Joseph Francis Rummel (October 14, 1876 – November 8, 1964) was a German-born American Catholic prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Omaha in Nebraska from 1928 to 1935 and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1935 to 1964.
Rummel is best known for excommunicating several Catholics who vocally opposed his racial desegregation of parochial schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Biography
Early life
Joseph Rummel was born in the village of Steinmauern in the Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire (in what is today Germany), on October 14, 1876. His family immigrated to the United States when he was six years old. Like many recent German immigrants, the Rummels settled in the Yorkville District of Manhattan in New York City.
Rummel attended St. Boniface Parochial School, then went to St. Mary's College, a Redemptorist minor seminary in North East, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire in 1889. Rummel was then sent to study in Rome.
Rummel was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of New York at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome on May 24, 1902. Rummel returned to New York and served as a parish priest in several parishes around the city for the next 25 years.
Bishop of Omaha
Rummel was named the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Omaha by Pope Pius XI on Mar. 30, 1928. He was consecrated on May 29, 1928, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York by Cardinal Patrick Hayes.
Archbishop of New Orleans
Rummel was named by Pius XI as the ninth archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans on March 9, 1935. He succeeded Archbishop John Shaw. Rummel transferred to New Orleans during the Great Depression. At the time, New Orleans was rapidly urbanizing as farmers flocked to the city in search of factory jobs. Also, recent European immigrants, many of whom were Catholic, were also settling in the city. Over the next thirty years, the Catholic population in the archdiocese would double to over 762,000, and the number of students in Catholic schools grew from fewer than 40,000 to over 85,000.
During Rummel's episcopacy, 45 new church parishes were created throughout the archdiocese, increasing the number of parishes from 135 to 180. In 1945 he launched the Youth Progress Program, a major initiative to raise money for the expansion of the parochial school system. This program resulted in the construction of 70 new Catholic schools, including several new high schools.
In 1935, Rummel mandated the creation of CCD programs in every parish. He streamlined the accounting procedures of the archdiocese. He also created new lay organizations to support an expansion of the many charity programs within the archdiocese.
The desegregation of the archdiocese
Rummel spent most of his tenure in New Orleans expanding the parochial school system. However, he is perhaps best remembered for his controversial decision to desegregate the archdiocese, including the Catholic schools. All of the Southern states, including Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, had been racially segregated by law since Reconstruction ended in the 1870s. Like the rest of the city, parishes and schools within the Archdiocese were also segregated. The community had accepted segregation as a normal part of life.
The city of New Orleans has always had a large population of black Catholics. Previous archbishops, such as Archbishop Francis Janssens and Archbishop James Blenk, established dedicated schools for black children in an attempt to improve the educational opportunities for black parishioners. But the segregated parochial school system suffered from the same problems with underfunding and low standards as the segregated public school system. No archbishop attempted to desegregate the Archdiocese until the Civil Rights Movement began after the end of the Second World War.