Aquinas Institute - Arete Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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THE MosT REVEREND JAMES E. KEARNEY, D.D Om' Bixhop

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CONTENTS DEDICATION OUR LEADERS GRADUATES UNDERCLASSMEN MISSIONS ACTIVITIES MUSIC DRAMA CLUBS HUMOR SPORTS OUR ADVERTISERS

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OU were born, James Edward Kearney, in the small town of Red Oak, Iowa, on a cool October day in ISB4. Q! DEDMCATIQN Having decided to be a teacher you enrolled, after graduation from high school, at the New York Teachers' College. But two years later you realized that God called you to teaching of a different sort. Go, teach ye all nations, commanded the Lord to His followers, and you, James Kearney, prepared to become one of the elect in Christ's army. Henceforth you were to teach Christ's Holy Doctrine to souls thirsting for knowledge of Him. Your decision finally made, you plunged yourself entirely into your chosen work, attending St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers for five years-five years of hard study. But your unsatisfied heart desired to know more-ever more-about our Divine Master. At the Catholic University of America you received the degrees of Bachelor of Sacred Theology and Bachelor of Canon Law. In 1908 you were ordained a priest. Yours was not a meteoric rise in the ranks of the clergy. It was only after nearly twenty years of toiling energetically as assistant pastor of St. Cecilia's Church in New York City that you founded the Church of St. Francis Xavier there. During the four years of your pastorship the parish developed and flourished under your expert guidance. So many years of such evidently superior ability were bound' to command atten- tion: and in i932 your patient labor was rewarded, os you knelt and heard with almost unbelieving ears the words of consecration which raised you to the Episcopate. As though filled with a burning desire to prove yourself even more worthy, Bishop Kearney, you became increasingly active in your care for souls. For five years you were Bishop of Salt Lake City: it was the outstanding results of your boundless activity in caring for that diocese which led to your appointment as Bishop of Rochester. It would be difficult for us to appreciate fully or even begin to comprehend all the blessings this diocese has received since your advent. Your untiring zeal has caused, in the last few years, an almost incredible increase in Catholic devotion, par- ticularly to the feasts of the Holy Name and the Holy Family, and to the Forty Hours' Adoration Through you, the Legion of Decency has taken on a new, more significant meaning. Your tireless energy has been the chief cause of the wonderful success of the drives for the new Nazareth College and the new St. Mary's Hospital. Yet, ever thinking of others, you showed your love and respect for the men in our fighting forces by your active support of the Red Cross Blood Bank and by inaugurating the Pray for a Soldier idea among the students of the diocese. But it would be impossible to go on with your accomplishments-those visible evidences of your unceasing love for your diocese. For no sooner have you completed one task than you are inspired by some new way of bringing God's grace upon us. Thus it is that with humble gratitude and a deep sense of appreciation for your endless efforts in our behalf, we reverently dedicate to you, Bishop Kearney, this, the Aquinas Senior Annual for l942. May it ever serve as a token of our respect, our love, and our thanks for your services in the past and the present, and for the countless blessings which, through your prayers and sacrifices as a captain of Christ's shock troops on earth, shall pour on us in the future from the Fountain of Grace.