Defining Moment

Father William Bishop, a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, founds the Glenmary Home Missioners and is invited by Archbishop McNicholas to establish the headquarters in Cincinnati. The mission of the Glenmary priests and brothers is to serve in rural areas without a resident priest and address the spiritual and material needs of the poor. Father Bishop also founded the Glenmary Sisters in 1941. The sisters moved their headquarters to Owensboro, Kentucky, in the 1990s.

With the downtown population shrinking and St. Peter in Chains requiring much upkeep, Archbishop McNicholas decides to move the cathedral to St. Monica Church in Clifton, Ohio. St. Peter in Chains is now referred to as “the old cathedral.”

Flooding for hundreds of miles along the Ohio River in late January causes extensive damage and suffering. In Cincinnati, the water crests 80 feet, which is 30 feet over flooding levels. Many Catholic churches suffer damage, including St. Rose of Lima and St. Michael in Lower Price Hill, prompting relief efforts throughout the archdiocese.

Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, visits the United States and stops in Cincinnati for a stay that lasts less than 24 hours. Large crowds greet him outside Mount St. Mary Seminary. After this visit, the elementary school at Our Lord Christ the King Church is named the Cardinal Pacelli School.

Archbishop McNicholas founds the Institutum Divi Thomae and names George Sperti as the director. This graduate school for scientific research strived to promote the harmony between faith and science. Notable research topics included aspercreme, Preparation H and burn ointments. The school closed in 1988.

Seeing a need to provide further education to sisters and graduates of their academy for girls – the Mount St. Joseph Academy – the Sisters of Charity open the College of Mount St. Joseph for women. The school became coeducational in 1986 and a university in 2014.