September 22, 2014
With last night’s conclusion of Ken Burns’ 7-night TV series, The Roosevelts, the following is a Paulist footnote on history.
Paulist Father Alexander P. Doyle first met New York Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt through Paulist Father Martin Casserly who had a ministry to street gangs in the parish of Saint Paul the Apostle. Roosevelt used to accompany Casserly on his evening rounds and Doyle would sometimes join them.
Doyle and Roosevelt had much in common. Both considered themselves westerners, both were temperance advocates and both were Republicans. When Roosevelt became President, Doyle moved to Washington to head the Apostolic Mission House at Catholic University and Doyle was regularly welcomed to the White House. Cardinal Gibbon who wanted to take advantage of their relationship named Doyle to a new office, “The Army Navy Chaplain’s Bureau.” All nominations of priests for military commissions as chaplains went from Cardinal Gibbons to President Roosevelt through Father Doyle. Many a White House lunch was spent passing a request for a commission on to the President. Doyle’s office after the First World War would become the Military Ordinariate and today is the Archdiocese for the Military Services.