Anthony Kohlmann
Anthony Kohlmann was an Alsatian Catholic priest, missionary, theologian, and Jesuit educator. He played a decisive role in the early formation of the Archdiocese of New York, where he was the subject of a lawsuit that for the first time recognized the confessional privilege in the United States, and served as the president of Georgetown College from 1817 to 1820.
Kohlmann joined the Society of the Sacred Heart and ministered throughout Europe before entering the Society of Jesus. He left for the United States in 1806, where he taught at Georgetown College and ministered to German-speaking congregations in the mid-Atlantic region. In 1808, he became the pastor of New York City's only Catholic church, and then was made the apostolic administrator and first vicar general of the newly created Diocese of New York. He established the diocese's first cathedral in 1809. Kohlmann also founded a school, the New York Literary Institution; established an orphanage; and invited the first Ursuline nuns to the United States.
In 1813, the City of New York sought to compel Kohlmann to disclose the identity of a thief, which he learned during a confession. In a landmark decision, the state court ruled that he could not be compelled to violate the seal of the confessional, recognizing the confessional privilege for the first time in the United States. Kohlmann returned to Maryland in 1815 as superior of the Jesuits' Maryland Mission and president of Georgetown College. Three years later, he left Georgetown to establish the Washington Seminary, which became Gonzaga College High School. In 1824, Pope Leo XII named Kohlmann the chair of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Kohlmann later became a consultor to the College of Cardinals and various curial congregations, and was then appointed Qualificator of the Inquisition.
Early life
Anton Kohlmann was born on July 13, 1771, in Kaysersberg, in the region of Alsace in the Kingdom of France. As a youth, he began his studies in the nearby town of Colmar. He joined the Capuchin order, but fled to Switzerland because the order was persecuted as part of the larger dechristianization of France during the French Revolution. He completed his theological studies at the Collège Saint-Michel, and was ordained a priest in Fribourg in April 1796. Kohlmann's brother, Paul, also became a priest and would join him in the United States.Ministry
Shortly after his ordination, he joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, and completed his novitiate period in Göggingen, located in the Holy Roman Empire. He ministered throughout Austria for two years, during which he drew commendations for his work in Hagenbrunn during a plague. He then went to Italy, where he was chaplain at a military hospital in Pavia for two years. Kohlmann was sent to Bavaria in 1801, where he became the director of the Ecclesiastical Seminary at Dillingen. He then spent time as the rector of a college in Berlin, before founding a college in Amsterdam, which was run by the Society of the Faith of Jesus, an order with which the Society of the Sacred Heart had merged in 1799.Kohlmann applied for admission to the Society of Jesus, which, despite its worldwide suppression since 1773, had been operating in the Russian Empire. During the two years that his application being considered, he resided at Kensington College in London, where he learned English. He eventually was instructed to travel to Russia, and he arrived in Riga in June 1805. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Daugavpils on June 21, 1803, where he spent only a year before the superiors were satisfied that he was academically qualified. The following year, John Carroll, the Bishop of Baltimore, put out a call for additional Jesuits in the United States, and Kohlmann was sent as a missionary, prior to taking his final vows.
Missionary to the United States
Kohlmann left Hamburg on August 20, 1806, arrived in Baltimore on November 4. In the United States, he began anglicizing his name as Anthony. The Jesuit Superior General formally permitted the Jesuits to be restored in the United States in 1805, and a novitiate was opened the following year at Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. Francis Neale was named the master of novices, and Kohlmann, though still a novice himself, was made the socius to the master of novices. He was also assigned to teach philosophy.Kohlmann introduced many of the customs that the Jesuits in exile the Russian Empire observed. While at Georgetown, he made trips to minister to the people of Alexandria, Virginia, and Baltimore, as well as to German-speaking congregations in rural Pennsylvania. He also heard confessions from parishioners at Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia because their pastor had not mastered the English language.
