Thomas Albert Andrew Becker
Thomas Albert Andrew Becker was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington in Delaware and the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in Georgia.
Biography
Early life and education
Thomas Becker was born on December 30, 1832, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Irish Protestant parents. After attending the Allegheny Institute, he entered the Western University of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh and then the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. In Virginia, he met Bishop John McGill, who persuaded him to convert to Catholicism.After his conversion, Becker decided to enter the priesthood. He travelled to Rome in 1854 to study at the Urban College of Propaganda, receiving a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree.
Ordination and ministry
On July 18, 1859, Becker was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore by Cardinal Costantino Naro at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. Following his return to the United States, Becker was assigned to a mission including Martinsburg and Berkeley Springs in what was then Virginia.When Becker's churches were converted into barracks during the American Civil War in the early 1860s, he moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland, to teach theology, ecclesiastical history, and sacred scriptures at Mount St. Mary's College. He later became secretary to Archbishop Martin Spalding, whom he assisted in preparing for the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866. Becker afterwards served as pastor of St. Peter's Parish in Richmond, Virginia.
Bishop of Wilmington
On March 3, 1868, Becker was appointed the first bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Wilmington by Pope Pius IX. He received his episcopal consecration on August 16, 1868, at the Basilica of the [National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Baltimore)|Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary] in Baltimore from Archbishop Martin Spalding, with Bishops Richard Whelan and John McGill serving as co-consecrators. He selected Ora pro Nobis as his episcopal motto.At that time, the Diocese of Wilmington comprised the Delmarva Peninsula, including all of Delaware and several counties of Maryland and Virginia. Becker oversaw a three-fold increase in the number of priests and a doubling of the number of churches. He established an orphanage and academy for boys, an academy for girls, and two additional parochial schools. He wrote a series of articles on the idea of a Catholic university, which attracted wide attention. Becker was an outspoken supporter of the temperance movement, a national initiative against alcohol abuse.