UTAH
240
UTAH
Laguna family of Utes, crossed the State of Utah
from north to south preaching to the tribes on their
way, and, returning to Santa Fe, January, 1776,
made known the existence of the great inland body
of water, now known as Salt Lake. Not till 1841 do
we again read of a Catholic priest visiting Utah.
In that year the heroic Jesuit missionary and ex-
plorer, Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, passed through
the valley of Salt Lake on his way to Green River,
Wyoming. This remarkable priest was, in the au-
tumn of 1846, the guest of the Mormon leader,
Brigham Young, who was wintering with his followers
near Council Bluffs, preparing to enter the Great
American Desert in the spring of 1847. As the Mor-
mon president had not yet determined where he and
his people would finally settle, he was greatly im-
pressed with Father de Smet's description of Salt
Lake and Cache Valleys stretching away from the
Wasatch Mountains. "They asketi me a thousand
questions about the regions I had explored", writes
the priest to his nephew, " and the valley which I
have just described to you. pleased them greatly
from the account I gave them of it. Was this what
determined them to settle there? I would not dare
to affirm it. They are there!" In the summer of
1863, sixteen years after the Mormons entered Utah,
that exemplary priest, John Baptist Ravardy, came
from Denver, Colorado, and passed some days in
Salt Lake City. He was the guest of General
Patrick Edward Connor, then in command of the
troops at Fort Douglas, built on a bench a little to
the east of the city. Father Ravardy found no
Catholics in Salt Lake and, after administering the
Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion to
some soldiers at the military post, he returned to
Denver, where he died, 18 November, 1889. Early
in June, 1S66, Rev. Edward Kelly visited Salt Lake
by request of Bishop O'Connell of Sacramento, who
believed his jurisdiction extended over the entire
State of Utah. Father Kelly offered up the Holy
Sacrifice — the first Mass said in Salt Lake City — on
the morning of 29 June, 1866, in the Assembly Hall
of the Latter Day Saints, courteously placed at his
disposal by the president, Brigham Young.
On 5 Feb., 1868, Colorado and Utah were erected by Papal Brief into a vicariate Apostolic, and the Very Rev. Joseph P. Machebeuf of Denver was, on i6 Aug. of the same year, raised to the episcopate and entrusted with the vicariate. On 30 Nov., 1868, Bishop Machebeuf, having already appointed Rev. James P. Foley missionary- rector of Salt Lake, visited the Mormon stronghold and confinned four- teen soldiers. The bislio]), during his visit of ten days, wa-s the guest of General Connor, who accompa- nied him in some of his visits to the few Catholics then in Salt Lake. Father Foley remained in the city two years, and on a lot purchsised by his predecessor. Rev. Patrick Walsh, built in 1869 an unpretentious church, the first Catholic church erected in the State of Utah. In 1870, the Holy See, on the urgent pleading of Bishop Machebeuf, placed Utah under the jurisdic- tion of .\rchbishop Alemany of San Fr.ancisco, who entrusted the mission to the care of the Rev. Patrick Walsh. Father Walsh began his sacerdotal duties in Salt Lake early in 1871. He remained on the mis- sion for two years, organized a parish in the city, destroyed the little adobe chapel of Father Foley and built a brick church under the patronage of St. Mary Magdalene. On 14 .\ug., 1873, Rev. Law-rence Scanlan, missionary rector of Petaluraa, Archdiocese of San Francisco, succeeded Father Walsh, and with him the history of the Church in Utah practically begins. Wlicn I'^ather Scanlan entered Salt Lake he became missionary rector over the largest pari.sh in extent in the Unite'd States. In a state population of 87,000 there were, perhaps, 800 Catholics. In Salt Lake and Ogden there were, by actual count, 90
Catholics; the remainder were dispersed along rail-
road divisions, in mining camps, and on the ranches.
The little brick church to which he fell heir carried a
debt of .$6000. It was the only Catholic church in a
region of 85,000 square miles. Father Scanlan soon
licgan, on foot and on horseback, a visitation of his
immense charge, the hardships of which taxed to the
limit the vital forces of a splendid physique. On 29
June, 1887, he was, in recognition of his administra-
tive ability and of his fidelity to the duties of his
priestly mission, appointed vicar Apostolic over all
Utah and a large area of Nevada. He was later
consecrated Bishop of Larandum in the Cathedral of
San Francisco by Archbishop Riordan, assisted by
Bishops O'Connell and Minogue. In 1891 the
Vicariate Apostolic of Utah and Nevada was canon-
ically constituted a diocese, and Bishop Scanlan fixed
his cathedral throne permanently in Salt Lake City.
The newly erected diocese embraced then, as it does
now, 1.53,768 square miles, constituting it the largest
diocese in the United States.
The era of Gentile — as distinguished from the Mor- mon — emigration practically began with the building of the Union Pacific to Ogden in Slarch, 1869, and with the elevation to the episcopal throne of the Very Reverend LawTence Scanlan in 1887, Cathohcism entered Utah as an organized religion. Since then, the Church, so far as adverse conditions have permitted, has kept step with the educational, industrial, and political expansion of the state. For one not familiar with conditions as they existed in Utah until the present, it would be next to impossible to understand the almost insuperable difficulties which opposed, and are j^et opposing, the spiritual and material expansion of religion in Utah. The state is inclosed by the mineral belt of the South-west, and mining is one of the most important of its in- dustries. When a report is heard on the streets of Salt Lake that gold or silver has been uncovered in one of the gulches, canyons, or streams of the Wa- satch Range, there is at once a rush for the "dig- gings". If facts verify the rumour, a mining camp is established which, in time, becomes a town of three or foiu- thousand energetic men; among them will be many Catholics clamouring for a church and a priest. The bishop goes in person to inspect conditions, is satisfied with the encouragement he receives, and, re- turning to Salt Lake, commissions one of his priests to take up his residence and build a church at "Silver Reef" or "Goldville". A year after the church is built and partially paid for, the "workings" give out and the town is abandoned, leaving the church vacant and the priest a pastor without a flock. This is not an incident in the experience of Bi.shop Scanlan, it is a repetition in his episcopal life. ^lany towns and vil- lages, of from two to seven thousand souls, are en- tirely Mormon and are outside the influence of the Cathohc Church. The Catholic population of Utah is sparse; ne\-ertheless, the bishop has achieved mar- vels. He brought the Sisters of the Holy Cross from Indiana to Salt Lake City, to Ogden, to Park City, and Eureka. In Park City and Eureka the Sisters teach select and parochial schools; in Ogden they con- duct the Sacred Heart Academy; in Salt Lake City the Sisters conduct St. Mary's Academy and also Holy Cross Hospital. The Kearns' St. Ann's Or- phanage, built by Senator and Mrs. Ke;u-ns, has, since its completion in 1900, been under the care of eleven Sisters of the same order. In 1SS5 Bishop Scanlan founded and built the .\11 Hallows College now one of the leading Catholic colleges of the South- west, and in 1SS9 he invited the Marist fathers to take charge •>! the institution. On 15 .Vugust, 1909, St. Mar>- Magdalene's Cathedral was dedicated by Cardinal (iibbons. In January, 1910, Bishop Scan- lan introduced into his diocese the Sisters of Mercy and placed under their charge the "Judge Memorial
