Statesmen, Scoundrels, and Eccentrics: A Gallery of Amazing Arkansans

Bishop Edward Fitzgerald

Bishop Edward Fitzgerald While Arkansas has never had a large Catholic population nor held much sway within the Catholic Church, a nineteenth-century bishop of Little Rock gained international note for opposing the pope on a major theological issue. In  Pope Pius IX convened the first General Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church in Rome, with  prelates gathering from around the world. Representing the Diocese of Little Rock was Bishop Edward Fitzgerald. The pope and the bishop did not agree on the proposal for papal infallibility. Born in Limerick, Ireland, in , Fitzgerald came to the United States when his parents emigrated in  during the great potato famine. He was educated at Mt. St. Mary Seminary in Ohio and Mt. St. Mary’s College and Seminary in Maryland. Ordained in  in Cincinnati, Ohio, Fitzgerald served for a decade as pastor of St. Patrick’s in Columbus, Ohio, where he gained a reputation for competency and peacekeeping. The diocese of Little Rock was organized in , and it included Indian Territory until .The entire diocese included only about , Catholics, served by a handful of priests. The most blatant example of neglect of this frontier diocese was the failure to name a bishop for almost five years before February  when Fitzgerald was consecrated. Interestingly, the thirty-two-year-old parish priest turned down the pope’s initial offer of appointment as the second bishop of Little Rock. Pope Pius IX then sent Fitzgerald a mandamus ordering him to accept the appointment. He was the youngest bishop in the nation. Immediately upon his appointment,Bishop Fitzgerald undertook a vigorous journey across the diocese, speaking to ecumenical audiences ,meeting with the few faithful he could find,and generally assessing the challenge before him. He said mass at a Presbyterian church in Washington,Hempstead County,but could identify only five Catholics in the whole town outside of occupying Union soldiers. Catholic schools functioned only at Little Rock and Fort Smith.  Bishop Fitzgerald was a vigorous administrator.He eagerly sought new priests for new congregations, such as at Pocahontas. Under a blazing August sun in , Fitzgerald dedicated the first Catholic church in Hot Springs, and soon he had an additional priest ministering in Little Rock. Bishop Edward Fitzgerald  Edward Fitzgerald, Roman Catholic Bishop of Little Rock, stood up to the pope. Photo courtesy of Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries. Such was the situation a few days before Christmas in  when Fitzgerald, various other bishops, archbishops, and others met in the first council in about three hundred years.Within a few days it became clear that the major topic for discussion was the doctrine of papal infallibility. Professor James M. Woods, the author of a fine history of the diocese of Little Rock, has written that Fitzgerald’s consistent opposition to the pope on the infallibility issue had earned “a place in American Catholic history by demonstrating immense courage as a man and loyalty as a bishop.” From Rome the bishop wrote of the difficulty he encountered at the Vatican, noting, “There is no danger that the Holy Father will take me from Arkansas, except to put me in the prisons of the Inquisition, perhaps. I have not been in his good book since coming to Rome. There are others here who wish to put an end to my banishment, but I will not leave Arkansas.” Fitzgerald caught the attention of one reporter who described him as a “stalwart,manly man,a typical missionary bishop who had served his apprenticeship in rough and lonely country missions.” A fierce debate raged between supporters of the proposed doctrine ,mostly from countries with large Catholic populations and vocal opponents who mostly represented non-Catholic areas. Soon it became clear that the proposed doctrine would be accepted by the council members.On the first vote,  prelates voted for the proposed doctrine, while  voted against and  said they could support it if modified.A large group of  bishops simply failed to show up for the vote. The pope ordered a new vote. In the four days between the two elections a great deal of soul searching took place—along with some considerable arm twisting. The second ballot was a runaway in favor of infallibility,although some opponents again boycotted the vote. Only a very young bishop from the wilds of Arkansas actually attended the vote and stood up to vote no, although an Italian bishop later dissented too. A reporter recalled...