of the new cathedral began in 1900. It was finished in 1909, with Cardinal James Gibbons dedicating the new Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene on August 15, 1909.

Later life and death By 1912, Scanlan was suffering from rheumatism, spending an increasing amount of time at a sanitarium in Arizona, while his vicar general was nearly blind. Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco received a report from Giovanni Bonzano, the U.S. apostolic delegate, that said the Diocese of Salt Lake had fallen into decline.