John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore)

{{Short description|First Catholic bishop in the US (1735–1815)}} {{redirect|John Carroll (bishop)|other bishops with the name|John Carroll (disambiguation)#Religion}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | honorific-prefix = The Most Reverend | name = John Carroll | honorific-suffix = SJ | title = Archbishop of Baltimore | image = John Carroll Gilbert Stuart.jpg | alt = | caption = Portrait by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1806 | church = Catholic Church | province = Baltimore | diocese = | see = Baltimore | appointed = November 6, 1789 | enthroned = December 12, 1790 | ended = December 3, 1815 | predecessor = ''Diocese erected'' | successor = Leonard Neale | ordination = February 14, 1761 | ordinated_by = | consecration = August 15, 1790 | consecrated_by = Charles Walmesley | rank =  | birth_date = January 8, 1735 | birth_place = Marlborough Town, Province of Maryland | death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=y|1815|12|3|1735|1|8}} | death_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | previous_post = | motto = ''Ne derelinquas nos domine deus noster''<br>(Forsake us not, O Lord, my God, stay not far from me) | education = Jesuit seminary in Liège, Belgium }} {{Ordination | ordained deacon by = | date of diaconal ordination = | place of diaconal ordination = | ordained priest by = | date of priestly ordination = February 14, 1761 | place of priestly ordination = | consecrated by = Charles Walmesley | co-consecrators = | date of consecration = August 15, 1790 | place of consecration = | elevated by = | date of elevation = | sources = | bishop 1 = Leonard Neale | consecration date 1 = December 7, 1800 | bishop 2 = Michael Francis Egan | consecration date 2 = October 28, 1810 | bishop 3 = Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus | consecration date 3 = November 1, 1810 | bishop 4 = Benedict Joseph Flaget | consecration date 4 = November 4, 1810 }} {{Infobox bishopstyles |name=John Carroll |dipstyle=The Right Reverend |offstyle=Your Excellency |relstyle=Monsignor |deathstyle=none | |image=Coat of arms of John Carroll.svg|image_size=200px}}

'''John Carroll''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=SJ}} (January 8, 1735 – December 3, 1815<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Carroll, John}}</ref>) was an American Catholic prelate who served as the nation's first Catholic bishop, overseeing the Diocese of Baltimore, then the only diocese in the nascent United States, from 1789 to 1815. He became Archbishop of Baltimore in 1808, up to which point Carroll had also administered the entire U.S. Catholic Church.

Born to an aristocratic family in the colonial-era Province of Maryland, Carroll spent most of his early years as a priest in Europe, teaching and serving as a chaplain. After returning to Maryland in 1773, he started organizing the Catholic Church in America with a small cadre of priests. The Vatican appointed him to several roles as leader of the American Catholic hierarchy, culminating in his appointment as archbishop.

Carroll founded Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and St. John the Evangelist Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland, the first secular parish in the country.

==Early life and education== Carroll was born on January 8, 1735, in Upper Marlborough, Maryland, in the colonial-era Province of Maryland, to Daniel Carroll I and Eleanor Darnall Carroll at the noble Carroll family plantation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Melville|1955|p=1}}</ref>{{Efn|Some sources identify his date of birth as January 19 or January 25.<ref>{{Harvnb|Guilday (vol. 1)|1922|p=xi}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Spalding |first1=Thomas W |title=Most Rev. John Carroll |url=https://www.archbalt.org/most-rev-john-carroll/ |website=Archdiocese of Baltimore |access-date=September 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722205120/https://www.archbalt.org/most-rev-john-carroll/ |archive-date=July 22, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>}} <ref>{{Cite web |last=Dolan |first=Timothy M. |title=Library : Right from the Start: John Carroll, Our First Bishop |url=https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=8269 |access-date=November 27, 2023 |website=Catholic Culture}}</ref><ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|O'Donovan|1908}}</ref> John Carroll grew up on the plantation.<ref name="Dolan">{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=8269|title=Library : Right From the Start: John Carroll, Our First Bishop|website=www.catholicculture.org|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref>

* Carroll's older brother, Daniel Carroll II (1730–1796), was one of five men to sign both the Articles of Confederation (1778) and the US Constitution (1787).<ref name="odonovan">{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03381b.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: John Carroll|website=www.newadvent.org|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref> * Carroll's cousin, Charles Carroll (1737–1832), was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence (1776). He participated in the 1828 setting of the "first stone" in the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Charles Carroll of Carrollton |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03379c.htm |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>

