John McGill was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
Background
John McGill was the son of James and Lavenia (Dougherty) McGill. He was born in Philadelphia, where his father, an immigrant from County Derry (1788), was engaged in business. About 1819 the McGills moved westward, finally settling in Bardstown, Kentucky.
Education
In 1828 John graduated from St. Joseph's College. Having read law under Gov. Charles A. Wickliffe, he was admitted to the bar and practised with success in New Orleans and in Bardstown. Dissatisfied in this profession, he studied theology at the neighboring St. Thomas Seminary and under the Sulpicians at St. Mary's, Baltimore.
Career
Ordained at Bardstown by Bishop David, June 13, 1835, he was assigned to St. Peter's Church, Lexington, Ky. , and later as an assistant to Dr. I. A. Reynolds of St. Louis' Church, Louisville, whom he succeeded as pastor when the latter was named to the See of Charleston. An assistant editor of The Catholic Advocate under Dr. M. J. Spalding, whom he also served as vicar general, he won reputation as a somewhat aggressive controversialist. To a local disputation, he contributed a brochure on the origin of the Church of England and a translation of J. M. V. Audin's History of the Life, Works, and Doctrines of John Calvin (1845). On October 10, 1850, he was named bishop of Richmond, Va. , and a month later consecrated at Bardstown by Archbishop P. R. Kenrick. Bishop McGill found Richmond an impoverished diocese with only eight priests. Within ten years, however, he paid the bulk of the diocesan debt, built several churches, established a number of missions, assigned St. Mary's German Church in Richmond to the Benedictines, founded schools at Richmond, Norfolk, Petersburg, and Harpers Ferry, erected a hospital at Norfolk, and neutralized the evil effects of the Know-Nothing agitation by his judicious carriage and a series of letters in refutation of charges made by Robert Ridgway in nativist papers. The Civil War threw all into chaos. A strong Southern sympathizer, the Bishop urged enlistments, especially in the Emmett and Montgomery Guards, furnished chaplains for the Confederate forces, ministered personally at Libby Prison, and detailed Sisters of Mercy and of Charity as military nurses. Unable to visit the churches of the diocese, he utilized his time in writing The True Church, Indicated to the Inquirer (1862) and Our Faith, the Victory: or a Comprehensive View of the Principal Doctrines of the Christian Religion (1865), which in revised form appeared in several editions. In the latter work he was inclined to view the war as a punishment for the treatment of slaves and hoped "that by the present convulsions, his providence is preparing for them at least, a recognition of those rights as immortal beings, which are required for the observance of the paramount laws of God. " On Lee's surrender, Bishop McGill visited his war-torn diocese and entered upon the arduous labor of reconstruction: churches were rebuilt and scattered congregations mobilized; academies were established by the Visitation nuns, Sisters of Charity, and Sisters of Notre Dame; and orphan asylums were provided. At the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore he depicted to the assembled bishops the needs of the Church in the South and pled for its support. In 1867 he visited Rome for the second time in the interest of the diocese, and two years later attended the Vatican Council, at which he preached a public discourse. His active career was then practically at an end, though as an invalid, dying of a cancer, he lived on bravely for several years.