Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel. Archbishop Rummel High School.

Archbishop

Joseph Francis

Rummel

Ninth Archbishop of New Orleans

1876 – 1964

A Man of Faith, Courage and Conviction.

Joseph Francis Rummel was born in Steinmauern, Germany, and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of six, settling in New York City. As a young boy, he attended parochial schools and showed an early devotion to faith and learning. He entered St. Mary's College in North East, Pennsylvania, and later completed his priestly studies at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, New York. Ordained a priest in 1902, he served in the Archdiocese of New York for more than two decades, where he became known for his pastoral care and dedication to education. His leadership and compassion led to his appointment as Bishop of Omaha in 1928, where he strengthened Catholic education and expanded parish life before being named Archbishop of New Orleans in 1935.

During his tenure in New Orleans, Archbishop Rummel guided the Church through remarkable growth and transformation, founding new parishes, schools, and charitable programs across southern Louisiana. He championed religious education and encouraged lay participation, strengthening the foundation of Catholic life in the region. Among his lasting achievements was the opening of four new secondary schools in Jefferson Parish in 1962, including Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie. Archbishop Rummel is best remembered for his courageous stand on racial justice, most notably his 1953 pastoral letter, “Blessed Are the Peacemakers,” and the letter that followed in 1956 declaring segregation morally wrong and sinful. Despite fierce resistance, he remained steadfast, even excommunicating segregationist leaders who defied his call for equality. His unwavering moral leadership helped shape the conscience of both the Church and the city. A man of deep faith and humility, Archbishop Rummel served until his death in 1964 at the age of 88, leaving behind a legacy of faith, courage, and education that continues to inspire through the schools and communities he built.

Crowds along the New Orleans riverfront waiting to greet Archbishop Rummel in May 1935

Joseph Francis Rummel arrives in New Orleans. Then a 1953 ceremony marking the twenty fifth anniversary of his being named a bishop, then more of the 1935 arrival celebrations.

The Journey of Joseph Rummel.

1876 to 1964

Seven stops, six places

Select a location on the map to learn more.

Select a location to learn more.

St. Louis Cathedral filled for the installation of Archbishop Rummel, May 15, 1935 — The Ceremony of Installation, St. Louis Cathedral, May 15, 1935

The life of Joseph Rummel.

Born in a village on the Rhine, ordained in Rome, laid to rest in St. Louis Cathedral. His life in four parts.

1876 October 14

The Archbishop was six when the family sailed for New York, and he grew up in the German immigrant quarter of Yorkville, in St. Boniface parish. He became an American citizen on February 2, 1888, at eleven years old. Everything that followed happened in a second language and a second country.

In 1896 he took his degree at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, studied at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers and was sent to Rome to finish.
1902 May 24

The Archbishop built his reputation on relief work rather than pulpit oratory. In 1923 he ran the American campaign that fed the starving children of Germany, asking a country five years out of war with Germany to pay for it.

Then, from 1924 to 1928, he was pastor of St. Joseph of the Holy Family in Harlem, an African American Catholic parish. It was the last assignment he held before he was made a bishop, and it is where everything he did in New Orleans starts.
1928 May 29

The pectoral cross presented to him that day is the one now in the case on campus. He wore it for the next thirty six years.

Omaha gave him seven years of building schools and steadying parish finances through the worst of the Depression. It was the apprenticeship for what came next.
1935 May 14

The riverfront, May 14, 1935.

This is the scene in the film at the top of this page. He was fifty eight, he had never lived in the South, and he was about to stay longer than any archbishop before or since.
1935 May 15

The banquet program, The Roosevelt, 1935.

The banquet program survives, down to the menu and the toasts. One of them was titled Omaha's Loss. The next was Our Gain.
1938

Fifty thousand at the opening Mass with sixty bishops. Eighty thousand at the closing procession. Pope Pius XI addressed New Orleans by radio from Rome, President Roosevelt sent a message, and both NBC networks carried it live across the country.

From a stadium in New Orleans in October 1938, speakers denounced Nazism, fascism, communism and racism by name. He had been Archbishop for three years.

The following year he became the first chairman of the American bishops' Committee for Refugees, set up for people fleeing Nazi Germany.
1945

At his desk in the Archbishop's residence.

Between 1940 and 1960 the Archdiocese spent more than ten million dollars on construction, a hundred schools among it. Roughly seventy new schools opened under his direction. Rummel is one of them.
1948

The seminary opens to every race

Archbishop Rummel admits two African American students to Notre Dame Seminary. It is six years before Brown v. Board of Education.
1951

A signed portrait from his New Orleans years.

