James Duggan

This article is about the bishop. For the professional wrestler, see Jim Duggan. For the Newfoundland trade union leader and Senator, see James Duggan (politician).

The Right Reverend James Duggan
Bishop-Emeritus of Chicago
Church	Catholic
Archdiocese	Chicago
Appointed	9 January 1857
Predecessor	Anthony O'Regan
Successor	Patrick Feehan
Previous post(s)	Coadjutor Bishop of Saint Louis (1857-1859) Titular Bishop of Galaba (1857-1859)
Orders
Ordination	29 May 1847 by Peter Kenrick
Consecration	3 May 1857 by Peter Kenrick
Personal details
Born	(1825-05-22)May 22, 1825 Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland
Died	March 27, 1899(1899-03-27) (aged 73) Saint Louis, Missouri

James Duggan (May 22, 1825 – March 27, 1899) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Chicago in Illinois from 1859 to 1869, officially resigning in 1880.

Duggan previously served as coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri from 1857 to 1859.

Biography

Early years

James Duggan was born on May 22, 1825, in Maynooth, County Kildare, in Ireland, a clothier's son. At the invitation of Bishop Peter Kenrick, recruiting young men to fill the need for priests in Missouri, he emigrated in 1842 to complete studies for the priesthood at St. Vincent's Seminary in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Priesthood

Duggan was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Louis by Kenrick in St. Louis on May 29, 1847.

In 1854, Kenrick appointed Duggan as vicar general of St. Louis and then temporary administrator of the Diocese of Chicago. This action came after the Vatican moved Bishop James Oliver Van de Velde to the Diocese of Natchez.

Coadjutor bishop of St. Louis

On May 1, 1857, Kenrick consecrated Duggan titular bishop of Gabala and coadjutor archbishop of St. Louis. Again he became administrator of the Diocese of Chicago when Bishop Anthony O'Regan, the third bishop of Chicago, resigned on June 25, 1858. On January 21, 1859, Duggan was appointed the fourth bishop of Chicago, aged only 34.

Bishop of Chicago

Duggan faced challenges in Chicago: the legacy of the decade-long lack of leadership in the diocese, the effects of the financial panic of 1857, and of the American Civil War. German Catholics were hostile to an Irish bishop. Irish-born priests were hostile to his stand against the Fenian Brotherhood: he denied the sacraments to anyone tied to this secret society. Some clergy felt Duggan did not do enough to support the University of St. Mary of the Lake with its seminary, the first chartered university in Illinois, at a time of crisis in enrollment and its finances.

In any event, Duggan had enjoyed a reputation, confirmed by his swift ecclesiastical promotion, for intelligence, affability, and eloquence. Yet after he returned from the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866 he began to change: moodiness, erratic behavior, signs of stress. When Duggan traveled abroad to relax and recover, several of his priests concerned for the bishop's stability took the opportunity to ask the Vatican to investigate.

Removal and institutionalization

Ten years after his installation, on April 14, 1869, the Vatican sent Duggan was removed as Chicago bishop to in a sanatorium operated by the Sisters of Charity in St. Louis. Reverend Thomas Foley, a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was named coadjutor bishop and served as Chicago's bishop in his place. Duggan resigned officially as bishop on September 10, 1880, and died at the sanatorium on March 27, 1899. At a time before accurate diagnosis and treatment of mental illness was possible, Duggan was institutionalized on the understanding that he was "hopelessly insane". Today there is no evidence with which to diagnose what exactly he suffered from.

On March 29, 2001, Duggan's remains were ceremoniously moved from Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, Illinois, to the Bishop's Mausoleum at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois where most of the bishops of Chicago are buried. The stigma of mental illness perhaps explains why this had not happened in 1912, the year the Mausoleum was completed.