William Stang

{{Short description|German-born American prelate}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = | honorific_prefix = His Excellency, The Right Reverend | name = William Stang | honorific_suffix = | title = Bishop of Fall River | image = William Stang.jpeg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | church = | archdiocese = | province = | metropolis = | diocese = | see = Diocese of Fall River | elected =  | term = May 1, 1904 -<br>February 2, 1907 | quashed =  | predecessor = | successor = Daniel Francis Feehan | opposed = | other_post =  | ordination = June 15, 1878 | ordained_by = Victor-Auguste-Isidor Deschamps | consecration = May 1, 1904 | consecrated_by = Matthew Harkins | cardinal = | created_cardinal_by = | rank = | laicized =  | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1854|04|21}} | baptised =  | birth_place = Langenbrücken, Grand Duchy of Baden, (now Germany) | death_date = {{Death date and age|1907|02|02|1854|04|21}} | death_place = Rochester, Minnesota, US | buried =  | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = German | religion = Roman Catholic | residence = | parents = | education = Sint-Niklaas minor seminary<br>American College of Louvain | alma_mater = | motto = ''Super rivos aquarum fructificate''<br>(Be fruitful above the streams of water) | signature = | signature_alt = | coat_of_arms = | coat_of_arms_alt = }}[[File:BischofStangStrasse.jpg|thumb|Street name in Bad Schönborn / Langenbrücken, Germany (2007)|290x290px]] '''William Stang''' (April 21, 1854 – February 2, 1907) was a German Catholic prelate who served as the first Bishop of Fall River from 1904 until his death in 1907.

==Biography== thumb|281x281px|Former American College of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

=== Early life === William Stang was born on April 21, 1854, in Langenbrücken in the Grand Duchy of Baden (in present-day Germany).<ref name="catholic">{{cite book|last1=Carr|first1=Edward|title=Catholic Encyclopedia|volume=V|year=1909|publisher=Robert Appleton Company|location=New York|chapter=Fall River|chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05771a.htm}}</ref> He received his early education at the local ''gymnasium'' and then attended the minor seminary of Sint-Niklaas in Belgium.<ref name="catholic" />

Stang entered the American College of Leuven in Leuven, Belgium, in 1875, where he completed his theological studies.<ref name="odonnell">{{cite book|last=O'Donnell|first=John Hugh|title=The Catholic Hierarchy of the United States, 1790-1922|url=https://archive.org/details/catholichierarch00odon|place=Washington, D.C.|year=1922}}</ref> During this period, American dioceses were actively looking for priests in Europe. While at the American College, Stang was recruited by Thomas Hendricken, bishop of the Diocese of Providence in the United States, to minister to German-speaking Catholics in Rhode Island.<ref name=":0" />

=== Priesthood === Stang was ordained to the priesthood in Mechelen, Belgium, by Cardinal Victor-Auguste-Isidore Dechamps for the Diocese of Providence on June 15, 1878.<ref name="hierarchy">{{cite news|work=Catholic-Hierarchy.org|title=Bishop William Stang|url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bstang.html|last=Cheney|first=David M}}</ref> After his ordination, Stang taught for a few months at the Catholic University of Leuven in Leuven.

Stang immigrated to the United States in September 1878, settling in Providence, Rhode Island.<ref name="journal">{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Thomas Hamilton|title=The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society|volume=VII|year=1907|location=Boston}}</ref> The diocese assigned him primarily to minister to the German Catholic community while also serving as a curate at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Providence.<ref name=":0" /> He was named pastor of St. Anne's Parish in Cranston, Rhode Island, in 1884.<ref name="catholic" /> Hendricken named Stang as rector of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, celebrating mass in German there. Stang's ambition was to establish a German-language parish in the diocese, but the small German population of the diocese was unable to fund it.<ref name="journal" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bishop William Stang – Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame |url=https://riheritagehalloffame.com/Bishop-William-Stang/ |access-date=2025-01-11 |language=en-US}}</ref>

