Joseph Francis Rummel was bishop of the Diocese of Omaha, Nebraska from 1928 to 1935 and Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1935 to 1964.
Background
Joseph Francis Rummel was born in Steinmauern, Germany, the son of Gustav Rummel and Teresa Bollweber. The family migrated to the United States in 1882, and he became a naturalized citizen with his parents in 1888. His father, at first a self-employed shoemaker, later became an agent for a New York real estate firm.
Education
Rummel received a classical education leading to a B. A. degree at St. Anselm's College, Manchester, N. H. (1896). He was drawn to the priesthood and was accepted by Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan of New York City as one of the charter students at the new St. Joseph's Seminary (popularly known as "Dunwoodie"), Yonkers, where he studied philosophy, the humanities, and theology (1896 - 1899). Seeking a licentiate in theology, he then enrolled as a seminarian at the North American College in Rome. Pietro Cardinal Respighi ordained him in the Basilica of St. John Lateran on May 24, 1902. A year later Rummel earned a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Urban University.
Career
Rummel served as a curate at St. Joseph's in New York City (1903 - 1907); as pastor of St. Peter's in Kingston, N. Y. (1907 - 1915); as vicar forane (dean) of Ulster and Sullivan counties (1912 - 1915); as pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in the Bronx (1915 - 1924); and as pastor of St. Joseph of the Holy Family in Harlem (1924 - 1928). He also held the posts of judge and vice-official of the matrimonial tribunal.
He then became executive secretary (1923 - 1924) of the German Relief Committee, a national agency established to aid the impoverished people, especially destitute children, of his war-ravaged native land. Pope Pius XI named Rummel a papal chamberlain with the title of very reverend monsignor on April 24, 1924.
Four years later Pius named Rummel bishop of the Diocese of Omaha. Conscientious and methodical, Rummel promptly standardized accounting procedures for the 135 parishes of the Nebraska diocese. In 1930 he launched a successful campaign for funds. His intention was to expand St. James Orphanage and complete St. Cecilia's Cathedral, both in Omaha, but because of the Great Depression much of the money went to relief work within the diocese. Rummel also brought the Sixth National Eucharistic Congress to Omaha (Sept. 23-25, 1930). His meticulous planning made this religious gathering one of the most successful of its kind.
In 1935, Pius XI promoted Rummel to the New Orleans archbishopric. His arrival in Louisiana on May 14, 1935, was a gala occasion. Following a visit to three children's protectories in Marrero, across the Mississippi from New Orleans, port vessels escorted him downriver to the foot of Canal Street while steam whistles blew and ships' bells clanged. After touching city soil and receiving official greetings, the archbishop-designate headed a parade of several thousand men and boys who marched to rousing music through the central business district. Rummel's dignified presence and poise, combined with his affable manner, his physical stamina, and his deep spirituality, won him the esteem of citizens of all faiths and persuasions in New Orleans.
From the outset he committed himself to schedules that took him to all corners of the archdiocese. His jurisdiction as ordinary of the Archdiocese of New Orleans covered some 13, 200 square miles in twenty-three southeastern Louisiana parishes (counties). The area included, besides New Orleans with a population of about 600, 000, the state capital of Baton Rouge, burgeoning suburbs, growing towns and struggling villages, meandering bayous and marshy hinterlands--all with inhabitants of varied ethnic origins, educational backgrounds, and cultures. Robust health permitted Rummel to continue liturgical functions and public appearances, to deliver numerous sermons and speeches, to compose pastoral letters, and to maintain a voluminous correspondence until a fall at Baton Rouge in October 1960. By the next spring, although approaching eighty-five, he was again presiding over church functions and directing the affairs of the archdiocese.
Rummel's private secretary has stated that the archbishop personally dictated or wrote every one of the thousands of documents bearing his signature. He rarely used a text or notes in the pulpit or at a lectern; indeed, impaired vision in later life would not allow him to do so. At crucial times Rummel spoke out on controversial issues, both moral and social. He was a vocal proponent of legislative controls when landlords attempted to exact higher rents during a business recession, and forbade games of chance at church functions, insisting that church support should be motivated by voluntary stewardship. He opposed "right to work" laws introduced in the 1950's by the state legislature. Above all, Rummel was a staunch defender of human rights, especially of racial justice. His strong stand on desegregation, especially as enunciated in the pastoral letters "Blessed Are the Peacemakers" (Mar. 15, 1953) and "The Morality of Racial Segregation" (Feb. 11, 1956), caused an adverse reaction by many white Catholics and by the vast majority of the Louisiana legislators.
Rummel was the first Catholic bishop to publicize, through the Archdiocesan School Board, of which he was president, a resolution upholding the U. S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (347 U. S. 483) in May 1954. His stand on racial issues was reinforced in 1958 when his colleagues of the American hierarchy promulgated a national statement, "Discrimination and the Christian Conscience, " declaring, as he had done unequivocally in his diocese, that racial segregation and discrimination are immoral. The record shows that Rummel continuously used his powers of suasion to prepare whites for the day when segregation would become illegal as well as morally untenable. His position on the matter of social justice surfaced as early as June 1949, with the issuance of the Acta et Decreta Synodi Septimae Novae Aureliae ("Acts and Decrees of the Seventh New Orleans Synod"). Rummel called the synod, presided over it, and personally translated its codification into Latin. He died in New Orleans.