February 16, 2015
Father George Deshon, CSP (left) and President Ulysses S. Grant
The future Father Deshon was a brilliant student, especially in mathematics, and was accepted to West Point in 1839. Historian Michael J. Connolly wrote in Paulist History that the roommates were a study in contrasts. “Deshon was a hard worker and cleancut; Grant was a poor student, ‘lackadaisical’ and sloppy.” Yet, the two were “close at West Point, and although they drifted apart after graduation, they would rekindle their friendship years later.”
Father Alexander P. Doyle, CSP (left) and President Theodore Roosevelt
During President Roosevelt’s tenure in the in the White House, Father Doyle would join the president for lunch, often hand-delivering letters from Cardinal James Gibbons of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which at that time included Washington, D.C. (Editor’s note: Cardinal Gibbons’ predecessor as archbishop of Baltimore was James Roosevelt Bayley, a distant cousin of both Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt as well as being the nephew of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.)
Father James Martin Gillis, CSP (left) and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“[Father Gilles] even moved the editorial from the back of the publication to the front, so it was the first thing readers encountered,” Father Robichaud said. In response to these actions, Cardinal Francis J. Spellman of New York removed Father Gillis as host of The Catholic Hour, a popular radio program broadcast on Sunday afternoons, noted Father Robichaud. Father Gillis’ successor was none other than the future Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who later had is own issues with Cardinal Spellman.
Father Isaac Hecker, CSP (left) and Gen. George McClellan, in an 1861 portrait by Matthew Brady
The two met when Father Hecker was in Rome for the First Vatican Council, and McClellan, the former leader of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, was visiting the future Italian capital while traveling in Europe with his family after the war, according to Father Robichaud. The Democrats selected Gen. McClellan to run against Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864. “For all his popularity with the troops, Gen. McClellan failed to secure their support and the military vote went to President Lincoln nearly 3–1. President Lincoln’s share of the vote in the Army of the Potomac was 70 percent,” according to Wikipedia.
Father John Duffy, CSP (left) and Vice President Al Gore
President John F. Kennedy