Common prayers
On the Ordinary Form of the Mass
Preface
Archbishop John F. Noll
By Michael R. Heinlein
In his sermon at the funeral of Archbishop John Francis Noll in 1956, Chicago’s Cardinal Samuel Stritch said Noll’s “faith was so deep, so real, that it really puzzled him when he saw Catholics who did not live wholly with Christ.” That described everything Noll sought to accomplish in his distinguished career.
Archbishop Noll’s episcopal motto (Mentes Tuorum Visita) reiterated this. The line from the traditional hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus,” calling down the Holy Spirit to dwell within the minds of men, aptly sums up Noll’s mission.
Noll was untiring, effective, and innovative as an evangelist and apologist. Through unprecedented and successful use of the press, Noll defended the Church against many obstacles and threats, and in the face of much opposition. He offered a simple and comprehensible defense of the Church’s teachings for Catholics and non-Catholics alike, and in many ways his visionary methods were ahead of their time.
Noll believed in the connection between knowledge and salvation. A zealous pastor and shepherd who never lost sight of souls, Noll worked tirelessly to help people come to knowledge of the truth that sets us free. Held in high esteem by laity and clergy alike, Noll was also an accomplished churchman recognized nationally for his significant leadership and accomplishments in the United States and beyond.
A priest for people
From an early age, Noll wanted to be a priest. He began studies for the priesthood in Wisconsin at Saint Lawrence Seminary, operated by Capuchin Franciscans, and completed his studies at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati. Noll was ordained a priest for service in the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Indiana, on June 4, 1898, in the see city’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. It was the church where his parents were married, and also where he received baptism, first holy Communion, and confirmation — and where he would one day be ordained a bishop.
Father Noll’s early days were consumed with the zeal and creativity of a newly ordained priest. At first, Noll frequently was sent around the diocese to fill in for ailing pastors, often having to make the best of abysmal situations. Whenever Noll saw there was a need, he attended to it.
An account of one late summer weekday in 1898 gives an idea of how he truly lived for others in his ministry. Since Noll had already made a retreat before his ordination, the bishop asked him to fill in at Fort Wayne’s cathedral while diocesan priests were on retreat. After hearing confessions with a religious priest for ten hours, he was summoned to attend to a dying woman some forty-five miles away. He traveled via train to see her, then thought it best to retrieve Communion for her from the local church. Upon arrival at the church after a mile-long walk, he learned that the tabernacle had been emptied for safety purposes before the pastor had left for the retreat. Worn out, exasperated, and famished, Noll had to wait hours for a train back to his temporary parish, where he arrived in time for morning Mass.
As a pastor, Noll often was given charge of a few mission outposts. At one time, Noll had five parishes under his care. Automobiles were a rarity in those days, so rail travel was his normative means of transportation. Because of this, he had plenty of time to read and think as he would wait for the next train to take him from place to place. In addition to his priestly duties, he had no staff of any kind and often served as housekeeper and maintenance man.
Because most of the parishes he served were composed of German- or French-speaking families, Noll was highly attentive to immigrant communities. He also often had success in fostering conversions to Catholicism, in particular with the non-Catholic spouses from “mixed marriages,” which were common among his congregations.
More than once, Noll was sent into situations where the pastor had departed because of various difficulties with the congregation. Noll had a knack for stilling the waters and gained a reputation as a peacemaker. Through his resourcefulness and diplomacy, Noll brought unity and order to fractured parishes. In fact, his first publication arose from such a situation, a small volume called “Kind Words From The Priest To His People.” In it, he spoke from the heart to the average layman in an understandable and intelligible way. And with it began Noll’s apostolate of the written word.
Throughout Noll’s life, anti-Catholicism in America was prevalent at different times. In addition, as a pastor, Noll saw that his people were not well formed in the Faith and often were left unable to defend Church teaching when they faced opposition from friends or family members.
A far-sighted proponent of an informed and engaged laity, Noll was resolved to provide Catholics with the means to grasp the truths of the Faith in easy-to-understand ways. Noll knew that a well-informed and energetic laity was the secret to transmitting the Church’s message to society and to win the world for Christ.
Defender of Truth
With the fortitude and fervor of Saint Paul at the Areopagus, on whose feasts Noll was both born and ordained a bishop, Noll spoke, defended, and laid bare the truth at every opportunity. Like Saint Paul, Noll was armed with common sense, the truth, and a pen.
Beginning in his years as a young priest, Noll engaged with Protestants, hoping to overcome any misunderstandings long held about Catholicism in their communities. Long before Catholics engaged in any formal ecumenical work, Noll’s pursuit of truth enabled him to see the elements of Christian life dwelling among his Protestant neighbors. He was convinced that a dialogue grounded in truth and charity would overcome any of the divisions that led to the bigotry he encountered. Noll also learned from Protestants the usefulness of offering envelopes and, as the first Catholic publisher to provide them, offered a means for increasing parish tithes beyond the standard pew tax system normative in his day.
In Noll’s early evangelization efforts, he utilized Father Thomas F. Price’s publication, Truth, published in North Carolina, which was the springboard for Noll’s foray into the Catholic press. While he found the content of the magazine useful, he did not believe it lived up to its potential as it lacked local material. Noll obtained permission from Father Price to use the magazine’s content, with a new cover and added pages, to create The Parish Monthly. Many neighboring pastors found the publication’s great value, and soon Noll found himself a Catholic publisher. Within a short amount of time, Noll had become one of the founding members of the Catholic Press Association.
In his day, it was not unheard of for itinerant preachers to gather crowds to hear the “truth” about the “papists.” Noll was known to attend these
