MCNICHOLAS, JOHN TIMOTHY

Fourth archbishop of cincinnati, Ohio, archdiocese; b. Kiltimagh, County Mayo, Ireland, Dec. 15, 1877;d. Cincinnati, April 22, 1950. The youngest of the seven sons and one daughter of Patrick and Mary (Mullanny) McNicholas, Timothy (John was his name in religion) was brought to the U.S. in 1881 by his parents who settled in Chester, Pa. He received his early education at Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Chester, and at St. Joseph's Preparatory College, Philadelphia. At 17, he entered the Dominican Order at St. Rose's Priory, Springfield, Ky., and made simple profession of vows on October 10, 1895, followed by a solemn profession three years later. He completed his philosophical and theological studies at St. Joseph's House of Studies, Somerset, Ohio, where on October 10, 1901, he was ordained by Bp. Henry Moeller of Columbus, Ohio.

After ordination, McNicholas spent three years at the Minerva University in Rome where he received a doctorate in sacred theology. In 1904 he returned to St. Joseph's, Somerset, as master of novices. A year later when the Dominican House of Studies, Immaculate Conception College, was opened at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., he was named regent of studies and professor of philosophy, theology, and Canon Law, a post he held until 1909. In that year he was appointed National Director of the Holy Name Society with headquarters in New York City, and first editor of the Holy Name Journal. While holding this position, he was pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Church and first prior of the convent attached to the parish. McNicholas was recalled to Rome in 1917 as socius (assistant) to the master general of the Dominicans. As socius he taught Canon Law and theology at the Angelicum University, was named a master of theology, and was awarded the honorary office of provincial of Lithuania. On July 18, 1918, Benedict XV named McNicholas bishop of Duluth, Minn.; he was consecrated at San Clemente church in Rome by Cardinal Tomaso Boggiani on September 8. Seven years later, in May 1925, McNicholas was named to the Diocese of Indianapolis, a see he never actually occupied, since on July 8, he was appointed to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and installed there on August 12.

During his 25-year episcopate in Cincinnati, McNicholas established about 50 mission chapels, encouraged a convert program and the apostolate among the Negroes, championed the rights of labor and promoted lay retreats and the organization of Holy Name Societies. The number of schools was increased until the archdiocese became a model for Catholic education on the elementary, secondary, and college level. The Athenaeum of Ohio, incorporated by the state of Ohio in 1928, was organized for the control, direction, and supervision of all colleges, seminaries, academies, and institutions of higher learning in the archdiocese. A teachers' college was founded for training priests, sisters, and lay persons. Four Latin schools, wherein boys began the study of Latin in the seventh grade, were opened. An intensified program of higher education for the clergy resulted in 120 priests doing graduate studies. The Institutum Divi Thomae, a postgraduate school of theology, was opened in 1935.

On the national level, McNicholas was chairman of the pontifical commission for the sacred sciences of The Catholic University of America from 1934 until his death, and also a member of the board of trustees of the University. He served as the episcopal chairman of the department of education of the National Catholic Welfare Conference from 1930 to 1935 and again from 1942 to 1945, and was president general of the National Catholic Educational Association from 1946 to 1950. Other national offices of prominence held by McNicholas included the 10-year chairmanship (1933–43) of the episcopal committee on motion pictures that founded the National Legion of Decency; five terms (1945–50) as chairman of the administrative board of the NCWC; national chairman of the Catholic Students Mission Crusade; and 13 years' membership on the episcopal committee for the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.

The annual statements issued in the name of the Catholic hierarchy of the U.S. for many years owed much of their form and forcefulness to McNicholas. In 1948, in endorsing the fundamental American principle of separation of Church and State, he declared: "We deny absolutely and without qualification that the Catholic Bishops of the United States are seeking a union of church and state by any endeavors whatsoever, either proximate or remote." A preacher of renown and a Church historian, McNicholas was also a national figure in the fields of apologetics and of social and racial justice. In his later writings, he excoriated the communism of Soviet Russia.

Bibliography: m. e. reardon, Mosaic of a Bishop (Cincinnati 1957).

[m. e. reardon]