Sebastian Gebhard Messmer

Sebastian Gebhard Messmer (August 29, 1847 – August 4, 1930) was a Swiss-born American Catholic prelate who served as archbishop of Milwaukee from 1903 to 1930. He previously served as bishop of Green Bay (1892–1903).

Messmer is largely remembered as a political moderate. As a progressive for his time, Messmer opposed segregationist church policies based on race or language, and he was a major supporter of expanding Catholic-run welfare programs. But he also pushed back against socialism as the movement was growing in Wisconsin, and he opposed women gaining the right to vote.

Biography

Early life and education Sebastian Messmer was born in Goldach, Switzerland, the eldest of five children of Sebastian and Rosa (née Baumgartner) Messmer. His father, a farmer and innkeeper, also served in the Federal Assembly of Switzerland. His mother died when he was 10 years old. From 1861 to 1866, he studied at the College of St. George, the diocesan preparatory seminary, in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Priesthood and ministry Messmer was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Atanasio Zuber on July 23, 1871. A week later, he offered his first mass in Goldach. In addition to his academic duties, he served as one of the secretaries of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884) and as pastor of St. Peter's Parish in Newark (1885 to 1886). He also invited Abbot Bernard Pennings to establish the Norbertine Order in the United States, which led to the founding of St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin.

At this time, there was a great debate in American dioceses between Conservatives and Americanizers. The Conservatives wanted to maintain church services and parish school instruction in German and other ethnic language. The Americanizers wanted everything to be in English. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, the German immigrant population was becoming more assimilated and English was starting to become their predominant language.

As archbishop, Messmer sought to ease parishioners through the transition to English. He encouraged, but did not mandate, English-language education in the schools and bilingual church services. Messmer did mandate at least one English-language sermon each Sunday in every parish. "Messmer deliberately de-emphasized ethnic self-consciousness as part of a design to unify and mobilize Catholics for social action," states one article in the U.S. Catholic Historian. By 1920, all the parishes in the archdiocese had ceased instruction in German. In 1921, Messmer prohibited Catholic children in Milwaukee from participating in a Fourth of July pilgrim pageant. He criticized the pageant as "exclusively a glorification of the Protestant Pilgrims," but later withdrew his objections. Messmer supported ministry to African Americans and Mexican-American Catholics at a time when many American dioceses were discriminating against them.

He actively supported the American Federation of Catholic Societies. He started the Catholic Herald, the archdiocesan newspaper, in 1922.

Death and legacy Messmer died on August 4, 1930, while vacationing in Goldach at age 82.