Leonard Neale was the first Roman Catholic bishop to be ordained in the United States and the second Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland.
Background
Leonard Neale was born on October 15, 1746 in Port Tobacco, Maryland, United States. He was a direct descendant of Captain James Neale, a favorite of Charles I who settled in Lord Baltimore's colony before 1642. His father, William, died early in life, leaving seven sons and three daughters to the care of his widow, Anne (Brooke) Neale, who also came of substantial old Maryland stock.
Education
Leonard obtained his first schooling from the Jesuits at Bohemia Manor, but the penal laws made it necessary to send him to an English Catholic refugee college on the Continent for his further education. In 1758, accordingly, he entered the Jesuit College of Saint Omer in Flanders and later went to Bruges. Following the family tradition, he entered the Society of Jesus at Ghent, on September 7, 1767. Later he completed the course in theology at Liège.
Career
On the suppression of the Society he went to England where he labored as a missionary until 1779, when he volunteered for service in Demerara, British Guiana. Here he labored among the pagans and vicious settlers until 1783, then petitioned for removal to the United States. He was captured en route by a British cruiser but apparently freed, for in April 1783 he arrived in Maryland and was welcomed by his family and the group of former Jesuit priests.
While stationed at St. Thomas Manor, he took part in the Whitemarsh meeting which led to a reorganization of the church and to the appointment of John Carroll as prefect apostolic. Although Neale was not in favor of the foundation of a college or the establishment of an American bishopric lest it be prejudicial to Jesuit property interests if the Society were revived, he thoroughly approved of Carroll's promotion and was an active participant in the first diocesan synod.
Two years later he was sent to Philadelphia during the yellow-fever plague, as pastor of St. Mary's Church and Carroll's vicar-general. As priest and nurse, he was exposed to the fever, but without harm, though in the later epidemic of 1797-98 he fell ill and narrowly escaped death.
When Father Graessl died, Carroll with the consent of his clergy urged that Neale be named bishop coadjutor with the right of succession. The bulls of appointment were issued by Pius VI on April 17, 1795, but did not reach Baltimore until 1800. On December 7 of that year Neale was consecrated by Carroll as co-adjutor, with the title of bishop of Gortyna. While nursing the victims of yellow fever in Philadelphia, Neale had been aided by three devoted women, led by Alice Lalor, later Mother Theresa, who wished to become nuns. Upon his removal to Georgetown in 1799 he invited them to establish an academy there. Following him, they lived for a time in a small convent of Poor Clares, of which community Neale's sister, Anne, was a member at Aire in Artois. When the Poor Clares returned to France, Neale purchased their house for his society (1805), which, on the restoration of Pius VII to his freedom and prerogatives in 1816, was finally affiliated with the Visitation Order. The establishment of this community was one of Neale's principal achievements, for the Visitation nuns have since developed into a large body with a number of academies and schools throughout the United States.
As a coadjutor, Neale was not especially active, but apparently Carroll was satisfied with the assurance that the Church's organization would continue under a bishop who would automatically succeed him. Among contemporaries, at least John Thayer, a convert priest, thought Neale a man of no great ability; and James Barry wrote that "there is no danger of Neale setting the Potomac on fire''. When upon the death of Carroll he did succeed to the archbishopric of Baltimore, December 3, 1815, he was too feeble to enjoy his opportunities for distinguished service. He soon petitioned for a co-adjutor, and Ambrose Maréchal was appointed, but before the papal briefs arrived,
Neale died from a stroke of apoplexy. His remains were interred in the crypt of the Visitation chapel at Georgetown.