John Carroll was home-schooled by Eleanor Carroll, then sent to a Catholic school in Bohemia Manor, Maryland. As the Province of Maryland did not allow Catholic education, the school was run secretly by the Jesuit Reverend Thomas Poulton. When Carroll reached age 13, his family sent him and his cousin Charles to the College of St. Omer in the Artois region of France. The school was a popular destination for the education of boys from wealthy Catholic families in Maryland.<ref name="hagerty">{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03379c.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Charles Carroll of Carrollton|website=www.newadvent.org|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref>

==Jesuit== thumb|Letter of Bishop Challoner to the Maryland Jesuits informing them of the suppression of the Society of Jesus|286x286px Carroll joined the Society of Jesus as a postulant at age 18 in 1753. In 1755, he began his studies of philosophy and theology at a Jesuit seminary in Liège, Belgium.

On February 14, 1761, Carroll was ordained to the priesthood in Liège by Bishop Pierre Louis Jacquet. Carroll was formally professed as a Jesuit in 1771.<ref name="Dolan" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Archbishop John Carroll [Catholic-Hierarchy] |url=https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bcarrollj.html |access-date=November 27, 2023 |website=www.catholic-hierarchy.org}}</ref> Carroll remained in Europe until he was almost 40, teaching at St Omer and in Liège. He also served as chaplain to a British aristocrat traveling in Europe.<ref name="pilch" />

When Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus in 1773, Carroll returned to the family plantation in Maryland. The suppression of the Jesuits was a painful experience for Carroll; he suspected that the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith was responsible for it.<ref name="pilch" /> Since the laws of Maryland prohibited the establishment of a Catholic parish, Carroll worked as a missionary in both Maryland and the Province of Virginia.<ref name="odonovan" /> In 1774, he built a small chapel on the plantation called St. John the Evangelist.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Melton |first=J. Gordon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bI9_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1339E |title=Faiths Across Time [4 Volumes]: 5,000 Years of Religious History [4 Volumes] |date=January 15, 2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-61069-026-3 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1776, the Continental Congress asked Charles Carroll, attorney Samuel Chase and Benjamin Franklin to travel to the British Province of Canada on a diplomatic mission. Charles persuaded his cousin John to join the delegation. The goal of the mission was to persuade the French population of the province to ally themselves with the Thirteen Colonies in the American Revolution.<ref name="Dolan" />

However, the mission to Canada was a failure; the American delegation could not win any support there. Jean-Olivier Briand, the bishop of Quebec, banned his priests from meeting with Carroll and the rest of the mission. When Franklin became sick, Carroll escorted him back from Montreal to Philadelphia.<ref name="basilica">{{Cite web|url=http://www.baltimorebasilica.org/index.php?page=archbishop-john-carroll|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529065844/http://www.baltimorebasilica.org/index.php?page=archbishop-john-carroll|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 29, 2008|title=Archbishop John Carroll|website=www.baltimorebasilica.org|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref> Carroll then returned to the family plantation, performing ministerial duties during the war years.<ref name="odonovan" />

==Superior of the missions== During the colonial period, the Catholic clergy in the Thirteen American colonies were under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England. After the American Revolution, anti-British sentiment in the new United States made it important to change that jurisdiction. When Bishop Richard Challoner, the most recent vicar-apostolic, died in 1781, his successor, Bishop James Talbot, refused to exercise jurisdiction in the United States. The Vatican had to come up with a new arrangement.<ref name="hennesey" />

The end of the American Revolution marked the loosening of anti-Catholic sentiment and laws in the United States. Beginning on June 27, 1783, Carroll held a series of meetings at White Marsh Manor in Bowie, Maryland. These meetings started the formation of the American Catholic Church.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Parish History |url=https://www.sacredheartbowie.org/parish-history |access-date=November 27, 2023 |website=Sacred Heart Catholic Church}}</ref> That same year, Carroll and several supporters began fundraising for an Academy of Georgetown for educating Maryland Catholics.