When the Vatican appointed Reverend Matthew Harkins as bishop of Providence in 1886, Stang became one of his closest advisors. In 1887, Stang received a Doctor of Theology Degree from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. After returned to Providence, Stang was a driving force behind the founding in 1892 of St. Joseph's Hospital in Providence.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Chronology of Rhode Island Hospitals |url=http://www.rimed.org/rimedicaljournal/2017/01/2017-01-19-hospitals.pdf |access-date=January 10, 2025 |website=Rhode Island Medical Society}}</ref>

In 1895, Stang travelled to Belgium to serve at the Catholic University of Leuven as vice-rector and professor of moral theology.<ref name="odonnell" /> At Harkins' urging, Stang returned to Providence in 1899. While supervising St. Joseph's Hospital, he also became head of the diocesan Apostolate band.<ref name="journal" /> He was named pastor of St. Edward Parish in Providence in 1901 and also served as chancellor of the diocese.<ref name="catholic" /><ref name=":0" />

=== Bishop of Fall River === On March 12, 1904, Stang was appointed the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Fall River by Pope Pius X.<ref name="hierarchy" /> He received his episcopal consecration on May 1, 1904, from Harkins, with Bishops Michael Tierney and John Brady serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul,.<ref name="hierarchy" /> On May 8, 1904, the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption<nowiki/>in Fall River was packed with worshippers for Stang's first mass. Police detachments had to control the crowd, estimated at 25,000 people, outside the building.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1904-05-09 |title=OVATION FOR BISHOP STANG.; Crowds Gather for the Celebration of His First Mass. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1904/05/09/archives/ovation-for-bishop-stang-crowds-gather-for-the-celebration-of-his.html |access-date=2022-06-02 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Fame |first=Dr Patrick T. Conley, With Contributions by the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twuUDwAAQBAJ&dq=Bishop+Stang&pg=PA124 |title=Leaders of Rhode Island's Golden Age, The |date=2019 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-4671-4148-2 |language=en}}</ref>

Throughout the 19th century, very few American religious sisters were available to teach in parish schools; they had to come from Europe and Ireland. During Stang's tenure, teaching sisters from the Holy Union order in France, fleeing secular regulation in that country, came to Rhode Island to minister to the growing Catholic French-Canadian population. Other Holy Union sisters came from Ireland to the diocese. Stang made it clear that he welcomed religious sisters of all nationalities. In his opinion, it was the priests who were most guilty of raising tensions between the ethnic groups in the diocese.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Donovan |first=Grace |date=1991 |title=Immigrant Nuns: Their Participation in the Process of Americanization: Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 1880-1920 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25023525?read-now=1&seq=15#page_scan_tab_contents |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |volume=77 |issue=2 |pages=194–208 |issn=0008-8080}}</ref>

Catholic bishops of this era became concerned about the attraction of socialism to Catholic workers. A writer of several religious works, Stang authored a book titled ''Socialism and Christianity.'' It supported the rights of workers to organize in labor unions, but condemned socialism as anti-Catholic.<ref name=":0" /> In 1905, Stang addressed 4,000 attendees of the New York German Catholic State Federation meeting in Carnegie Hall in New York City. Speaking in German, Stang lamented the Catholic working men who had allegedly thrown down the bible and embraced socialism. He urged all Catholic societies to combat this menace.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1905-05-29 |title=GERMAN CATHOLICS MEET.; Urged to Combat Socialism -- 4,000 Attend Convention. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/05/29/archives/german-catholics-meet-urged-to-combat-socialism-4000-attend.html |access-date=2022-06-02 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

