Casting new light on Bishop James E. Kearney

Friday, Sep. 12, 2014

The Most Rev. James E. Kearney, who served as Bishop of Salt Lake from 1932 to 1937, is perhaps our least well-known bishop. During his five-year tenure here (the briefest of all our bishops) he left few records of his presence, and those people old enough to have personal memories of him are dwindling in number. 

How fortunate we are, then, that Mrs. Jenifer Gibbons, while going through the papers of her late father, Larry Brennan, came across the text of a homily given at a memorial Mass for Bishop Kearney after his 1977 death.  

Although I have been unable to identify the priest who gave the homily, it is obvious that he knew Bishop Kearney well, and was able to give a vivid portrait of his personality. I can add nothing to his heartfelt eloquence:

“Bishop Kearney with his warm, happy personality, was much loved by the people of the Diocese – loved as the kind father he was.  This was a much smaller diocese in those days – probably less than 5,000 people at all Masses in Utah on any given Sunday ... but wherever there was a gathering of people  ... Bishop Kearney would be there – and so often the evening closed with the Bishop, in his Irish tenor voice, singing songs of Ireland, of New York, of the gay ’90s, songs he loved.

“He was a beautiful, inspiring speaker who instinctively felt the inspiration of the moment. There were many bigger occasions when he spoke, but I was in Eureka when he came there for the first time. The Sisters and the parishioners were gathered in the church – many more than in the nearly ghost town of today – and entering the church, he looked up and saw the statue of the Sacred Heart above the altar. For 15 minutes he spoke beautifully on the outstretched arms of the statue, and of the loving Christ.

“He loved this Cathedral and his ambition was to see it consecrated. There was a debt of $50,000 still remaining but those were Depression years – a depression that hit Utah so very hard. Bishop Kearney and all parishes worked for four years to pay off that debt; he begged throughout the East, he promoted various affairs, he took up collections. Finally in 1936 the happy day of consecration arrived – the highlight of his years in Salt Lake City.

“Bishop Kearney was much loved by his priests – all of his priests.  In those Depression years his office or his room was open at all times to any priest who came with tales of difficulty. He personally saw to it that each priest had some time off for a vacation each year and if necessary with a little of the Bishop’s personal money to help on his vacation break. The priests of the Cathedral were used in those days to filling in in parishes near and far and often Bishop Kearney, in those days of long midnight Eucharistic fast, would assign to himself the early 6:30 Mass and then the 12 noon Mass – preaching throughout the morning and of course fasting.

“Those were Depression years.  CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] boys from distant places lived and worked in remote areas in southern and southeastern Utah, and the bishop made the rounds with the CCC chaplains over roads that were often only trails. This exploration introduced him to the great scenic areas and he made the beginnings of missions in places like Cedar City, in Zion [National Park], in the Grand Canyon and in Monticello.

“The kindest of men, it was a sad day for priests and people of Utah when on July 4, 1937, it was announced that he was to be the bishop of the beautiful city of Rochester in upstate New York.  The Depression was beginning to lessen but war clouds were gathering. In Rochester he was the same kind, much-loved man and he was to see a great growth and expansion in the Finger Lake region of New York, an expansion that kept him a busy man. But always any priest from Salt Lake City who happened to be passing through Rochester was an honored guest at the bishop’s own home out on East Avenue.”

If God has a time and a place for each of us, the 1930s in Salt Lake City was the time and place for Bishop James E. Kearney.  He is a man to be remembered and loved.