Regarding the leadership of the American church, the Maryland priests felt it was too soon to have an American bishop.<ref name="hennesey">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tAjuDMetOYcC&q=john+carroll|title=American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States|first=James J.|last=Hennesey|date=March 24, 1983|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-802036-3 |accessdate=October 28, 2022|via=Google Books}}</ref> The papal nuncio in France, Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili, then asked Benjamin Franklin, at that point in Paris as American Minister to the French court, for advice on the matter.<ref name="Archivum Historiae Pontificiae_vol.16">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBI0I7MUGN0C&pg=PA178|title=Archivum Historiae Pontificiae|volume= 16|page=178|access-date=July 10, 2021}}</ref> Franklin responded that the separation of church and state did not permit the U.S. government officially to indicate a preference. Privately, Franklin suggested that the Vatican could put a French bishop in charge of the American church, but also expressed his admiration for Carroll's abilities.<ref name="hennesey" />

On June 9, 1784, Pope Pius VI appointed Carroll as provisional superior of the missions for the United States, with the power to celebrate the sacrament of confirmation.<ref name="Archivum Historiae Pontificiae_vol.16" /><ref>{{cite journal |author=Hennessy |first=James |year=1978 |title=An eighteenth century bishop: John Carroll of Baltimore |url= |journal=Archivum Storiae Pontificiae |publisher=GBPress- Gregorian Biblical Press |volume=16 |pages=171–204 |jstor=23563998 |quote=}}</ref> The Vatican reportedly appointed Carroll to please Franklin.<ref name="pilch">{{Cite web |last=Pilch |first=John J. |date=1989 |title=American Catholicism's Bicentennial |url=http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/pilchj/carroll.htm |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526033814/http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/pilchj/carroll.htm |archivedate=May 26, 2013 |accessdate=October 28, 2022 |website=Catholic Review}}</ref>

===Reforms===

====Financial reform and lay involvement==== Unlike in other countries, Catholicism was not regulated by government in the new United States. With little contact with the Vatican and no American hierarchy, local parishes were setting their own standards and practices. Some communities created churches administered by laity without Carroll's permission. Other parishes were controlled exclusively by their clergy.

Through his meetings with the clergy, Carroll sought to build a church structure that accepted the need for lay involvement while providing a reasonable degree of hierarchical control.

====Early ecumenical efforts==== Carroll frequently published articles refuting anti-Catholic slanders and misinformation. He also fought proposals to establish a Protestant denomination as a state religion. However, Carroll always treated non-Catholics with respect and said that Catholics and Protestants should work together. Carroll suggested that the chief obstacles to Christian unity were the lack of clarity by the Vatican on the boundaries of papal primacy and the use of Latin in the Catholic liturgy.<ref name="hennesey" />

==Apostolic prefect of the United States==

thumb|Certificate of Carroll's episcopal consecration (1790) After the end of the American Revolution (1775–1783), on November 26, 1784, the Vatican established the Apostolic Prefecture of the United States, naming Carroll as its prefect apostolic.<ref name="odonovan" />

In a February 1785 letter to Cardinal Leonardo Antonelli, Carroll reported on the status of the Catholic Church in Maryland, which had the largest Catholic population in the United States. He said that despite having only 19 priests in Maryland, some of the more prominent families in the state were still observant Catholics. He did mention that some of these Catholics enjoyed dancing and novel-reading. Carroll also urged the Vatican to allow American clergy a voice in appointing their first bishop, to ease their fears of Vatican control.<ref name="odonovan" />

Pope Pius VI granted Carroll's request "that the priests in Maryland be allowed to suggest two or three names from which the Pope would choose their bishop". The pope also designated Baltimore as the first see for an American diocese, again at the priests' request.<ref name="odonovan" /> The Maryland clergy, by a vote of 24 to 1 in April 1789, recommended that the Vatican appoint Carroll as the first bishop of Baltimore.<ref name="odonovan" />