During his short tenure as bishop, Stang established eleven parishes in the diocese. One new parishe was St. Boniface, a German-language parish in New Bedford, Massachusetts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Bishop William Stang – Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame |url=http://riheritagehalloffame.com/Bishop-William-Stang/ |access-date=2022-06-02 |language=en-US}}</ref> Stang once described divorce as a pernicious practice...contrary to the moral order and the law of Christ, and condemned Saturday dances as a source of scandal [that] must be stopped at once.<ref name="meriden">{{cite news|date=1906-03-10|work=The Meriden Daily Journal|title=BISHOP APPEALS AGAINST DIVORCE}}</ref><ref name="dancing">{{cite news|date=1906-01-08|work=Providence News|title=BISHOP DENOUNCES DANCING}}</ref> During Stang's tenure, the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation founded Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River in 1906.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Saint Anne's Hospital {{!}} Brown University Health |url=https://www.brownhealth.org/locations/saint-annes-hospital/about-saint-annes-hospital#:~:text=Founded%20by%20the%20Dominican%20Sisters,Swansea,%20and%20Dartmouth,%20Massachusetts. |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=www.brownhealth.org |language=en}}</ref>

=== Death and legacy === In January 1907, Stang travelled to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for surgery to removed an intestinal tumor.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1907-02-03 |title=BISHOR STANG DEAD.; It Well-Known Roman Catholic Churchman Dies Following Operation. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1907/02/03/archives/bishor-stang-dead-it-wellknown-roman-catholic-churchman-dies.html |access-date=2022-06-02 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The surgery was successful, but he developed an infection. William Stang died on February 2, 1907, in the Mayo Clinic at age 52.<ref name="catholic" /><ref name=":0" />

Bishop Stang High School in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, founded in 1959, is named in his honor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Us |url=https://www.bishopstang.org/apps/pages/about |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=www.bishopstang.org |language=en}}</ref> He is a member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in East Providence, Rhode Island.<ref name=":0" />

== Published works ==

* ''The Life of Martin Luther'' * ''The Eve of the Reformation'' * ''More About the Huguenots'', a response to a lecture by Professor William Granmell the Huguenots and the Edict of Nantes * ''Germany's Debt to Ireland'' * ''Pastoral Theology'' (1896) * ''Historiographia Ecclesiastica'' (1897) * ''The Business Guide for Priests'' (1899) * ''Theologia Fundamentalis Moralis'' * ''The Devil, Who He Is'' * ''Spiritual Pepper and Salt'' (1901) * ''Socialism and Christianity (1905)'' * Medulla Fundamentalis Theologiae Moralis (1906).<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Keefe |first=Michael J. |date=March 1907 |title=The Right Rv. William Stang D.D. |url=https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=stylus19070301-01.2.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=The Stylus - Boston College Newspapers}}</ref><ref name="catholic" />

Stang was also a contributor to the ''American Ecclesiastical Review''

=== See also === {{Portal|Catholicism}} {{div col}} * Catholic Church hierarchy * Catholic Church in the United States * Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States * List of Catholic bishops of the United States * Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops {{div col end}}

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== * {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Stang, William}}

==Publications== * ''Pastoral theology'' (New York, 1897) * ''Historiographia Ecclesiastica quam historiae seriam solidamque operam navantibus'' (Freiburg, 1897) * ''Business Guide for Priests'' (New York, 1899) * ''The Devil, Who He Is and What He Does'' (Providence, 1900) * ''Sozialismus und Christentum'', with Rudolf Amberg (Socialism and Christendom, Einsiedeln, 1907) * ''The Holy Hour of Adoration'' (New York, 1907) * ''Medulla fundamentalis theologiae moralis quam seminaristis et presbyteris'' (Neo-Eboraci, Cincinnati, 1907) * ''Life of Martin Luther'' * ''The Eve of the Reformation'' * ''More About the Huguenots'' * ''Germany's Debt to Ireland'' * ''Spiritual Pepper and Salt''

==Episcopal succession== {{s-start}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{s-new}} {{s-ttl|title=Bishop of Fall River|years=1904–1907}} {{s-aft|after=Daniel Francis Feehan}} {{end}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} {{commonscat}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stang, William}} Category:1854 births Category:1907 deaths Category:German emigrants to the United States Category:Diocese of Providence Category:20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Category:Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Category:American College of the Immaculate Conception alumni Category:Roman Catholic bishops of Fall River Category:19th-century American Roman Catholic priests