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Brooklyn’s first and longest serving ordinary, was born in County Down, Ireland, on December 20, 1817.
He studied for the priesthood in Chambly, which is outside Montreal, as well as Nyack, New York, and Maryland.
On October 30, 1853, he assumed the leadership of the newly established Diocese of Brooklyn.
Bishop Loughlin was ordained a priest on October 18, 1840, at the old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Mott
Street in Manhattan. As the first priest ordained by Archbishop John Hughes of New York, he ministered
for a year at St. John’s Church in Utica before being assigned to the cathedral, serving there for a dozen
years — the last nine as rector.
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Appointed Brooklyn’s first Bishop July 29, 1853 at the age of 35, he was consecrated on October 30 of
that year in the old St. Patrick’s Cathedral and was installed in St. James Church in Brooklyn on November
9.
He arrived at a time when the anti-Catholic Know-Nothings were fomenting disturbances in Brooklyn, and
for 38 years he presided over the growth and development of the new Diocese, which at that time stretched
to Montauk Point.
During those years, Bishop Loughlin established churches, schools, and institutions to meet the needs
of the burgeoning population. While the general population of the four counties on Long Island expanded
from 212,000 to over one million, the diocese grew from 22 churches, 23 priests, and five schools to 134
churches, 200 priests, and 125 schools.
In 1870, about midway through his tenure as Brooklyn’s Bishop, he attended the First Vatican Council,
which affirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility. He left Rome for home the day after Pope Pius IX signed
the document and the same day France declared war on Prussia.
Bishop Loughlin died at the age of 74 on December 29, 1891, and is buried at the Immaculate Conception
Seminary in Huntington, L.I.
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