"One of the most pressing needs in a great city like Paterson, where in consequence of extensive manufactures there is great liability to accident and disease, was a hospital for the sick and wounded, to the establishment of which in 1869, under the management of the Sisters of Charity, you largely contributed. Under your fostering care and liberal encouragement, this institution of benevolence has gone on for fourteen years in its career of mercy, sheltering the sick and disabled without distinction of country, creed or color. Long may it prosper in its Godlike work, and long may you be spared to be a father and guide to the self-sacrificing sisters who so successfully conduct it.
"In 1874, the old pastoral residence having become too small for the accommodation of the clergy, you erected at a cost of $15,000 this elegant parsonage, which forms a fitting appendage to the church of St. John, at the same time converting the old rectory into a home for the good sisters.
"But amid all the excellent works of religion in which you have been engaged, not one has claimed more of your attention than the providing of sufficient school facilities for the education of your children, for you have been thoroughly convinced that without the solid groundwork of a sound Catholic education, the Catholic faith cannot take a firm hold on the hearts of our people. Hence from the very commencement of your administration, your most strenuous efforts have been directed to promote the welfare of your numerous spiritual children in this respect. In 1880, although your school facilities were by no means contemptible, yet you saw that the growing wants of the parish demanded more school room, and you accordingly gave orders to your architect so to alter old St. John's Church as to afford you additional school accommodation for one thousand children, while at the same time you entered into negotiations with the Brothers of Mary to conduct those of your schools which were designed for the larger boys. You have now the satisfaction of knowing that, with the Sisters of Charity to teach your schools for girls and smaller boys, and the Brothers of Mary to direct the schools for the larger boys, there are few if any parishes in the diocese that can claim the same advance in education as you can in this great city of Paterson. Again do we say long may you be preserved to preside over the destinies of the Catholic education in this portion of the diocese of Newark.
"In 1873, flying from the tyranny of a Bismarck, the Franciscan Fathers, bidding adieu to their native land, arrived in the City of Paterson, friendless and well nigh penniless. Learning that it was their intention, with the permission of the Right Rev. Bishop, to establish themselves in this city, and anticipating no small good to religion from the presence of so zealous and self denying a body of religious men, you extended to them a friendly hand, gave them every encouragement, and permitted your generous people to aid them in the erection of their beautiful church and monastery on Stony Road. Thus St. John's church has had the satisfaction of beholding another of her children snugly ensconced on the banks of the Passaic.
"Three years ago, finding that the city was largely extending itself in the direction of the new hospital, and there were numerous children who resided too far away from St. John's schools to avail themselves of their advantages, you erected a frame building for the accommodation of these children, placing it in charge of the devoted Sisters, ever ready to second your efforts in behalf of Catholic education, and it is believed that in a short time the spiritual wants of that portion of the city will enlist your zeal for the erection of a new church and the foundation of a new parish in that section. We may also be permitted to allude to the new church now in course of erection near the river for the Catholic Hollanders under the zealous care of the Rev. Father Hens and not without your encouragement and cooperation. Thus, then, we may on this day congratulate St. John's church upon being the joyful mother of a numerous offspring, which cluster round about her on every side, and may indulge the hope that while each is guarded by its own titular saint, the spirit of the Baptist will still hover over them all. In addition to your labors within the limits of Paterson, you did not fail to extend your pastoral zeal to the neighboring missions of Hohokus and Pompton, where you built churches, and for many years attended to the spiritual wants of the Catholics of those extensive districts, which are now under the zealous charge of the Fathers of St. Boniface's church.
"There is another department of your labors to which we cannot close this address without referring. We allude to your efforts in the great temperance movement, which indeed we may say you were the first to inaugurate both in this city and throughout the diocese. Upon your taking possession of this great parish, you were not slow to perceive that one of the greatest evils, and one of the most formidable stumbling blocks to the advancement of religion in your parish was the prevalence of the soul destroying vice of intemperance. We do not by any means wish to insinuate that Paterson was worse in this respect than any of the other great cities of the diocese, but it will be easily understood that in a city like this where the manufacturing interests are so extensive, requiring the employment of so many men and women, and even boys and girls, and distributing such liberal amounts of money in compensation for labor, the temptations to the abuse of intoxicating drinks are indeed very great. Your earliest efforts, therefore, were directed to the restraint if not the total destruction of the vice of drunkenness in your parish. Hence you were not slow to organize temperance societies, not merely for the older men and women, but also for the young men, and even for boys, and from the very day on which you entered the City of Paterson, up to the present moment, you have never relaxed your energies in the promotion of the cause of temperance, and in checking the ravages of intemperance in your parish. And it is not by means of temperance organizations alone that you have succeeded so well in this noble work, but by your personal exertions in visiting the home of the drunkard, in entering the rumshops even at the dead of night to chase away to their homes the resorters of these places, and to reprimand with the boldness and freedom of the Gospel the keepers of these dangerous haunts. Often have you been seen after a hard day's work on the Lord's Sabbath parading the streets of Paterson as if with police authority, to see whether any of your people were staggering along the sidewalk, after filling themselves with drink, or gathered in the beershops indulging in the noise and riot for which such places are notorious. In this persevering effort to maintain sobriety and good order you have had the countenance and support not merely of your own people, but of the entire population of Paterson, and for this work you have received from your fellow citizens, without distinction of creed, the esteem and gratitude it has so eminently merited, while your name has become a household word in Paterson. Even in times of riot and disorder, when the civil authorities found them unable to cope with violence, they did not fail to call upon the pastor of St John's to co-operate with them in the re-establishment of peace and order.