== Bishop of Baltimore == thumb|Chapel at Lulworth Castle in Dorset, England, where Reverend Carroll was consecrated bishop of Baltimore (1888) On November 6, 1789, Pius VI appointed Carroll as bishop of Baltimore. He was consecrated in England by Bishop Charles Walmesley. He was assisted by the Reverends Charles Plowden and James Porter, on August 15, 1790, in the chapel of Lulworth Castle in Dorset.<ref name="prendergast">{{Cite book |last1=Corcoran |first1=James Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spHNAAAAMAAJ&q=lulworth+castle+chapel |title=The American Catholic Quarterly Review |last2=Ryan |first2=Patrick John |last3=Prendergast |first3=Edmond Francis |date=1889 |publisher=Hardy and Mahony |language=en}}</ref><ref name="odonovan" /><ref name=":2" /> Returning to the United States, Carroll was invested as bishop at St. Thomas Manor Church in Charles County, Maryland.<ref>{{cite web|url={{MHT url|id=1028}} |title=Maryland Historical Trust|date=June 8, 2008|work= St. Thomas Manor, Charles County|publisher=Maryland Historical Trust}}</ref> When it was established, the Diocese of Baltimore had jurisdiction over what is today the area of the United States east of the Mississippi River.

Carroll selected the Church of St. Peter in Baltimore to serve as his pro-cathedral. Constructed in 1770, St. Peter was the first Catholic church in Baltimore.<ref>{{Cite web |title=St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral |url=https://www.archbalt.org/the-archdiocese/st-peters-pro-cathedral/ |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=Archdiocese of Baltimore |language=en-US}}</ref> The pro-cathedral was the site of the first synod of American priests and deacons in 1791.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Synods and Councils of Baltimore (1791–1884) |url=https://www.archbalt.org/the-synods-and-councils-of-baltimore-1791-1884/ |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=Archdiocese of Baltimore |language=en-US}}</ref> It also hosted the first ordination of a priest (1793) and the first consecration of a bishop (1800) in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stephen T. Badin's Ordination Was a 1st – 1701–1800 Church History |url=https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/stephen-t-badins-ordination-was-a-1st-11630323.html |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=Christianity.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Catholic church in the United States of America, undertaken to celebrate the golden jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X |date=1912 |publisher=The Catholic Editing Company |others=Harvard University |location=New York}}</ref>

In March 1790, Carroll sent a message of congratulations, along with a blessing, to the newly elected president, George Washington, on behalf of all American Catholics.<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Washington and Catholicism |url=https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/religion/george-washington-and-catholicism/ |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=George Washington's Mount Vernon |language=en}}</ref> In 1795, at Carroll's request, the Vatican appointed the Reverend Leonard Neale as a coadjutor bishop in Baltimore to assist him.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archbishop Leonard Neale [Catholic-Hierarchy] |url=https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bneale.html |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=www.catholic-hierarchy.org}}</ref>

In 1804, the Vatican gave Carroll jurisdiction over the Catholic Church in the Danish West Indies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Daly |first=Joseph G. |date=1967 |title=Archbishop John Carroll and the Virgin Islands |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25017968 |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=305–327 |jstor=25017968 |issn=0008-8080}}</ref> In 1805, the Louisiana Territory was added. Carroll was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in July 1815.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MemberListC | American Antiquarian Society |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistc |accessdate=October 28, 2022 |website=www.americanantiquarian.org}}</ref>

===Founding of Georgetown University=== {{further|Georgetown University}} [[File:John Carroll statue.jpg|thumb|Statue of Bishop / Archbishop John Carroll at Healy Hall at Georgetown University (2007)]]

Since 1783, Carroll had been striving to build a Catholic institution to train American priests and educate Catholic lay people, both men and women. Construction of Georgetown College started in 1788 in the Village of Georgetown in the newly established District of Columbia.<ref name="gtuniv">{{cite web |url= http://www.library.georgetown.edu/special-collections/archives/essays/georgetown-history |title= Historical Sketch of Georgetown University |date= January 8, 2015 |publisher= Georgetown University |access-date= January 8, 2015}}</ref> With the ending of the Jesuit suppression, the order was able to administer the new college. Georgetown College opened on November 22, 1791<ref>{{cite web |url= http://library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/case5.htm |title= William Gaston and Georgetown |publisher= Georgetown University |date= November 11, 2000 |access-date= July 3, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060902195008/http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/case5.htm |archive-date= September 2, 2006 |url-status= dead }}</ref> The ''Bishop John Carroll'' statue is located at the university.

