Item 28 - Copy letter from Fr. Stephen Murtagh to Bishop Louis B. Kucera

2 pp; typescript

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.