NOTE: Enjoy this excerpt from The American Daily Reader, by CatholicVote president Brian Burch and Emily Stimpson Chapman. To order the complete volume, visit the CatholicVote store today!
Paul Peter Rhode was only 9 years old when he arrived in the United States. He came with his mother, Krystyna, who had been widowed years before in their native Poland. Like countless other Poles who came to America in the late-19th century, Krystyna and her son settled in Chicago.
There, while still a boy, Paul heard the call to the priesthood. He attended minor seminary in Kentucky, then returned to Chicago to study with the Jesuits at St. Ignatius College (today’s Loyola University). He completed his theological studies in Wisconsin and was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Chicago on June 17, 1894.
Two years later, at only 25, Rhode became the first pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Chicago’s McKinley Park. Like many parishes built by Polish immigrants in the major metropolitan centers of the Midwest, the church was an imposing structure—a marvel not only for its size, but also for the poor immigrants’ ability to finance such a church.
Already proud of their parish, those same Polish-Americans grew even prouder on July 29, 1908, when 37-year-old Father Rhode was consecrated an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He was the first Polish-American bishop in the country.
Polish-Americans grew prouder still in 1915, when Bishop Rhode became the bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin, a see he would shepherd for 30 years.
When Bishop Rhode died in 1945, at the age of 73, he left behind a legacy of 10 new parishes, 19 Catholic schools, and the diocese’s first office of Catholic Charities.