St. Augustine High School was founded in 1951 by the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the Josephite Fathers and Brothers, through the Youth Progress Program of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. It was the Archdiocese's first Catholic secondary school for African American young men.

That January, as episcopal chairman of the Catholic Committee of the South, he led eleven Southern bishops in adopting a resolution calling for the ultimate integration of every member of the Church. Two years before his own letter. Three years before the Supreme Court.
1952

Mamie Eisenhower and Archbishop Rummel, 1952.

By this point he had been running the Archdiocese for seventeen years and was one of the most recognized figures in the city, well outside the Catholic half of it.
1953 March 15

Page one, March 15, 1953.

On page one he set out the charge:

We are still convinced that enforced racial discrimination inflicts incalculable mental and emotional cruelty and pain, physical and social privations, educational and economic restrictions upon 16 millions of our fellow citizens, and that these discriminations are unjustifiable violations of the Christian way of life and the principles of our American heritage. Blessed Are the Peacemakers, March 15, 1953

Four pages of theology follow. Then, on the fifth, it stops being general and becomes an instruction.

Let there be no further discrimination or segregation in the pews, at the Communion rail, at the confessional and in parish meetings, just as there will be no segregation in the kingdom of heaven. Blessed Are the Peacemakers, March 15, 1953

It was Laetare Sunday. Brown v. Board of Education was fourteen months away. You can read all five pages further down this page.
1954

Reviewing the pilgrimage route, 1954.

With him are WDSU newscaster Brandon Chase and Monsignor Charles Joseph Plauche. He was seventy eight.
1955 October

The portrait that hangs on campus.

Parishioners at St. Cecilia's Chapel, sixteen miles down the river, barred Father Gerald Lewis from the altar because he was African American. Rummel suspended services there. No Mass, no sacraments, nothing. His terms for reopening were one sentence long.

Their willingness to accept for service in these churches whatever priest or priests we find it possible to send them. Catholic Action of the South, October 1955

It took them three years to agree. The Vatican newspaper praised him in print, and the archdiocesan paper reprinted the editorial in full. This is the answer to anyone who says his letters were only words.
1955 August

Receiving Haiti's National Order of Honor and Merit, 1955.

The decoration was conferred by Pierre B. Clemenceau, honorary Haitian consul to New Orleans. A foreign government gave its highest award to an American archbishop for disaster relief, and almost nobody at the school has ever heard about it.
1956 February 11

Racial segregation as such is morally wrong and sinful because it is a denial of the unity and solidarity of the human race as conceived by God in the creation of Adam and Eve. The Morality of Racial Segregation, February 11, 1956

The Archbishop built the argument in three parts. Segregation denies the unity of the human race in creation. It denies the universality of the Redemption. It violates justice and the mandate of love. Creation, Redemption, law.

A poll that June found most white Catholics in the South favored segregation. That was the audience he was writing to. An Association of Catholic Laymen organized against him, and he ordered it to disband or be excommunicated. It disbanded.

In 1957 its members petitioned the Pope to overrule him and force him into retirement. Rome refused and called the appeal a grave error.
1958

His coat of arms, engraved.

Metairie was booming and had no Catholic high school at all. Two would go up on the east bank and two on the west: Archbishop Rummel for boys and Archbishop Chapelle for girls in Metairie, Archbishop Shaw for boys in Marrero and Archbishop Blenk for girls in Gretna. The board settled on naming all four for twentieth century archbishops. One of them would be his.

The Archbishop resisted and was overruled, on the argument that he had already lived well past the biblical three score and ten.
1960

The Silver Jubilee invitation, May 18, 1960.

He was eighty three, and he did not slow down. In the spring of 1961 he launched the crash program to build the four Jefferson Parish high schools, including Archbishop Rummel, Archbishop Chapelle, Archbishop Shaw and Archbishop Blenk.

The souvenir card printed for the jubilee carries his motto across the top: Animam pro ovibus ponere.
1961 September 18

Severn Avenue, September 18, 1961.

Assisting him are Brother Francis, FSC, for the Christian Brothers, and the Reverend Henry Bezou, Superintendent of Catholic Schools. The site had been pasture, fenced for cattle. He was eighty four years old.
1961 August

Welcoming Archbishop Cody, 1961.