===First diocesan synod=== In 1791, Carroll convened a synod in Baltimore, the first diocesan synod in American history. It was attended by 21 priests. The agenda items included:

* Baptism sacrament * Confirmation sacrament * Penance * Celebration of the liturgy in the mass and prayer services of the hours * Anointing of the sick * Mixed marriages between Catholics and non-Catholics * Rules of fasting and abstinence<ref name="pastoral" />

The synod decrees represent the first local canonical legislation in the new nation. One decree dictation that parishes divide their income into one third to support their clergy, one third to maintain their churches and the remainder to aid the poor.<ref name="pastoral">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/BISHOPS/BC1792.htm|title=Pastoral Letter of 1792|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref>

=== Religious in the diocese === To train priests for his new diocese, Carroll asked the Fathers of the Company of Saint Sulpice to come from France to Baltimore. The Sulpicians arrived in 1791 and started the nucleus of St. Mary's College and Seminary in Baltimore.<ref name="odonovan" /> Carroll gave his approval for the establishment of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary in Baltimore.<ref name="basilica" /> He was not successful, however, in inducing the Carmelites, who had come to Maryland in 1790, to take up the work of education.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

In 1796, a group of Augustinian friars from Ireland arrived in Philadelphia.<ref>[http://midwestaugustinians.org/our-history Thomas Taylor, "Our History" on Retrieved November 16, 2015.]</ref> Carroll took the lead in restoring the Jesuit Order in Maryland in 1805, without informing Rome, by using an affiliation with the Russian Jesuits. They had been protected in the Russian Empire from suppression by Catherine the Great. That same year Carroll urged Dominican friars from England to open a priory and college in Kentucky to serve the numerous Catholics who had been migrating there from Maryland. In 1809, the Sulpicians invited Sister Elizabeth Ann Seton to come to Emmitsburg, Maryland, to found a school. Carroll had to contend with a "medley of clerical characters".<ref name="pilch" /> One of the most notorious was Simon Felix Gallagher of Charleston, an eloquent alcoholic with a large following.<ref name="arch">{{Cite web |title=Welcome to the Archdiocese of Baltimore |url=https://www.archbalt.org/ |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=Archdiocese of Baltimore |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Construction of the first cathedral=== {{Main|Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary}} thumb|Carroll lays the cornerstone for the Cathedral of the Assumption in Baltimore

By the early 19th century, the Diocese of Baltimore had outgrown the St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral. In 1806, Carroll oversaw the construction of the first cathedral, the Cathedral of the Assumption in Baltimore.

The new cathedral was designed by architect Benjamin Latrobe, who had overseen construction of the new United States Capitol building. Carroll laid the cornerstone of the new cathedral on July 7, 1806.<ref name="NCE">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Carroll, John |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/philosophy-and-religion/roman-catholic-and-orthodox-churches-general-biographies/john-carroll |encyclopedia=New Catholic Encyclopedia |first=A. M. |last=Melville |via=encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

===Elevation to archbishop=== {{Main|Archdiocese of Baltimore}}

In April 1808, Pope Pius VII elevated the Diocese of Baltimore into the Archdiocese of Baltimore, making it the first archdiocese in the United States.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Archbishop John Carroll [Catholic-Hierarchy] |url=https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bcarrollj.html |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=www.catholic-hierarchy.org}}</ref> The pope divided the nation into four suffragan dioceses under the new archdiocese:

* The Diocese of Boston, covering New England * The Diocese of New York, covering New York and part of New Jersey * The Diocese of Philadelphia, covering Pennsylvania, part of New Jersey, and the coastal states in the American South * The Diocese of Bardstown, covering the new states and territories in the American Midwest.<ref name="arch" /><ref name=":3" />

Pius VII named Carroll as the first archbishop of Baltimore.<ref name=":3" /> In 1808, he consecrated the Reverend Michael Egan as the first bishop of Philadelphia. Two years later, Carroll consecrated the Reverend Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus as the first bishop of Boston and the Reverend Benedict Flaget as the first bishop of Bardstown.<ref name=":3" />

==Death== John Carroll died in Baltimore on December 3, 1815.<ref name=":3" /> His remains are interred in the crypt of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.<ref name="NCE" />

==Viewpoints==

=== Vernacular liturgy === During this period, Masses were said entirely in Latin, and Catholics had limited access to Bible translations{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}. Carroll strongly believed that Catholics should be able to read and hear the scriptures in English or whatever vernacular language they used. He insisted that priests perform liturgical readings in the vernacular. He was a tireless promoter of the Carey Bible, an edition of the English-language Douay-Rheims translation that was published in sections. He encouraged clergy and laity to purchase subscriptions to this Bible so that they could read the scriptures.<ref name="hennesey" />

