Joseph Francis Rummel was a German-born American Catholic prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
30 Facts About Joseph Rummel
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Joseph Rummel served as bishop of the Diocese of Omaha in Nebraska from 1928 to 1935 and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1935 to 1964.
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Joseph Rummel was born in the village of Steinmauern in the Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire, on October 14,1876.
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Joseph Rummel's family immigrated to the United States when he was six years old.
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Joseph Rummel attended St Boniface Parochial School, then went to St Mary's College, a Redemptorist minor seminary in North East, Pennsylvania.
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Joseph Rummel graduated from Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire in 1889.
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Joseph Rummel was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of New York at the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome on May 24,1902.
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Joseph Rummel returned to New York and served as a parish priest in several parishes around the city for the next 25 years.
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Joseph Rummel was named the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Omaha by Pope Pius XI on Mar 30,1928.
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Joseph Rummel was consecrated on May 29,1928, at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York by Cardinal Patrick Hayes.
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Joseph Rummel was named by Pius XI as the ninth archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans on March 9,1935.
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In 1935, Joseph Rummel mandated the creation of CCD programs in every parish.
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Joseph Rummel created new lay organizations to support an expansion of the many charity programs within the archdiocese.
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In October 1960, at age 83, Joseph Rummel broke an arm and a leg in a fall, after which he nearly died from pneumonia.
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Joseph Rummel recovered and continued to serve as archbishop for another four years, but his health was a recurring concern.
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Joseph Rummel was given a coadjutor bishop, John Cody, in 1961, to assist with administering the archdiocese.
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Joseph Rummel spent most of his tenure in New Orleans expanding the parochial school system.
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Once the movement did begin, Joseph Rummel embraced the cause of racial equality.
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Joseph Rummel admitted two black students to the Notre Dame Seminary in 1948.
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Joseph Rummel ordered the removal of "white" and "colored" signs from churches in 1951.
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In 1953, Joseph Rummel issued "Blessed Are the Peacemakers", the pastoral letter that officially ordered the end to segregation in the entire Archdiocese:.
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Joseph Rummel closed a church in 1955 when its members began protesting the assignment of a black priest to their parish.
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Joseph Rummel issued another pastoral letter the following year, reiterating the incompatibility of segregation with the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
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Joseph Rummel had announced his intention to desegregate the Catholic schools as early as 1956.
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Joseph Rummel formally announced the end of segregation in the New Orleans parochial school system on March 27,1962.
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Joseph Rummel issued numerous letters to individual Catholics, pleading for their cooperation and explaining his decision.
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Joseph Rummel even went so far as to threaten opponents of desegregation with excommunication, the most severe censure of the Church.
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Joseph Rummel died in New Orleans on November 9,1964, at the age of 88.
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Joseph Rummel was succeeded by John Cody, the Coadjutor Archbishop.
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Joseph Rummel is interred under the sanctuary at Saint Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter.