Priesthood
As a deacon, Hughes resolved to attach himself to the Diocese of Philadelphia, then governed by Bishop Henry Conwell. Bishop Conwell, while performing a visitation of his diocese, met Hughes at his parents' home in Chambersburg and invited him to accompany him on the remainder of his visitation. On October 15, 1826, Hughes was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Conwell at St. Joseph's Church in Philadelphia.
His first assignment was as a curate at St. Augustine's Church in Philadelphia, where he assisted Father Michael Hurley in hearing confessions, preaching sermons, and other parochial duties. Later that year he was sent to serve as a missionary in Bedford, where he secured the conversions of several Protestants. In January 1827, he was recalled to Philadelphia and named pastor of St. Joseph's Church. He laboured afterwards at St. Mary's whose trustees were in open revolt against the bishop, and were subdued by Father Hughes only when he built St. John the Evangelist church, 1832, then considered one of the finest in the country. Previous to this, in 1829, he founded St. John's Orphan Asylum. About this period he was engaged in a religious controversy with Rev. John A. Brekenridge, a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman, with the result that Father Hughes's remarkable ability attracted widespread attention and admiration. His name was mentioned for the vacant see of Cincinnati and for the Coadjutorship of Philadelphia.
Read more about this topic: John Hughes (archbishop Of New York)
Famous quotes containing the word priesthood:
“The priesthood is a marriage. People often start by falling in love, and they go on for years without realizing that that love must change into some other love which is so unlike it that it can hardly be recognised as love at all.”
—Iris Murdoch (b. 1919)
“The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years.”
—Bishop John Spong (b. 1931)