The Archbishop was eighty four and had been trying to integrate the schools for six years against organized resistance. Cody came to carry the weight and to make sure the order finally landed.
1962 March 27

Leading a blessing at the new Chancellery, 1962.

Every Catholic school in the Archdiocese would accept all qualified students at all levels. At the time roughly half the white students in New Orleans were in Catholic schools, so this moved a substantial share of the city's children in one instruction.

Four days later he sent seven of the loudest opponents a personal and confidential letter warning them what came next.

You have promoted flagrant disobedience to the decision to open our schools to ALL our Catholic children and have even threatened and incited others to take reprisals, legal and otherwise, against our action. Letter of paternal admonition, March 31, 1962

Four of the seven backed down.
1962 April 16

His episcopal arms and his motto.

Monday of Holy Week. At a quarter to six in the evening, a monsignor delivered the the notices to all three of them: barred from the Mass, from the sacraments, and from Catholic burial.

Rome backed him without hesitation. A Vatican spokesman said he had no choice. The Vatican newspaper called the decision admirable. There is a fuller account of the day after, further down this page.
1962 August 25

Addressing the dedication of Archbishop Chapelle High School, August 25, 1962. Archbishop Chapelle High School archives.

Exactly one year to the day after the ground was broken, Archbishop Chapelle High School for Girls was dedicated, named for Placide Louis Chapelle, the sixth Archbishop of New Orleans and the first to serve in the twentieth century. Five Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and four lay teachers opened the doors to 236 freshmen. By the time that first class graduated in 1966 the school had fifty on the faculty.

The finished school on Veterans Memorial Boulevard, 1962. Archbishop Chapelle High School archives.

He had handed the Archdiocese to Archbishop Cody by then, so it was Cody who performed the blessing and who used his own remarks to praise what Archbishop Rummel had done for education. Two weeks later Archbishop Rummel was out on Severn Avenue blessing the school that carried his name.
1962 September 10

The campus blessing, September 10, 1962.

The dedication closed a month of ceremonies opening four new Catholic high schools in Jefferson Parish. With him were Archbishop John P. Cody, Auxiliary Bishop L. Abel Caillouet, Auxiliary Bishop Warren L. Boudreaux of Lafayette, the Right Reverend Lucien J. Caillouet, Jefferson Parish President Dan Hogan, and Brother Raphael, the principal.

Every Catholic school in the Archdiocese opened integrated that month. There was no violence, and enrollment did not fall.
1960
The high schools opened during his twenty nine years:
- De La Salle High School, New Orleans, 1949
- St. Augustine High School, New Orleans, 1951
- Cabrini High School, New Orleans, 1959
- Christian Brothers School, New Orleans, 1960
- Archbishop Rummel High School, Metairie, 1962
- Archbishop Chapelle High School, Metairie, 1962
- Archbishop Shaw High School, Marrero, 1962
- Archbishop Blenk High School, Gretna, 1962
Behind them stand the parish grade schools the Youth Progress Program paid for from 1945 on, and the two seminaries he opened to every race, Notre Dame in 1948 and St. Joseph in Covington in 1951.
1964 November 8

The Requiem, St. Louis Cathedral, November 1964.

The Archbishop had announced his retirement in May 1962, on the sixtieth anniversary of his ordination. Six weeks after handing over the Archdiocese, at eighty six, he got on a plane to Rome for the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

He will go down in history as one who fought for the rights and dignity of all people. Archbishop John P. Cody, 1964

The memorial card printed for the Requiem lists seven lines: born, ordained, consecrated, appointed, appointed again, and the date he was called home.

Archbishop Rummel seated at his desk in the Archbishop's residence, a pen beside him — At his desk in the Archbishop’s residence.

Let there be no further discrimination or segregation in the pews, at the Communion rail, at the confessional and in parish meetings, just as there will be no segregation in the kingdom of heaven.

Joseph Francis RummelLaetare Sunday · March 15, 1953

Four pages of theology, and then one paragraph that changed what a Catholic in southern Louisiana was allowed to do on a Sunday morning. It was read from pulpits across the Archdiocese. Brown v. Board of Education was still fourteen months away.

From the Archives.

Tap any page to read it. Original in the Archives of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Holy Week 1962. The Archbishop stands firm.