As both superior of the missions and bishop, Carroll promoted the use of vernacular languages in the liturgy, but was never able to gain the support of the Vatican. In 1787, he wrote: <blockquote>Can there be anything more preposterous than an unknown tongue; and in this country either for want of books or inability to read, the great part of our congregations must be utterly ignorant of the meaning and sense of the public office of the Church. It may have been prudent, for aught I know, to impose a compliance in this matter with the insulting and reproachful demands of the first reformers; but to continue the practice of the Latin liturgy in the present state of things must be owing either to chimerical fears of innovation or to indolence and inattention in the first pastors of the national Churches in not joining to solicit or indeed ordain this necessary alteration.<ref name="guilday">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5B8FAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA126|title=The Life and Times of John Carroll: Archbishop of Baltimore, 1735–1815|first=Peter|last=Guilday|date=October 28, 1922|publisher=Encyclopedia Press|isbn=9780795009471 |accessdate=October 28, 2022|via=Google Books}}</ref></blockquote> It would be nearly 200 years until Carroll's wish for vernacular language-liturgy was realized in the United States as a result of the Second Vatican Council (in the Eastern Catholic Churches the use of English was permitted even a few years earlier).

=== Slavery === In 2018, investigations by Georgetown University and John Carroll University revealed that Carroll enslaved two men while he was bishop and archbishop: Charles and Alexis.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=Spring 2018 |title=Final Report, Working Group: Slavery—Legacy and Reconciliation, John Carroll University |url=http://webmedia.jcu.edu/mission/files/2018/08/WGSLR-Final-Report-Spring-2018.pdf}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last1=Farkas |first1=Karen |last2=clevel |last3=.com |date=October 12, 2016 |title=John Carroll forms group to study history of slave-owning namesake |url=https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2016/10/john_carroll_university_forms.html |access-date=December 3, 2021 |website=cleveland |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=September 12, 2016 |title=John Carroll University Will Study Its Role In Slavery |url=https://www.wcbe.org/post/john-carroll-university-will-study-its-role-slavery |access-date=December 3, 2021 |website=www.wcbe.org |language=en |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> Carroll sold Alexis in 1806 to a Baltimore man named Mr. Stenson, but Carroll kept Charles.<ref name=":1" /> In his will, Carroll bequeathed ownership of Charles to his nephew, the diplomat Daniel Brent, on the condition that Brent free Charles within a year of Carroll's death. Carroll also provided Charles with a small inheritance.<ref>Richard Shaw, John Dubois founding father: The life and times of the founder of Mount St James, 1983</ref><ref name=":0" />

Carroll advocated for the humane treatment and religious education of enslaved people by their owners. However, in his early years, he never called for the abolition of slavery in the United States.<ref>Marvin L. Krier Mich, ''Catholic Social Teaching and Movements'' 1986</ref> In later years, he promoted a policy of voluntary gradual emancipation by slave owners. Carroll believed that this policy would prevent the breakup of families of enslaved people and allow for the care of their elderly.<ref name="hennesey" /> Responding to critics of this approach, he said:<blockquote>Since the great stir raised in England about Slavery, my Brethren being anxious to suppress censure, which some are always glad to affix to the priesthood, have begun some years ago, and are gradually proceeding to emancipate the old population on their estates. To proceed at once to make it a general measure, would not be either humanity toward the Individuals, nor doing justice to the trust, under which the estates have been transmitted and received.<ref name="hennesey" /></blockquote> ==Legacy== thumb|264x264px|The original John Carroll University campus, now Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, OH.

