Edward McGlynn

• Edward McGlynn
• Born: September 27, 1837
• Died: January 7, 1900

A Catholic priest temporarily excommunicated for his activities as a social reformer, was born in New York City to Peter McGlynn and Sarah McGlynn, who had emigrated from Ireland in 1824. His father, who had accumulated a small fortune as a contractor, died in 1847, leaving a wife and ten children. Edward McGlynn was educated in the public schools of New York City. While a student at the Thirteenth Street Grammar School, he came to the attention of Bishop John Hughes, who sent him to the Free Academy (later City College of New York) and afterward to the Urban College of the Propaganda in Rome, where he earned a doctoral degree.

After his ordination as a priest in March 1860 McGlynn returned to New York City to serve as assistant pastor to the Rev. Thomas Farrell at St. Joseph’s Church. Farrell was an advocate of higher education for poor children and an ardent opponent of slavery (he left $5,000 in his will to build a church for black Catholics). Far-rell’s example influenced McGlynn’s charitable and humanitarian views and practices. Chaplain of the Central Park Military Hospital from 1862 until the close of the Civil War, McGlynn became pastor of St. Stephen’s parish on East Twenty-eighth Street in 1866.

McGlynn was active in a number of important public causes. He first became noteworthy for his opposition to parochial schools (he thought public schools good enough, and no danger to Catholics) and for his friendship with Protestant clergymen. His parish provided funds for the Home for Destitute Children at New Dorp, Staten Island. Depressed by the procession of indigent “men, women and little children coming to my door begging, not so much for alms as employment,” McGlynn wondered whether there was a remedy for the unequal distribution of wealth. “I began to study a little political economy,” he said, “to ask, ‘What is God’s law as to the maintenance of his family down here below?’ “

McGlynn found a remedy in the writings of the political economist and journalist Henry George, who argued that the acquisition of wealth by some entails an increase in poverty by others. Believing that all people have a right to apply their labor to natural resources, George concluded that the “economic rent” charged by property owners in the form of rents and unearned land values defrauded propertyless workers. George urged the elimination of every tax except that on property, setting forth his thesis in the widely read Progress and Poverty (1880) and restating it with regard to Ireland in The Irish Land Question (1881). McGlynn embraced George’s convictions and supported his unsuccessful candidacy in 1886 for mayor of New York City on the single-tax platform.

McGlynn was forbidden by Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan to speak at a George campaign rally in October 1886, but he did not obey and was suspended from the exercise of his pastoral duties, not only for disobeying the archbishop’s order, but for advancing teachings at variance with the policies of the Catholic church. In January 1887 Giovanni Cardinal Simeoni ordered McGlynn to retract his land theory and report to Rome. McGlynn did not accede, and his written statement to Pope Leo XIII failed to reach its destination. As a result he was excommunicated, effective July 4, 1887.

While these events were occurring, McGlynn’s parishoners and friends organized the Anti-Poverty Society and elected him its first president. At its meetings McGlynn spoke sarcastically of “the sacred right of property.” “Yes, we want the earth,” he said. “Heaven is the Lord’s, but the earth is given to man.”

McGlynn insisted that he upheld “all the teachings and sacraments of the Church,” but he denied that the pope “had the right to forbid me to express my convictions on social questions.”

On July 10, after reports of his excommunication had been received, McGlynn appeared before a wildly excited audience at the Academy of Music. Declaring that he would not retract his views on the property question, he deplored the pope’s involvement in European, and especially Irish, politics. He said, to frequent applause, that he wanted to “take some active part in the work of emancipating the masses and helping the poor of Mother Ireland.” For the next five years McGlynn defended the single-tax idea before the Anti-Poverty Society. He lived with independent means at the home of his widowed sister in Brooklyn.

In December 1892 a trial of McGlynn’s case was held at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Four professors testified that McGlynn’s single-tax views were not contrary to the teachings of the Catholic church, and his excommunication was rescinded. On December 24, he was restored to his priestly functions, and in June of the following year he visited Rome and was cordially received by the pope, offering a diplomatic reply to a question about property rights. He became pastor of St. Mary’s Church at Newburgh, New York, in January 1894, and in October 1897 he participated in Henry George’s funeral service. He died at Newburgh.

Edward McGlynn’s career as a reformer is important less for actual results achieved (there are no major, distinct ones) than for the changes he brought about in customs and ideas. He challenged the Catholic priesthood’s official neutrality in politics, absolute loyalty to Rome, and tradition of ministering to the casualties of industrial capitalism without advocating economic reform. His defiance of the pope’s authority with regard to his political activism affirmed the concept that a priest as citizen is independent of church control. McGlynn defined an American quality of Catholicism for Catholics and relieved the fears felt by non-Catholics that Catholic political activity might serve the interests of the Vatican. His ecumenical toleration for and cooperation with members of other faiths helped to integrate Catholicism into American society.

Reports of McGlynn’s activities and addresses appeared in The New York Times and other New York City daily newspapers from 1886 to 1900. Entries for McGlynn appear in J. T. Smith. History of the Catholic Church in New York, vol. 2 (1905). S. L. Malone. Dr. Edward McGlynn (1918), is a full-length biography; a shorter account is the entry in The Dictionary of American Biography (1946). An obituary appeared in The New York Times, January 8, 1900.