RUMMEL, JOSEPH FRANCIS

Ninth archbishop of New Orleans, La.; b. Steinmauern, Baden, Germany, Oct. 14, 1876; d. New Orleans, Nov. 8, 1964. At age six he immigrated to the United States with his parents, Gustav and Theresa (Bollweber) Rummel, becoming a naturalized American with them on Feb. 2, 1888. After attending Catholic schools in New York City and North East, Pa., he was trained at St. Anselm's College, Manchester, N.H. (B.A. 1896); St. Joseph's Seminary (Dunwoodie), Yonkers, N.Y.; and the North American College, Rome. Ordained in the Basilica of St. John Lateran by Cardinal Pietro Respighi on May 24, 1902, he earned a doctorate in sacred theology the following year.

Early Career. As priest of the Archdiocese of New York, he served as curate of St. Joseph's, Yorkville (1903–07); pastor of St. Peter's, Kingston (1907–15); vicar forane of Ulster and Sullivan counties (1912–15); pastor of St. Anthony of Padua, Bronx (1915–24); and pastor of St. Joseph of the Holy Family, Harlem (1924–28). He was appointed moderator of several Catholic groups, judge and vice-official on the archdiocesan matrimonial curia, and executive secretary (1923–24) of a national committee to raise funds and collect clothing for the destitute, especially children, of war-torn Germany. Pius XI named him a papal chamberlain on April 24, 1924 and bishop of Omaha on March 20, 1928. After consecration by Cardinal P. J. Hayes on May 29 in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, he was installed as ordinary on July 4, 1928, in St. Cecilia's Cathedral, Omaha.

Orderly and methodical by nature and training, Bishop Rummel soon introduced a standard system of accounting for the 135 parishes of the diocese. In 1930 he successfully launched the Confraternity of the Laity Campaign to raise funds for the expansion of St. James Orphanage and for work on the unfinished cathedral, as well as for expenses of the Sixth National Eucharistic Congress held in Omaha from Sept. 23 to 25, 1930. He convened a synod in June of 1934, the first in the diocese in more than 30 years. On March 9, 1935, Rummel was named successor to Archbishop John W. Shaw of New Orleans.

Archbishop. Rummel's reputation as a gifted orator and energetic administrator won him a warm welcome to New Orleans on May 14, 1935. He quickly sensed the challenge of reorganizing the archdiocese and invigorating lay groups. During the summer of 1935 he decreed that each parish was to form a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, an organization that he vastly expanded and vigorously supported throughout his tenure. Several organizations for youth and professional groups emerged, and the programs of others already existing were enriched. Under his direction, hundreds of men and women became involved in the plans and preparations for the Eighth National Eucharistic Congress of Oct. 17 to 20, 1938, the first held in the South.

The Depression of the 1930s, unsettled conditions during World War II, and building material shortages in the mid-1940s, coupled with the archbishop's innate aversion for debt, permitted only a moderate increase in new parishes established and buildings erected during his first ten years in office. Between 1946 and 1961, however, he opened 40 parishes, making a total of 48 during his entire tenure. In the late 1940s, as the population of the Greater New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas burgeoned, he eased his policy, requiring that at least one-half of the funds needed for property acquisition or construction should be raised beforehand in cash or pledges. Within a ten-year period he launched two archdiocesan-wide financial campaigns that substantially exceeded their goals. The esteem of priests and people for the archbishop was demonstrated when St. Joseph Hall of Philosophy, Notre Dame Seminary, was erected in 1953 as a memorial to his silver jubilee as a bishop and the golden anniversary of his ordination.

The seventh diocesan synod, which he convened in June of 1949, gave the archbishop the opportunity to modernize the administration of the see, expand the curia, assign personnel to new commissions and offices, realign deaneries, and update regulations for the promotion of Catholic life. Until 1947, when the Holy See gave him as auxiliary Bishop L. Abel Caillouet, the archbishop alone handled all parochial and institutional visitations, confirmations, graduations, dedications, and other engagements. A facile writer, he was the author of pastoral letters and circulars that fill several thick binders. An eloquent speaker, he addressed all gatherings over which he presided, and he was often featured on programs of diocesan, regional, and national conventions. Throughout his career as a bishop and archbishop, he was active with the National Catholic Welfare Conference, serving on its administrative board and as episcopal chairman of the Catholic Committee for Refugees and of the Legal Department. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and of the National Catholic Community Service. Locally he was elected to numerous social welfare boards and civic committees. His readiness to aid the needy at home and abroad won for him both the acclaim of the community and honors from the governments of France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Haiti. Eight colleges and universities honored him with degrees, awards, and medals.

Integration Leader. For the last 15 years of his life, Archbishop Rummel was partially blind from glaucoma. This handicap kept him from officiating at ceremonies such as ordinations but did not curtail his other activities. While still recuperating from a fall in Baton Rouge on Oct. 9, 1960, he announced a crash program in the spring of 1961 for the erection of four new high schools in Jefferson Parish (county). To many observers this venture seemed particularly bold because of the sensitive social context of the times. Strong resistance to local public school desegregation in 1960 and open resentment to the archbishop's own clear denunciation of racial discrimination had manifested itself in the state legislature, mass meetings of the White Citizens' Councils, and activities of other segregationist groups. The archbishop's pastoral letter of March 15, 1953, entitled "Blessed Are the Peacemakers," had apprised the faithful that segregation because of race would not be tolerated in Catholic churches and societies. On Feb. 11, 1956, he wrote another and more explicit pastoral on "The Morality of Racial Segregation," in which he prepared the way for the eventual integration of Catholic schools. Finally, on March 27, 1962, he announced that, at the opening of the next term, all Catholic schools of the archdiocese would accept all qualified students at all levels. When opposition persisted from a vocal and organized minority, the archbishop warned seven, and eventually excommunicated three of the leaders.

Rummel announced his retirement on the 60th anniversary of his ordination; his coadjutor with right of succession, Archbishop John P. Cody, became apostolic administrator on June 1, 1962.

Bibliography: Archives, Archdiocese of New Orleans.

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