=== Schools === * Archbishop Carroll High School – Dayton, Ohio<ref>{{Cite web |title=School History – Archbishop Carroll High School |url=https://www.carrollhs.org/about/school-history.cfm |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=www.carrollhs.org}}</ref> * Archbishop Carroll High School – Radnor, Pennsylvania<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jcarroll.org/|title=Archbishop John Carroll High School|website=www.jcarroll.org|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref> * Archbishop Carroll High School – Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archbishopcarroll.org/|title=Archbishop Carroll High School|website=www.archbishopcarroll.org|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref> * John Carroll Catholic High School – Fort Pierce, Florida<ref>{{Cite web |title=History – John Carroll High School |url=https://www.johncarrollhigh.com/history/ |access-date=November 28, 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref> * John Carroll Catholic High School – Birmingham, Alabama<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jcchs.org/|title=Home – John Carroll Catholic High School|website=www.jcchs.org|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref> * John Carroll School – Bel Air, Maryland<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.johncarroll.org/|title=Home | The John Carroll School|website=www.johncarroll.org|accessdate=October 28, 2022}}</ref> * John Carroll University – University Heights, Ohio<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History {{!}} John Carroll University |url=https://www.jcu.edu/about-us/our-history |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=www.jcu.edu}}</ref>

=== Other namings === * Carroll Square – an office building in Washington D.C. that is owned by the Archdiocese of Washington<ref>{{Cite web |title=Carroll Square {{!}} 975 F Street NW |url=https://www.carrollsquaredc.com/ |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=Carroll Square |language=en}}</ref> * Carrolltown, Pennsylvania – founded by Reverend Peter Lemke<ref>{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Henry Lemcke |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09146a.htm |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> * John Carroll Society – an organization for Catholic professional laypersons in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is JCS? – The John Carroll Society |url=https://www.johncarrollsociety.org/what-is-jcs |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=www.johncarrollsociety.org |language=en-US}}</ref> *John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues (JJICSI) – an organization at Georgetown University<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/organizations/john-j-carroll-institute-on-church-and-social-issues|title=John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues|website=berkleycenter.georgetown.edu|language=en|access-date=February 22, 2017|archive-date=February 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223041533/https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/organizations/john-j-carroll-institute-on-church-and-social-issues|url-status=dead}}</ref> * ''Mass for John Carroll'' – a mass setting written by Reverend J. Michael Joncas and published in 1990<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.giamusic.com/store/resource/new-mass-for-john-carroll-cd-recording-g7693cd|title=New Mass for John Carroll – CD|last=Joncas|first=J. Michael|website=GIA Publications, Inc.|access-date=May 15, 2023}}</ref>

