Background
Dougherty was born on August 16, 1865 in Ashland, Pennsylvania, the sixth of ten children of Patrick and Bridget Henry Dougherty, Irish immigrants who had settled in the hard-coal regions of eastern Pennsylvania.
(In Two Volumes. Formal Judicial Procedure; Volume 2, Info...)
In Two Volumes. Formal Judicial Procedure; Volume 2, Informal Procedure.
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Dougherty was born on August 16, 1865 in Ashland, Pennsylvania, the sixth of ten children of Patrick and Bridget Henry Dougherty, Irish immigrants who had settled in the hard-coal regions of eastern Pennsylvania.
Because there were no nearby parochial schools, Dougherty attended the public schools of Ashland and Girardville, Pennsylvania. Although he was an excellent pupil, he met with some bigotry because of his religion and Irish background. This experience might have contributed to his later determination as archbishop of Philadelphia to establish a parochial school in every parish that could possibly support one.
With the assistance of his pastor, Reverend Michael Sheridan, he studied for two years at Sainte-Marie College in Montreal, Canada, where he learned to speak French. He then transferred to St. Charles Seminary in Overbrook, Pennsylvania, and in 1885 was sent to the North American College in Rome to continue his studies for the priesthood. Under most unusual circumstances Dougherty was awarded the doctorate of theology by Pope Leo XIII for excelling in a formal scholastic discussion, which the pope had attended.
At the age of fourteen Dougherty passed the examinations for admission to the diocesan seminary, but was barred because of his youth. On May 31, 1890, Dougherty was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Lucido Parocchi in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. Upon his return to Philadelphia Dougherty taught dogmatic theology at Saint Charles Seminary and was comptroller of the seminary as well as a synodal examiner for the archdiocese of Philadelphia. In later life whenever Dougherty drove past the Philadelphia navy yard he would point at Admiral George Dewey's flagship and say, "There is the reason I became a bishop, " since shortly after the transfer of the Philippine Islands from Spain to the United States at the end of the Spanish-American War, Pope Leo XIII named Dougherty to the see of Nueva Segovia. He was consecrated by his former professor Cardinal Francesco Satolli in the Church of Saints John and Paul in Rome on June 14, 1903.
In October of the same year, when Dougherty arrived in the Philippines with five diocesan-priest volunteers from Philadelphia to assume the leadership of his war-torn, demoralized diocese, he inaugurated the first major missionary effort of American diocesan priests beyond the boundaries of the United States. He found that the Nueva Segovia diocese had 997, 629 Catholics and only 171 parish priests; through fund-raising tours in the United States he was able to restore the cathedral and many other churches and to refurbish the diocesan seminary, where American troops had been quartered during the recent war. Dougherty also dealt successfully with a schism, since called Aglipayanism, started by Reverend Gregorio Aglipay, who had apostatized and founded his own church in the diocese, aided by a group of other native priests who were disgruntled by the Holy See's refusal to honor their petition for a native bishop. These priests had seized churches, rectories, convents, and monasteries, occasioning a precedent-making case in American legal history. American civil authorities in the Philippines feared further antagonizing the Filipinos and acquiesced to the Aglipayan aggression with respect to church property. They did, however, in answer to Dougherty's request regarding those properties, advise that as a test case he should take legal action against Aglipay to regain them. Dougherty refused, declaring that Aglipay had the burden of proving his claims to the valuable possessions. The litigation dragged on for seven years until finally the courts decided against Aglipay and returned all the properties to the Roman Catholic Church. The decision set a precedent in American law preventing schismatics from appropriating the property of an original congregation. More immediately, it impeded the advance of Aglipayanism and enhanced Dougherty's reputation in Rome and in the United States. Dougherty, as a competent theologian, also played a major role in the 1907 provincial council of Manila, which helped to stabilize the Catholic Church in the Philippines during the difficult postwar transition of civil government. A year later he was promoted to the larger diocese of Jaro in the province of Iloilo, where he was installed on June 21, 1908. He reorganized that diocese, rebuilding many properties and procuring several religious orders to work in the see. Blessed with rugged health, Dougherty was able to minister to even the most remote sections of his diocese.
In 1926 he opened a $4 million preparatory diocesan seminary, paid for in full by the day of its completion. On March 7, 1921, Dougherty was created a cardinal priest, with the titular church of Saints Nereus and Achilles. Because of his devotion to and aid in the canonization of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, also known as the "Little Flower of Lisieux, " the French called him the "Cardinal of the Little Flower. "
Perhaps the greatest of Dougherty's domestic accomplishments was the establishment of the unique system of free Catholic high schools for all Catholic boys and girls in his archdiocese. With a view to perfecting the schools as well as promoting vocations, he assigned more than one hundred diocesan priests to teach full time in the boys' high schools. To assure that these schools would remain free, he legislated, "It is strictly forbidden to exact a fee from the pupils or from the parents or guardians of the pupils for this purpose"; each pastor was required to pay the tuition of his students.
He also convoked two mass anti-Communist demonstrations that were attended by tens of thousands. As dean of the American hierarchy and senior cardinal in the western hemisphere, Dougherty was capable of exerting great national influence, which he employed with great judiciousness.
For more than twenty years Dougherty was also president of the National Commission for Colored People and Indians and was spiritual director of the Total Abstinence Union of America at the time of his death, which occurred on May 31, 1951, in Philadelphia.
Dougherty was the first American named papal legate a latere to an international eucharistic congress. Perhaps the greatest of his domestic accomplishments was the establishment of the unique system of free Catholic high schools for all Catholic boys and girls in his archdiocese. In 1915 Dougherty was rewarded for his heroic work by being promoted to the diocese of Buffalo, New York. Among his major accomplishments during his two and a half years at Buffalo were the liquidation of nearly $1 million of debt on the cathedral, the establishment of 15 new parishes, the expansion of the parochial-school system, and the unification of the divergent national groups in the church there.
(In Two Volumes. Formal Judicial Procedure; Volume 2, Info...)
A strong personality with an awesome appearance, Dougherty maintained a highly centralized rule as cardinal. Completely a church man, preferring to work behind the scenes, he never sought popularity for popularity's sake. He accomplished the amendment of the secular law regarding the holding of church property (essentially, that the law of the church pertaining to church property became the law of the state) without his subjects so much as knowing that he was interested in the issue. His rare interventions in public affairs (as, for example, when he threw the weight of his authority behind the movie cleanup by the Legion of Decency or when he came out against universal military training) were motivated by moral considerations.
Quotes from others about the person
Daniel J. Gercke, a missionary priest who witnessed Dougherty's work, later wrote that "whatever prosperity the Faith enjoys at present in the Philippine Islands it owes more to His Eminence, Cardinal Dougherty, than to any other man under God. "