TIME MagazineReligion · April 27, 1962

The Archbishop Stands Firm

Eleven days after Holy Week, TIME put New Orleans in front of the country. What it reported:

In March, Archbishop Rummel ordered every Catholic school in the Archdiocese to open integrated that September; the city’s public schools had already begun. A small group organized against the order and urged Catholics to defy it. On the Monday of Holy Week, April 16, he excommunicated its three leaders: Leander Perez, the political boss of Plaquemines Parish; Jackson Ricau, a Citizens’ Council director; and Una Gaillot, who led a group called Save Our Nation.

The next afternoon, as he came out of his residence to lead a Holy Week pilgrimage of prayer, a woman knelt in front of him, asked his blessing, and told him segregation was God’s law. He said nothing, and walked on to lead the pilgrimage. TIME wrote that he had been slow to move on the schools, and that once he moved he did not bend. It printed the line he had made the teaching of the Church in New Orleans: segregation is “morally wrong and sinful.”

Summarized from Religion: The Archbishop Stands Firm, TIME, April 27, 1962. The article is TIME’s. Read it in full there.

Read the article at TIME.com

Campus Archives.

His cross, his ring, his chalice and his rosary are on campus, a few steps from a classroom, alongside paper he signed and the invitations the city printed for him. Every piece was generously shared with the school by the families who kept them.

The Archbishop Rummel display case in the hallway, with the words To give one's life for the sheep on the wall above it — The case in the hallway on campus. His motto runs the length of the wall above it.

The left end of the display case: the biretta, the 1935 arrival, and the chalice — The biretta, the arrival of 1935, and the chalice.

The right end of the display case: the pectoral cross and ring, the groundbreaking shovel, and the five pages of the 1953 letter — The pectoral cross and ring, the groundbreaking shovel, and the five pages of the letter.

The 1949 letter accompanying the episcopal ring — August 1949. The letter that came with the ring, giving it to his secretary for her devotion to duty and faithful service. Signed by his own hand.

Program for the installation banquet at The Roosevelt, 1935 — May 1935. The program for his installation banquet at The Roosevelt. One toast was titled Omaha's Loss. The next was Our Gain.

Invitation to the Silver Jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving, 1960 — May 1960. The Archdiocese invites the faithful to the Mass of Thanksgiving for his twenty fifth anniversary as Archbishop.

Invitation to the 1960 civic reception at the Municipal Auditorium — May 18, 1960. The city's own civic reception in his honor, at the Municipal Auditorium. Two years before he excommunicated three of its citizens.

Souvenir prayer card from the Silver Jubilee, 1960 — The souvenir card. His motto runs across the top: Animam Pro Ovibus Ponere. To give one's life for the sheep.

The memorial card leaf listing the dates of his life — November 1964. The card handed out at his Requiem. Seven lines for eighty eight years, and he let them stand without 1953 or 1962.

The Pectoral Cross

Presented May 29, 1928

Given to him at his episcopal ordination in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, on the day he was made Bishop of Omaha. Like the chalice and the ring, it is set with amethyst, the stone a bishop wears for piety and humility.

Presented at his ordination in New York in 1928
Worn for thirty six years, through Omaha and New Orleans
In the case on campus

The Chalice

Gifted March 19, 1913

His personal chalice, a gift from the parishioners of St. Peter's Church in Kingston, New York, while he was still a parish priest. When he was made Bishop of Omaha in 1928 an amethyst was added to it.

The parishioners of St. Peter's, Kingston, New York in 1913
His close friend Monsignor Joseph Chotin
Msgr. Chotin's sister, Mrs. Warren Johnson
Presented to the school with the 1935 film on September 19, 2008

The Episcopal Ring

Gifted August 1949

The ring he wore through his entire tenure as Archbishop of New Orleans. He gave it to his personal secretary, Miss Aline M. Stiegler, for her devotion to duty and faithful service. The letter that came with it is in the case beside it.

Worn as Archbishop of New Orleans
Given to his secretary Miss Aline M. Stiegler in 1949
Kept in the Stiegler family
Loaned to the school by the Stiegler and Treuting families in 1997

The Rosary

Awarded October 26, 1952

A commemorative rosary from the International Order of Alhambra, for outstanding service to the needy. When he became ill in 1964 he gave it away, and it passed down a family for three generations before coming back.

The International Order of Alhambra in 1952
Given in 1964 to Florence Dunn Vath, mother of his secretary Monsignor Joseph Vath
Passed down through the family
Placed on display by the Robert F. Whitman Jr. ’69 family

Animam pro ovibus ponere

To give one’s life for the sheep

The engraved episcopal coat of arms of Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel — His Crest, 1928

The Archbishop Rummel High School crest — School Crest, 1962

The motto he chose when he was made a bishop in 1928. The hunting horn in the upper right quadrant is lifted straight off his coat of arms, so every Raider has been wearing a piece of his shield since 1962.