== Notes == {{Notelist}}

== References ==

=== Citations === {{Reflist}}

== Sources and further reading== * Agonito, Joseph. ''The building of an American Catholic Church: the episcopacy of John Carroll'' (Routledge, 2017). * Agonito, Joseph. "Ecumenical Stirrings: Catholic-Protestant Relations during the Episcopacy of John Carroll." ''Church History'' 45.3 (1976): 358–373. * {{Citation|access-date=March 29, 2007 |title=Archbishop John Carroll (1790–1815) |publisher=Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary |url=http://www.baltimorebasilica.org/history.php?page=history/content_history_carroll.php&img1=history/images/carroll01.jpg&img2=history/images/carroll02.jpg&img3=history/images/carroll03.jpg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202130026/http://baltimorebasilica.org/history.php?page=history%2Fcontent_history_carroll.php&img1=history%2Fimages%2Fcarroll01.jpg&img2=history%2Fimages%2Fcarroll02.jpg&img3=history%2Fimages%2Fcarroll03.jpg |archive-date=February 2, 2007 |url-status=dead }} * Blanchard, Shaun. "'Was John Carroll an› Enlightened‹ Catholic?' Resituating the Archbishop of Baltimore as a 'Third Party' Prelate" In ''Katholische Aufklärung in Europa und Nordamerika'', edited by Jürgen Overhoff and Andreas Oberdorf (2019): 165–82. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ-sDwAAQBAJ&dq=archbishop+john+carroll&pg=PA165 online] *Breidenbach, Michael D. (2013), 'Conciliarism and American Religious Liberty, 1632–1835' (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cambridge) *{{Cite book|last=Curran|first=Robert Emmett|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wTnIE1HixpYC&pg=PA0|title=The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University, 1789–1889|publisher=Georgetown University Press|year=1993|isbn=978-0-87840-485-8|volume=1|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325032723/https://books.google.com/books?id=wTnIE1HixpYC&pg=PA0%23v%3Donepage&q=&f=false|archive-date=March 25, 2020|url-status=live|via=Google Books}} * DeStefano, Michael. "John Carroll, the Amplitude Apologetic and the Baltimore Cathedral." ''American Catholic Studies'' (2011): 31–61. *{{citation |last=Eberhardt |first=Newman C. |title=A Survey of American Church History |year=1964 |publisher=B. Herder Book Co. |location=St. Louis }} *{{Cite book|last=Guilday|first=Peter|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofjohnc01guil/mode/2up|title=Life and Times of John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore (1735–1815)|publisher=The Encyclopedia Press|year=1922|volume=1|location=New York|oclc=503430666|ref={{harvid|Guilday (vol. 1)|1922}}|via=Internet Archive}} **{{Cite book|last=Guilday|first=Peter|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofjo02guil|title=Life and Times of John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore (1735–1815)|publisher=The Encyclopedia Press|year=1922|volume=2|location=New York|oclc=503430666|ref={{harvid|Guilday (vol. 2)|1922}}|via=Internet Archive}} * Guilday, Peter. ''A History of the Councils of Baltimore, 1791–1884'' (The Macmillan Company, 1932). * {{citation |last=Hennesey |first=James |title=American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States |year=1981 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-502946-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americancatholic00henn }} * Hennesey, James. "An Eighteenth Century Bishop: John Carroll of Baltimore." ''Archivum Historiae Pontificiae'' (1978): 171–204. a short scholarly biography in English. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23563998 online] *{{Cite book|last=Melville|first=Annabelle M.|url=https://archive.org/details/johncarrollofbal00melv|title=John Carroll of Baltimore: Founder of the American Catholic Hierarchy|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1955|location=New York|oclc=1100295225|url-access=registration|via=Internet Archive}} * O'Donnell, Catherine. "John Carroll, the Catholic Church, and the Society of Jesus in Early: Republican America." in ''Jesuit Survival and Restoration'' (Brill, 2015) pp. 368–385. * O'Donnell, Catherine. "John Carroll and the origins of an American Catholic Church, 1783–1815." ''William and Mary Quarterly ''68.1 (2011): 101–126. [https://www.scranton.edu/the-jesuit-center/assets/john-carroll-article.pdf online] *{{Catholic Encyclopedia|volume=3|no-icon=1|wstitle=John Carroll|prescript=|first=Louis|last=O'Donovan|oclc=1017058}} * Shaw, Russell. ''Catholics in America: Religious Identity and Cultural Assimilation from John Carroll to Flannery O'Connor'' (Ignatius Press, 2016) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Etw2DAAAQBAJ&dq=archbishop+john+carroll&pg=PA7 online]. *{{Citation|last=Spalding |first=Thomas W. |year=1997 |access-date=March 29, 2007 |title=Most Rev. John Carroll |publisher=Archdiocese of Baltimore |url=http://www.archbalt.org/our-history/ordinaries-detail.cfm?customel_datapageid_999=1343 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020142746/http://www.archbalt.org/our-history/ordinaries-detail.cfm?customel_datapageid_999=1343 |archive-date=October 20, 2009 }}

==External links== * [http://www.baltimorebasilica.org Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703021305/http://baltimorebasilica.org/ |date=July 3, 2018 }} * [http://www.archbalt.org Archdiocese of Baltimore] * [http://www.ewtn.com/library/BISHOPS/BC1792.htm Pastoral letter of 1792] * [http://www.jcu.edu John Carroll University]

{{s-start}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{s-new|office}} {{s-ttl|title=Prefect Apostolic of the United States|years=1784–1789}} {{s-non|reason=Prefecture abolished}}

{{s-new|diocese}} {{s-ttl|title=Bishop of Baltimore|years=1789–1808}} {{s-aft|after=Himself|as=Archbishop of Baltimore}}

{{s-bef|before=Himself|as=Bishop of Baltimore}} {{s-ttl|title=Archbishop of Baltimore|years=1808–1815}} {{s-aft|after=Leonard Neale}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, John}} Category:1735 births Category:1815 deaths Category:18th-century American Jesuits Category:19th-century American Jesuits Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Slave owners from Maryland Category:18th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Category:Apostolic prefects Category:Roman Catholic archbishops of Baltimore Category:Burials at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary John Category:Clergy in the American Revolution Category:Georgetown University people Category:History of Catholicism in the United States Category:People from Upper Marlboro, Maryland Category:University and college founders Category:19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States Category:18th-century American slave traders Category:American people of English descent