James Rogers (bishop)

James Rogers (11 July 1826 – 22 March 1903) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest and the 1st Bishop of Chatham, New Brunswick from 1860 to 1902.

Rogers was born in Mount Charles, Ireland and emigrated with his family to Canada in 1831. He was ordained a priest in Halifax, Nova Scotia on July 2, 1851 and was installed as Bishop of Chatham in 1860.

In 1868, Rogers was instrumental in bringing the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, an order of nursing and teaching sisters, to Tracadie New Brunswick where they operated a lazaretto. Subsequently, this order also opened a convent in Chatham where they operated a hospital, a nursing home, a school for training nurses and an elementary and secondary school.

Bishop Rogers attended the First Vatican Council where he opposed the declaration of papal infallibility.

Bishop Rogers also invited the Congregation of Notre Dame to open convents in Newcastle, Caraquet, and Saint-Louis de Kent.

His later years were overshadowed by growing tensions between the Irish and French parts of the Church in his diocese.

Rogers has been described as a hearty, friendly, enthusiastic man, very hard working and constantly on the move across his large territory. He was portly and had a large appetite.

References

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* Sa grandeur Mgr. James Rogers, eveque de Chatham, N.-B. L'llustration du Journal, Le Moniteur Acadien. 1