"The very children as you move about the city, without distinction of religion, never fail to recognize their dear 'Father Mac,' and you yourself make it your special delight to stop and salute these children. And if by any chance you passed by without noticing them, even Protestant children would run after your carriage and say 'Father Mac, you know me.' Nor did you neglect the young men and the young women of your parish. For the former you provided suitable halls with libraries and reading rooms, and organized them into literary and benevolent societies, where, drawn away from the temptations of the rumshop, and the professional billiard-room, they might have harmless recreation and innocent enjoyment. Many of these young men under your fostering care and liberal encouragement entered the ranks of the priesthood, and are now edifying the Church in various positions of the Diocese, while others similarly favored, are now fitting themselves for the sacred ministry in the principal seminaries of the Church. The young women you gathered into pious sodalities under the direction of the saintly Sisters, and the patronage of the Immaculate Virgin, thus furnishing them with every safeguard against the numerous temptations to be found in populous manufacturing cities, and your labors for both classes have been crowned with success, as any one can see, on Sundays in St. John's Church, whose altar rails are crowded with those devout young men and women, coming forward to nourish themselves with Christ's life-giving bread. Of these young women, not a few, under your fatherly care, and liberal patronage, have joined themselves to the good Sisters, devoting their lives and energies to the teaching of the young and the nursing of the sick.
"During the long course of those twenty-five years, with the exception of two brief trips to your native land, you never found the necessity of taking any recreation, but felt it to be your pleasure to increase your labors for your flock. You have worked with the energy of one who truly loves his Divine Master 'Nullo fatigatus labore.' And your disinterestedness may well claim for you the words of the Apostle, 'Nulli onerosus fui.' Your patient self-denial, your affability to all, your readiness to listen to the tale of woe, and to relieve the cry of distress, your unflagging zeal in the confessional, your never failing attendance on the sick at the dead of night as cheerfully as at midday, your unwearied earnestness in preaching the word of God, 'in season and out of season,' holding up to your people the beauties and happiness of a virtuous life, and denouncing to them the terrible consequences of wickedness and wrongdoing, your ceaseless efforts to prepare your numerous children for the holy sacraments, all this entitles you to the praise and reward of a true apostle of Christ, and has endeared you to the hearts of young and old—'pueris senibusque carus.' In the exercise of your sacred ministry you have been ably seconded and encouraged by your bishops, by the lamented Bayley, the zealous and learned Corrigan, and the amiable, scholarly and energetic prelate who now rules the destinies of this diocese. Nor should we omit to mention the material aid which you have received from the many worthy assistant priests that have labored with you,—the indomitable Kirwan, the polished Moran, the lamented Darcy and Cantwell, the self sacrificing Thebaud, the gentle Zimmer, the hardworking Downes, the zealous Hanly, the laborious McGahan, the eloquent McFaul, the historian Brennan, the courtly Whelan, the genial White and the patriotic Corr, and last but not least the energetic Hickie, most of whom are now filling with distinction the pulpits of flourishing churches. You have won from your fellow-priests the highest esteem and love, which they on this occasion endeavor to express, however feebly, by the accompanying testimonial. Commemorating to-day your five-and-twentieth year of ordination we earnestly hope and pray that your silver crown may be transmuted into gold on your fiftieth anniversary, and that the next quarter century of your ministry may be characterised by the same fruitfulness in good works which we however imperfectly have endeavored to record of the five and twenty years just ended.
"Eternal praise and thanksgiving be to the Great Head of the Church and Chief Shepherd of the Flock, Jesus Christ, who has given you the grace and the strength, the health and the perseverance to pass with so much profit to religion this long period of your ministry. Nor should we fail to thank in your name the people of St. John's Church, who for all this time have never faltered in their fidelity and generosity, always responding with liberal hearts to the numerous calls made upon them for religion, education and charity. Well may we conclude with the poet:—
"Non usitato congredimur modo
His in jugosis atque sacris locis
Hasque inter umbras hospitales
Insolitum celebrare festum."