June 21: Bishop Hughes' School

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is June 21st, and our story is Bishop Hughes School. In early 19th century Ireland, English penal laws barred Catholics from the country's schools. An uneducated populace, the law's authors reasoned, could never pose a threat to the ruling class. In early 19th century America, a similar line of thinking held sway, with Protestant America undermining the education of Catholics at every turn. In some places, they prohibited Catholics from building schools.

In others, the public schools served as the arm of Protestant congregations, with Protestant doctrine preached in the classroom and anti-Catholic propaganda incorporated into the curriculum. Such was the situation in 1838 New York, when the Irish-born priest John Hughes became the sea's cogitor bishop.

Hughes had not forgotten anything about his boyhood in Ireland and the laws banning Catholics from schools. He knew the city's poor, immigrant Catholics could never succeed without an education, and he also knew he couldn't depend upon the public schools to provide that education. We shall have to build the schoolhouse first, and the church afterwards, he said.

To that end, Hughes opened more than a hundred Catholic schools in New York during his tenure. Included among those schools was the first Catholic institution of higher education in the Northeast, St. John's College. Within weeks of his consecration, Hughes began searching for a suitable location to build a college and seminary. He found one a year later, purchasing Rose Hill Manor in 1839, and immediately beginning construction. It took another two years before classes could commence, but on June 21, 1841, St. John's College opened its doors, with a future cardinal, Father John McCloskey, at its head.

Although financial and faculty difficulties immediately followed, Hughes solved those problems in 1846 by transferring the teaching and administrative duties to the Society of Jesus. A year later, confident at last in the school's future, Hughes wrote, It was a daring and dangerous undertaking, but now it is successfully provided for.

The Jesuits have provided for Bishop Hughes' school ever since. Today, however, it goes by another name, Fordham University. Education, when approached with vision and integrity, transforms individuals and society alike, bridging cultural gaps and preparing citizens for moral and civic responsibilities.

Hughes's legacy reminds us that investing in learning is an investment in hope, justice, and enduring societal growth. Support a local school, mentor a student, or advocate for equitable education access this week. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, June 22nd, for another story of faith and courage in America.