View the Crest Section by Section

Archbishop Rummel turning the first spade of dirt for the new school on Severn Avenue, September 18, 1961

Archbishop Rummel High School… Living up to a Legacy that is unmatched.

ARCHBISHOP’S RESIDENCE 2809 S. Carrollton Avenue New Orleans 18, Louisiana March 15, 1953 “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS” To the Clergy, Religious and Laity, Archdiocese of New Orleans. Dearly beloved in Christ: During this holy season of Lent we feel the urge to address to you a pastoral message which may serve as an incentive for perseverance in prayer, works of penance and a revival of the Catholic way of life. For our theme we have selected perhaps the sweetest among those inspiring promises known as the Beatitudes, recorded in the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, Chapter 5, verse 9. Our selection reads: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” Peace may well be called the theme of the life of Christ. It is proclaimed as such by the angels over the plains of Bethlehem in their immortal song, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men of good will.” The re-establishment of peace between God and man is the purpose of the Mystery of the Redemption, which was tragically but gloriously consummated on the Cross, when Christ proclaimed, “It is consummated!” No less significant is the fact that the first greeting of the Risen Savior to His apostles on Easter day was the familiar “Peace be to you.” And everlastingly memorable are His words when He prepared them for His ascension into heaven: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” Ushered in by the promise of peace, the life of the Son of God on earth was enduringly a pattern of peace in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, in the villages and towns of Judea and Galilee, on Mount Tabor and by the Lake of Genesareth, right up to the tragic climax of the Mount called Calvary. Everywhere did Jesus radiate the light and warmth of heavenly peace and conciliation to men of good will. Peace is the existence of order and coordination. We speak of personal or individual peace to indicate a well ordered relationship between the human mind and

the human will and the control which both mind and will exercise over the senses of the body, the emotions of the heart and the passions of the soul. When this coordination is inspired and regulated by principles which are in conformity with the natural law and the will of God, it establishes a tranquillity of soul, which in turn is known as peace of conscience or interior peace. It should be the aspiration of every human soul to acquire this personal internal peace, for in it and through it alone can we experience genuine happiness and contentment. The order or coordination of habits and interests between human individuals and groups of individuals in their various relationships, results in social peace. Here the elements of justice and charity are the principal sources from which social peace derives inspiration and direction. As personal or interior peace guarantees happiness and contentment to the individual soul, thus social peace is the pledge of happiness, security and prosperity to society at large. The establishment of order between nations and governments according to principles of justice, inalienable human rights, historic traditions and the immutable laws of God may be said to constitute international peace. In the halcyon days of the millennium, when all nations will accept with mutual sincerity such order and coordination, then will the world experience the freedom, the happiness and the prosperity for which human hearts in every corner of God’s earth long, and pray and sigh as the foretaste of heaven. It is characteristic of every type of peace that it is not achieved without sacrifice. No individual finds true peace within himself until he has learned to curb his passions, control his emotions, guard his senses, restrain his imagination, bring his mind under the subjection of his will and make his will a perfect instrument of the all holy and adorable will of the Eternal God. All this involves not one but many sacrifices, which are possible only through full cooperation with divine grace, that heavenly gift which “enlightens the mind and strengthens the will to shun evil and do good.” Nor is peace achieved without sacrifice between individuals, between the members

of the family, between larger groups of human society and between nations. In every instance there is need of self restraint, self-control, a balanced recognition of mutual rights and duties and not infrequently the surrender and exchange of certain rights and obligations for the common good. It is this element of sacrifice which makes the attainment and maintenance of peace so difficult and so frequently causes peacemaking efforts to end in frustration and failure. Peace between groups and between nations is the result of a delicate application and adjustment of the principles of justice and of charity. This adjustment and application not infrequently requires the intervention of a third or disinterested party, and thus we have the office of peacemaker. When our Divine Savior called peacemakers “blessed,” He undoubtedly had in mind not only the priceless gift of peace of which they become the instruments, but also the merit that is due to those whose wisdom, truth and influence bring to recognition the virtues of justice and charity, which are the foundations of true peace. Our Divine Savior Himself set a glorious example of the spirit of sacrifice which must characterize the role of a genuine peacemaker, when He carried the Cross through the streets of Jerusalem and sacrificed His life upon the Hill of Calvary. Thus He sealed with His own Precious Blood the bond of peace between the outraged Majesty of God and sinful man. Christ came into this sinful world to be not only the herald of peace but also the Divine Peacemaker: “For it has pleased God the Father that in Him all His fullness should dwell, and that through Him He should reconcile to Himself all things, whether on the earth or in the heaven, making peace through the Blood of the Cross.” We are not all called upon to be peacemakers in the same sense or degree, but certainly it must be the ambition and longing of all without exception to establish and maintain true inward peace by conforming perfectly our minds, our hearts and our wills with the eternal, all holy Will of God, thus patterning our lives after the life of Christ. On no other basis can we share the peace promised at the birth of the Savior to men of “good will.” All of us certainly have the obligation of being peacemakers by cultivating

