Oklahomanization: 1945-1957

Oklahomanization:
1945-1957
Bishop Eugene McGuinness

Bishop McGuinness’ years in Oklahoma (1945-1957) were a time of building and of development of a native Oklahoma clergy. All the numbers showed an upward trend – 40 percent more parishes, four priests for every three priests previously, only three counties without a church as compared to 11 in 1945, and over 20 churches built in places where there were none before. Although extending an open and grateful hand to European born priests – especially the native Irish and the refugee Polish – the bishop had as his first goal a truly native clergy for Oklahoma. When he died during the Christmas season of 1957 the number of native Oklahoma clergy was double that of 1945.

His motto was "All things to all people." He embodied it. His life as bishop of Oklahoma was a lived example of building a good self-concept. He bragged so well and so consistently on Oklahoma's priests and Catholic people that they began to believe that they were something special.

Red-faced, high pitched rasp of a voice, cigar smoking, friendly, warmly emotional — these were some of the visible traits of Oklahoma's third bishop McGuinness' asceticism was one vast effort to build the Church, as he conceived it, in Oklahoma. In 13 years he rushed from an enormously vigorous middle age to a very tired old man.

Bishop McGuinness' background paralleled Bishop Kelley's. Born of Irish Catholic parents near Bethlehem, Pa., Eugene McGuinness was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 22, 1915. Four years after ordination Father McGuinness was released from Philadelphia to work with Msgr. Francis C. Kelley's Catholic Church Extension Society. For 18 years he labored with Extension for the Church in poor, rural America. In 1937, he was named Bishop of Raleigh, North Carolina. Seven years later Bishop McGuinness was transferred to Oklahoma.

When Bishop McGuinness spoke, one or both of two subjects were emphasized: the greatness of everything-about Oklahoma Catholics and the need for a native born clergy It is said that his secretary could tell anyone within earshot exactly when the bishop, in the midst of a Catholic church dedication talk, would say, "You have given me your money. Now give me your flesh and blood!"

There seems to have been a conspiracy between Bishop McGuinness and the Holy Spirit in stirring interest in priestly vocations. When he came to Oklahoma, students for the priesthood were few, 11 to be exact. Ten years later that figure had been multiplied more than 11 times. One hundred and twenty-eight seminarians were studying to priests in Oklahoma. Bishop McGuinness told the truth when he would say (thinking of large U.S. eastern dioceses which placed limits on the numbers of seminarians) that he didn't believe in ecclesiastical birth control.

Religious vocations also flourished during Bishop McGuinness' time. In the final year of his life the four Oklahoma based communities of women religious (Benedictines, the Third Order Carmelites, the Discalced Carmelites and the Felicians) had a total of 47 postulants and novices. There were 22 clerics and novices at St. Gregory's Abbey even though the total number of professed monks was only 3!

From his years with the (Extension Society to Bishop of Raleigh to Bishop of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Eugene J. McGuinness was a home missioner. His priorities were neither social justice, nor ecumenism, nor liturgical renewal — although strains of all these were evident in the Church of Oklahoma during his time.

First and foremost with Bishop McGuinness was the extension of the Church. If other programs helped they were good, even those the bishop found personally difficult to swallow. He may have seen the Church too much in terms of numbers, but with his own vision he loved her warmly. The Church was the treasure of Bishop McGuinness' life.

During Bishop McGuinness' 13-year tenure as Bishop of Oklahoma City and Tulsa the number of Catholics in the state grew by almost 40 percent to more than 93,000 in 1957. In the last year of his life 1,242 adult converts were received into the Church.

Through his visits to every parish, mission, and station in the state, and by his constant preaching about vocations, he increased the number of seminarians many-fold, and added in a remarkable manner to the number of native clergy. He made trips to Ireland and London after World War II and recruited priests from Ireland and Poland whose contribution to the diocese has been incalculable.

His dream was a diocesan preparatory seminary, the cost of which he raised in 1955 during the Golden Jubilee Drive held in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the diocese. Bishop McGuinness did not live to see the formal dedication of this building, performed on May 14, 1959 by Archbishop Albert G. Meyer of Chicago and Bishop Victor J. Reed.

Oklahoma's third bishop died suddenly on the morning of December 27, 1957, having been admitted to St. Anthony's Hospital the day previous for observation.