Jul 13, 2010 / 04:14 am
The Diocese of Brooklyn has officially opened the Cause of Canonization for Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn, a 20th century priest known for fighting bigotry and reaching out to the community's African American population.
Born in Newark in 1888, Msgr. Quinn later realized as a young priest that African American Catholics were being neglected in his diocese and sought the permission of the local bishop to begin an “apostolate to Blacks.”
After serving as an army chaplain in France during WWI, Msgr. Quinn returned and with diocesan support bought a former Protestant church in Brooklyn. The church was blessed and dedicated to St. Peter Claver on February 26, 1922.
In an effort to help children orphaned by the Great Depression, Msgr. Quinn also began Little Flower Children Services. He publicly opposed the Klu Klux Klan when they allegedly burned the orphanage to the ground on two separate occasions.