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Henry Conwell


Henry Conwell
Bishop of Philadelphia
ProvinceBaltimore
Appointed26 November 1819
Installed2 December 1820
Term ended22 April 1842
PredecessorMichael Francis Egan
SuccessorFrancis Patrick Kenrick
Orders
OrdinationNovember 1776
Consecration24 September 1820
by William Poynter
Personal details
Bornc. 1748
Died22 April 1842(1842-04-22) (aged 93–94)
Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania, British America
DenominationRoman Catholic
SignatureHenry Conwell's signature

Henry Conwell (c. 1748 – 22 April 1842) was an Irish-born Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Philadelphia from 1820 until his death.

He became a priest in 1776 and served in that capacity in Ireland for more than four decades. After the Pope declined to appoint him Archbishop of Armagh, the diocese in which he served as Vicar General, he was instead installed as the second Bishop of Philadelphia in 1819.

Conwell took up the post at an advanced age and spent much of his time there feuding with the lay trustees of his parishes, especially those of St. Mary's Church in Philadelphia. When Conwell removed and excommunicated William Hogan, a controversial priest at St. Mary's, the parish trustees instead rejected Conwell's authority, creating a minor schism. The two sides partially reconciled by 1826, but the Vatican hierarchy believed Conwell had ceded too much power to the laymen in the process and recalled him to Rome.

Although he retained his position, Conwell was compelled to relinquish actual control to his coadjutor bishop, Francis Kenrick. He remained in Philadelphia and performed some priestly duties, but for all practical purposes no longer ran the diocese. He died there in 1842 at the age of about 94.


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