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Cuba’s quest for independence from Spain reached as far back to the mid-19th century. Although the Spanish crown had granted a degree of autonomy to the island colony, there were three “liberation wars” between 1868 and 1895. The third, the “Cuban War for Independence” began in 1895 and culminated in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Both the Cuban revolutionaries and the Spanish government could be quite ruthless in attaining their strategic goals. Capitalizing on the tenuous political situation in Cuba, William Randolph Hearst, publisher of the New York Journal, goaded his journalists into submitting news reports exaggerating atrocities committed by the Spanish colonial forces. Subsequent riots in Cuba and the steady stream of Hearst's “yellow journalism” resulted in President William McKinley's dispatching of the American battleship U.S.S. Maine to Havana Harbor. On Feb. 15, 1898, three days after the Maine steamed into Havana, the battleship mysteriously exploded, killing 260 sailors. Although a 1974 investigation led by Admiral Hyman Rickover concluded that the ship's magazines had been ignited by a spontaneous fire in a coal bunker, American public opinion, fanned by Hearst's appetite for sensationalism, blamed the Spanish government for the blast and on April 25, 1898, the United States declared war on Spain. And onboard the doomed ship that fateful night of Feb. 15, 1898 was the ship's chaplain, Father John P. Chidwick, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York.
John P. Chidwick was born on Oct. 23, 1863 in New York City to John Badgley Chidwick, a Civil War veteran of both the U.S. Army and Navy, and Margaret O'Reilly Chidwick. Both were natives of Clonakilty, County Cork. A gifted baseball player, Chidwick graduated from Manhattan College in 1883 and that same year, entered St. Joseph's Provincial Seminary in Troy. Upon ordination in 1887, Father Chidwick was assigned to St. Stephen’s parish, East 28th Street, Manhattan, then one of the largest parishes in the United States. There the young Father Chidwick established a branch of the “Young Man’s Union,” a precursor to the Catholic Youth Organization. One of the tasks of the Union was to distribute Catholic literature to members of the American Army and Navy. This, coupled with the influence of his Civil War veteran father, piqued young Father Chidwick’s interest in possible service as a military chaplain.
In the spring of 1895, Chidwick received his naval commission, the third Catholic priest to receive such in U.S. Naval history. Father Chidwick’s first assignment was to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and attachment to the U.S.S. Maine. Three years later, Father Chidwick would become an active participant in a monumental event in American history. A press dispatch, issued in the wake of the explosion, summed up the heroic role of Father Chidwick amidst the chaos and carnage of the wreck of the Maine:
“The self-sacrificing of Chaplain Chidwick deserves all praises. He was at the Machine Wharf, paper and pencil in hand, taking notes of the smallest identifying marks on the bodies as they were being taken from the water...to obtain all clues to their identification. Since the disaster, he has not rested a moment. When he is not examining bodies and helping to recover others, he is consoling the wounded at the hospital.”
In an official commendation in the wake of the explosion, United States Secretary of the Navy John D. Long wrote: “You have set an example for the emulation of every chaplain of the Navy and are entitled to gratitude of the department and every American citizen.” Father Chidwick was recognized throughout the United States as the first hero of the Spanish-American War.
Before leaving the sea services in 1903, Father Chidwick was assigned to the protected cruiser, U.S.S. Newark, where, according to Msgr. Thomas Shelley in his 1993 work, “Dunwoodie: The History of Saint Joseph’s Seminary,” the normally reserved and dignified cleric, when publicly insulted by an enlisted crew member, instructed the offending sailor to meet with him after breakfast. The complying sailor was stunned to meet the chaplain who was r carrying two sets of boxing gloves. The sailor backed down and apologized.
Chidwick remained active in Spanish American War veterans affairs. On March 16, 1912, he offered the requiem Mass at the Havana Cathedral over the remains of the 65 sailors recovered when the Maine was raised in Havana Harbor. In 1916, he was named chaplain of the New York State Society of the United Spanish War Veterans.
On April 1, 1904, then-Archbishop John Farley appointed Father Chidwick pastor of St. Ambrose parish on West 54th Street along with duties as chaplain to the New York City Police Department. In 1909, Archbishop Farley named Msgr. Chidwick third rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary. A watershed appointment, Chidwick was the first priest of the Archdiocese of New York to serve as rector. When Dunwoodie opened its doors in 1896, the seminary was administered and staffed by priests of the Society of St. Sulpice (Sulpicians).
Msgr. Chidwick was the second-longest serving rector of Dunwoodie, from 1909 until 1922. Although his tenure witnessed a steep increase in the seminary student body, from 165 students in 1909 to 219 students in 1922, the seminary was not free of challenges. Dunwoodie was not immune to the early 20th century trend in American seminaries toward rote learning with a heavy emphasis upon memorization. With the appointment of Archbishop Patrick Hayes as the fifth Archbishop of New York in March 1919, Dunwoodie was subject to severe budget cuts. Compounding the financial constraints with overcrowded conditions—as well as the outbreak of the Spanish Influenza pandemic—made for very harsh living conditions for the seminarians. In 1922, Msgr. Chidwick resigned as rector, the first and only such leader to voluntarily leave that office at the seminary.
That same year, Msgr. Chidwick was named pastor of St. Agnes Church on East 43rd Street, Manhattan, where he established the parish high school and summer camp. In 1924, he was named president of the College of New Rochelle. Msgr. Chidwick died on Jan. 13, 1935. His fame and notoriety necessitated his Funeral Mass to be offered at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Msgr. Chidwick’s name lives on among students and alumni of St. Joseph’s Seminary to this day. Many seminarians have traversed “Upper Chidwick” to play softball, touch football or soccer on “Lower Chidwick,” the two spacious fields to the west of the seminary named for him.
