Identity area
Reference code
IE CA WA/1/6/28
Title
Copy letter from Fr. Stephen Murtagh to Bishop Louis B. Kucera
Date(s)
- 30 Sept. 1937 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
2 pp; typescript
Context area
Name of creator
(16 March 1894-4 March 1980)
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Copy letter from Fr. Stephen Murtagh OFM Cap. to Louis B. Kucera, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, confirming the Order’s decision to withdraw from the Sacred Heart Parish in Lincoln. Father Stephen acknowledges that the parish’s debt, largely from building the parish school, had become unmanageable. He notes that priests had been sacrificing their salaries and mission income just to keep the parish afloat during the ongoing economic depression. He also explains that the Order’s primary focus is on monastic life and preaching. The Lincoln house was geographically isolated from their other locations on the Pacific coast, making it difficult to integrate into their plans for a cohesive province.