Excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia.. WEBSITE Diocese of Brooklyn ...We have no positive evidence that any considerable body of Catholics became a component part of Brooklyn's local life till after the dawn of the nineteenth century and especially after the location there of the Navy Yard in 1801. This government station at once gave employment to many mechanics in the various trades connected with the ship-building industry. Soon a number of Irish immigrants, mostly from the Catholic sections of the North, especially from Derry and Donegal, sturdy confessors of the faith in their native land, settled in Brooklyn. Among these were the parents of the first American cardinal John McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, and of his namesake the first Rector of the American College at Rome, William George McCloskey, afterwards Bishop of Louisville, Kentucky. Until 1822 these Catholics had to cross the East River to New York to hear Mass and attend to their spiritual necessities, as the scarcity of priests and their own poverty brought about this inconvenient situation. Occasionally a priest would go over from New York to say Mass and preach in private houses, or wherever suitable accommodation could be obtained. The pioneer in this was the Augustinian missionary Father Philip Larissy, who said the first Mass in the house of William Purcell at the north-east corner of York and Gold Streets on a date now unknown. The little colony, constantly growing in numbers and influence, desired a church of its own, and hence a meeting was held on the 7th of January, 1822, at the house of William Purcell, at which a committee of five was named to wait on Bishop Connolly of New York and ask his advice and consent for the organization of a congregation. It is notable that in the circular calling this meeting the reasons stated are: "In the first place we want our children instructed in the principles of our holy religion; we want more convenience of hearing the word of God ourselves. In fact, we want a church, a pastor, and a place for interment." Those prominent in the pioneer work of the congregation were Peter Turner, George S. Wise, William Purcell, then a purser in the United States Navy John Kenney, Nicholas Stafford, Denis Cosgrove, Jeremiah Mahoney, James Rose, George McCloskey, James and Patrick Freel, Dr. Andrew B. Cook, also of the United States Navy, James Furey, Thomas Young, Hugh and James McLaughlin, Andrew Parmentier, James Harper, Quintin M. Sullivan, and Daniel Dempsey. As a result of this meeting eight lots were purchased on Jay Street, and St. James's, the first Catholic church on Long Island was built and dedicated to Divine worship by Bishop Connolly, 28 August, 1823. The lots about the church were used as a graveyard until 1849, when Holy Cross Cemetery, Flatbush, was opened. The original church building stood until 1903, when its walls were enclosed in a new structure built on the same site for a pro-cathedral. The Reverend Dr. John Power of St. Peter's New York, was the early and stanch friend of the new congregation. He used to cross the river frequently to minister to them. Other priests of the pioneer days were the Reverends Patrick Bulger, James McKenna, and James Doherty; the last two died in the service of the parish, and were buried in front of the church. The first regular pastor was the Reverend John Farnan, who was appointed in April 1825. The second church in Brooklyn, St. Paul's dedicated 21 January, 1838, was built on land given by Cornelius Heeney. He first offered the site for a seminary, but could not agree with Bishop Dubois as to the manner in which the title should be held, the old and troublesome idea of lay trusteeship proving an obstacle. It is notable that although the organization of the first congregation in Brooklyn was due mainly to lay effort there was never any of the subsequent difficulty over trustee authority and rights that made so much scandal elsewhere during this era. The Reverend Nicholas O'Donnell, O.S.A. (1840-7); was the second pastor of St. Paul's, and after him the Reverend Joseph Schneller, until his death in 1860, had charge there. Father Schneller was one of the most active priests in the New York controversies of the early years of the nineteenth century. His name, with those of the Reverend Dr. Power, Fathers Felix Varela and Thomas C. Levins, is to be found in most of the bitter public contests waged with non-Catholic assailants of the Church. He helped to found and edited for some time the "New York Weekly Register and Catholic Diary", established in 1833. Cornelius Heeney did not limit his generosity to the site for St. Paul's Church and the Girls' Industrial School that adjoins it. During his life his income was mainly devoted to charity and 10 May, 1845, three years before his death, he had his estate legally incorporated as the Brooklyn Benevolent Society, and its officials directed to expend its yearly income for the benefit of the poor and orphans. This amounts now to about $25,000 annually, and the total expended by this charity since Mr. Heeney's death is more than a million dollars. In 1841 another famous priest, the Very Reverend John Raffeiner, a native of the Austrian Tyrol, bought with his own money property on which was erected the church of the Most Holy Trinity and began there to minister to a colony of German Catholics. His efforts in this direction were extended to similar congregations in New York, Boston, and New Jersey. He labored thus for more than twenty years and held the office of vicar-general when he died, in 1861. St. Charles Borromeo's parish was founded in 1849 by the Reverend Dr. Charles Constantine Pise, also one of the strong writers and publicists of that time. Before going to Brooklyn he had been stationed at St.Peter's, New York, and previous to that, in 1832, while officiating in Washington, he was, on motion of Senator Henry Clay, appointed Chaplain to the Congress of the United States and served during a session the only instance on record of such an honor being given to a Catholic. Other priests whose earnest work in its formative period contributed to the building up of the Church in Long Island were the Reverends John Walsh James McDonough, Richard Waters, James O'Donnell David W. Bacon, afterwards the first Bishop of Portland Maine, the Reverends Michael Curran, William Keegan for many years Vicar-General of the diocese, and his associate in that office, the Right Reverend Mgr. Michael May, the Reverends Nicholas Balleis,O.S.B. Eugene Cassidy, Sylvester Malone, Peter McLoughlin John Shanahan, Edward Corcoran, Hugh McGuire, Jeremiah Crowley James McEnroe, Joseph FransioliMartin Carroll, T. O'Farrell, Anthony Arnold, John McCarthy, James O'Beirne Joseph Brunneman, Anthony Farley, John McKenna Patrick O'Neil, and James H. Mitchell. Father Mitchell was much interested in the work of societies for young men, and his administration as head of the national organization was specially successful. When, in July, 1841, Father Raffeiner began the great German parish of the Most Holy Trinity on a part of the farm of the old Dutch Meserole family, this was known as the Bushwick section of the then town of Williamsburg which was subsequently annexed to Brooklyn. The first German Catholic Church in the city of Brooklyn was the quaint little St. Francis'-in-the-Fields, which Father Raffeiner opened in 1850 at Putnam and Bedford avenues. Its title indicates its rural environment, and Father Maurus Ramsauer, a Benedictine just arrived from Germany, was made its first pastor. In 1855, under Father Bonaventure Keller, the original design of Father Raffeiner was carried out, and a sort of preparatory seminary for German ecclesiastical students was begun and lasted there for two years. When Father Raffeiner died in 1861, he left St. Francis', which was still surrounded by a garden, for the benefit of the orphans of the Holy Trinity parish. The little church was then closed, owing to changes in the neighborhood, and was not reopened until 1866, when the Rev. Nicholas Balleis a Benedictine took charge and remained there until his death 13 December, 1891. The old building was again closed and remained so until the property was purchased by the Sisters of the Precious Blood in 1892, when the structure was torn down, and the convent of that order built on the site... Back To WORSHIP Main Back To BROOKLYN Main