New York
Bishop Carroll found it difficult to govern a diocese whose territory encompassed the entire United States. The church in New York suffered neglect and mismanagement, and he had repeatedly requested that the authorities in Rome remove New York to form a separate diocese. Before news could arrive that his request was granted and R. Luke Concanen was appointed as the first Bishop of New York, Carroll sent a party of clergy to New York City. Headed by Kohlmann, it consisted of the future bishop Benedict Fenwick and four Jesuit scholastics. Arriving in October 1808, Kohlmann assumed pastoral responsibility for approximately 14,000 Catholics, who were primarily Irish, French, and German. Upon his arrival, Kohlmann found New York suffering an economic depression resulting from the Embargo Act of 1807.Kohlmann became the pastor of St. Peter's Church, replacing Matthew Byrne, who sought to be relieved so that he could join the Society of Jesus. There, he celebrated Masses in English, French, and German for the congregation's multilingual parishioners. He also was prolific in administering the other sacraments, visiting hospitals, and teaching catechesis. He also created a subscription among parishioners to raise money for the poor.
Kohlmann determined that St. Peter's was inadequate to serve the entire Catholic population of New York City. He began establishing a new church that would serve as the cathedral of the diocese. He purchased land on what were then the outskirts of New York City, adjoining farmland at the edge of the city. The cornerstone of the St. Patrick's Old Cathedral was laid on June 8, 1809. He oversaw its completion and gave it the name of St. Patrick. In 1809, he became the cathedral's first pastor, alongside Fenwick. Upon its completion, Old St. Patrick's became the largest and most ornate church in New York State. By this time, Cooncanen still had not yet arrived from Europe, delayed by the Napoleonic Wars. Therefore, on October 11 of that year, upon Bishop Concanen's request, John Carroll named Kohlmann the first vicar general of the Diocese of New York.
In 1809, in the course of their pastoral duties, Kohlmann and Fenwick were called to the deathbed of the American revolutionary and avowed atheist Thomas Paine, who hoped that the priests would be able to heal him. When they attempted to persuade him to disavow his atheist beliefs, Paine became enraged and expelled them from his house. In 1810, Bishop Concanen died in Naples, having never reached his diocese in America. Therefore, Kohlmann was made apostolic administrator of the diocese. When it appeared that Concanen's successor, John Connolly, would arrive in the United States, Kohlmann was recalled to Maryland in January 1815. He was succeeded by Fenwick as vicar general and administrator of New York and pastor of St. Peter's Church.
New York Literary Institution
In addition to his pastoral work, Carroll charged Kohlmann with establishing a Catholic college in the city. In 1808, he opened a classical school called the New York Literary Institution, which functioned as an offshoot of Georgetown College. He rented a house on Mulberry Street, across from the cathedral, where the four Jesuit scholastics began teaching 35 Catholic and Protestant students, a minority of whom boarded at the school. With the school outgrowing its location, in September 1809, it moved to Broadway, and, in March of the following year, Kohlmann relocated the school far into the countryside of New York City, across the street from the Elgin Botanic Garden. The new site of the New York Literary Institution would later house the new St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan. Following its move, the school began to prosper. Kohlmann, however, continued to reside at Mulberry Street, where he could perform his pastoral duties at Old St. Patrick's and St. Peter's. He made Benedict Fenwick the president of the school.Kohlmann became convinced that New York City would remain the preeminent city in the United States and that the Jesuits should shift their ministerial efforts to it, rather than focus on their rural plantations in Maryland, which he described as "graveyards for Europeans". He went so far as to advocate the relocation of Georgetown College to New York, which he argued was of "greater importance to the Society than all the other states together". Before long, the Jesuit superiors in Maryland determined that there were not enough Jesuits to staff both the New York school and Georgetown. Despite Kohlmann's protestations, the New York Literary Institution was disbanded in 1813, and the Jesuits were recalled to Maryland.
In addition to the New York Literary Institution, Kohlmann established a school for girls in April 1812 near the literary institution. The school was put under the care of the Ursuline nuns, whom he had invited from County Cork, Ireland, to run the new school. The nuns accepted Kohlmann's invitation on the condition that they would remain only as long as they received novices for their order. Their arrival marked the Ursuline order's first presence in the United States. When their desire for novices did not materialize, the nuns returned to Ireland three years after their arrival. Kohlmann also established an orphanage, which he placed under the care of Trappist nuns who had fled persecution in France. This institution was short-lived, as the Trappists left for Le Havre in October 1814.