This antique photo depicts Bishop Richard Vincent Whelan, the first bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling. (Image Provided)

WHEELING — The first bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling, Bishop Richard Vincent Whelan, was a shining example of how to guard your faith, just as St. Paul wrote to his friend Timothy (2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14).

It is a bishop’s duty as a successor of the Apostles to shepherd his flock — to encourage followers by word and actions. Whelan proved that time and time again.

Everyone is called to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you” and “guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit, living in us,” as St. Paul wrote. Whelan demonstrated it in the 1850s when an anti-Catholic mob threatened the Wheeling cathedral, a visiting Apostolic Nuncio from Rome and Whelan’s parishioners.

According to an article published in The Catholic Spirit, on May 22, 1992, an anti-Catholic crusade in the 1850s known as the Know-Nothing Party, believed that the Catholic Church was a threat to America. They were anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic and any others who were not native-born Protestant Americans. They were a semi-secret organization, whose members, when asked about their group, would say “I know nothing.” However, they were violently attacking convents, churches, schools and any persons or groups protecting Catholics, burning down buildings and worse — murder.

They capitalized on the fear and hatred of foreigners and the fabricated threat that a foreign country would take over.

“They tried to make people believe that the Pope was out to convert the world and take over America,” the article noted, and added, “Pope Pius IV was very aware of the situation and wanted to find a solution. So, he commissioned (a cardinal, the papal nuncio) to visit America and obtain firsthand information.”

In 1854, Whelan invited the cardinal to Wheeling, Virginia. Upon learning of this local visit, the Know-Nothings passed out “handbills degrading his character, (declaring the cardinal) ‘is not worthy to breathe the free air from this country…. Destroy the secret plans of the Roman missionary … Drive this monster back to his bloody master that sends him …'”

The angry mob planned an attack on the papal nuncio at the Wheeling cathedral where he was to preach. Wheeling’s mayor, Sobieski Brady, would not grant police protection.

“As the mob approached the cathedral, Bishop Whelan stood alone to face them,” the article says. “It is recorded that he spoke these words to them: ‘The first one who dare enter the grounds of the cathedral would be immediately shot!'”

At that moment the Irish Catholics, under the direction of Whelan, appeared and surrounded the cathedral armed with rifles.

“The only violence that occurred that day was when a rioter threw a stone and broke a pane of glass. Slowly, one by one, the rioters walked away,” the article concluded.