Thomas Joseph Shahan

Thomas Joseph Shahan (September 11, 1857 – March 9, 1932) was an American Catholic prelate who served as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Baltimore from 1914 to 1932. He also served as the fourth rector of the Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., and was instrumental in the creation of the National Catholic War Council in 1917 and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.thumb

Early life and education Thomas Shahan was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on September 11, 1857, He was an advocate for Irish independence in language, culture, and politics.

After attending public school in Millbury, Massachusetts, Shahan decided to study for the priesthood. He entered the Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Montreal, Quebec, in 1872. He was then sent to Rome in 1878 to reside at the Pontifical North American College during his studies there. In 1882, Shahan obtained a Doctor of Divinity decree.

Priesthood

Ordination Shahan was ordained a priest on June 3, 1882, in Rome by Cardinal Raffaele Monaco La Valletta for the Archdiocese of Hartford. After his ordination, the archdiocese assigned Shahan as a curate at St. John the Baptist Parish in New Haven, Connecticut. Bishop Lawrence McMahon later appointed Shahan as his secretary and then as chancellor of the diocese.

Shahan worked as an editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1913

Shahan was a strong proponent of Irish independence, frequently writing about British atrocities in Ireland. Shahan also served as president of the Catholic Educational Association from 1909 to 1914. In 1910, Shahan first proposed the idea of a shrine to the Virgin Mary in Washington D.C. On a trip to Rome in 1913, he proposed the idea to Pope Pius X, who readily agreed.

On September 25, 1910, Shahan invited representatives of several national Catholic service agencies to meet at the CUA. During that meeting, they formed the National Conference of Catholic Charities (NCCC) to support and coordinate their charitable efforts. He served as the first NCCC president from 1910 to 1914.

Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore Tomb of Bishop Shahan, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. (2013)

On July 24, 1914, Pius X appointed Shahan as an auxiliary bishop of Baltimore and titular bishop of Germanicopolis. He was consecrated on November 15, 1914, at the Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. Cardinal James Gibbons was principal consecrator. Delayed by World War I, construction on the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception began in Washington in 1920. The crypt level of the shrine was completed in 1931. To this day, he remains the only person interred at the Basilica.

Honors 1923: Honorary doctorate – The Catholic University of Louvain, Leuven, Belgium 1926: Fellow – Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1928: Honorary doctorate – Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Published works

As author The Blessed Virgin in the Catacombs (1892) The Civil Law of Rome Catholic University of America Press (1896) Giovanni Batista de Rossi (1900) The Beginnings of Christianity (1903) The Middle Ages (1904) The House of God and Other Addresses and Studies (1905) St. Patrick in History (1905) The Catholic University of America (1889-1916) (Paulist Press) (1916) "The Cause of Ireland", The Catholic University Bulletin, December 1920.

As translator Otto Bardenhewer, Patrology: The Lives and Works of the Fathers of the Church; translated from the second edition by Thomas J. Shahan. Freiburg im Breisgau and St. Louis, Missouri: B. Herder, 1908.