relations of genuine charity and good will with the members of our own household and family to the exclusion of anger, meanness, quarreling, abusive words and actions and all hardness of heart. “This is the haven of peace” may well be inscribed as a motto over the door of every home, especially the home that is dedicated to the Catholic way of life. We can and should likewise function as peacemakers by living up to and promoting the principles of justice and charity in the office, in the shop, in the store, in the factory, in meeting places and wherever we come in contact with our fellowmen. Kindness, courtesy and a helping hand contribute much towards social peace, mutual understanding and happiness. And now we call upon all the members of our beloved flock to exercise the role of peacemakers in our intercourse with those who may differ from us by characteristics of race, nationality, color of the skin, habits or creed. In all we must respect the common bond that stems from the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men. We are all created to the image and likeness of God, endowed with a spiritual nature and called to participate in the eternal happiness of heaven. All were envisioned in the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption; all are invited to participate in the merits of Christ’s death upon the Cross and in the graces which that sacrifice made available. The obligations of justice and of Christ’s mandate of charity: “Love thy neighbor as thyself” provide for no exceptions on the lines indicated; nor does His mission to the Apostles, “Go, make disciples of all nations,” suggest any discrimination. In particular we are here concerned about our attitude towards our brethren of the Colored race. Much is today being spoken and written about the so-called problem of segregation as reflected in certain laws, agreements and customs. Undoubtedly the Federal and State Courts, supported by wholesome public opinion, will in due time define where such laws and customs are in conflict with the American Constitution and way of life, but we can help hasten the day of complete peaceful adjustment by an ever increasing spirit, in word and action, of good will, respect and sympathy towards the Colored people. Public laws, customs of long standing, regulations and agreements of institutions and between business interests are obstacles not easy to overcome, but we can do much to aid this cause of justice and charity by making segregation disappear in our Catholic church life. We have already made notable progress by the removal of offensive signs that limited the use of certain pews and by the aggregation of Colored units with the Metropolitan, Deanery and Diocesan Unions of the Holy Name

Society, the Sodality and the Councils of Catholic Men and Women. But there still persists in some churches the practice of expecting the Colored to occupy a certain section of pews and to wait at the end of the line for Holy Communion. There may be other practices that cause humiliation and embarrassment, which should be foreign to our religious life and considered unworthy of a true spiritual understanding of our Catholic faith. Ever mindful, therefore, of the basic truth that our Colored Catholic brethren share with us the same spiritual life and destiny, the same membership in the Mystical Body of Christ, the same dependence upon the Word of God, the participation in the Sacraments, especially the Most Holy Eucharist, the same need of moral and social encouragement, let there be no further discrimination or segregation in the pews, at the Communion rail, at the confessional and in parish meetings, just as there will be no segregation in the kingdom of heaven. Our Colored Catholics are encouraged and urged to retain their loyalty and membership in their special congregations, but they should not be harassed when they attend services in any parish church or mission, or when they apply for membership in parish organizations. These observances will contribute much to the edification of all who are genuinely interested in our holy Catholic faith and guarantee to all of us a greater participation in the promise of Christ when He proclaimed from the Mountain of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” As for peace on the worldwide basis between the nations, we can only contribute the benefit of our united prayers in union with the never ending efforts of the Vicar of Christ, Pope Pius XII, whom we commend very especially to your prayerful remembrances as he enters upon the 15th year of his pontificate. May our Divine Savior spare him to the Church and the world for years to come and may all of us merit the blessedness of peacemakers and children of God. Faithfully yours in the Prince of Peace, + JOSEPH FRANCIS RUMMEL Archbishop of New Orleans. Laetare Sunday March 15, 1953