DE CONCILIO, JANUARIUS VINCENT

Theologian, author; b. Naples, Italy, July 6, 1836; d. Jersey City, N.J., March 22, 1898. Beginning his studies in Naples, he completed his theology at Brignole Sale seminary, Genoa, Italy, where he was ordained for the Diocese of Newark, N.J., on March 9, 1860. He served as an assistant at Our Lady of Grace parish, Hoboken, N.J.; as chaplain and professor of philosophy and theology at Seton Hall College and Seminary, South Orange, N.J.; and as assistant at St. Mary's parish in Jersey City. In 1865 he became the first pastor of St. Michael's in Jersey City, where he built the church, rectory, and school, and constructed an orphanage and academy. He was a member of Bp. Michael A. Corrigan's council and of Bp. Winand Wigger's during the first years of his administration. De Concilio attended the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore and was appointed to the subcommittee that compiled the Baltimore Catechism for presentation to the council. He was made a papal chamberlain in 1886, and the following year was named a domestic prelate. In 1892 he was given the degree of doctor of divinity by Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

De Concilio was treasurer of the St. Raphael Italian Benevolent Society and maintained that every parish should have a priest who understood the language of the people. He wrote pamphlets deploring the religious condition of Italians in America, as well as frequent articles for the Freeman's Journal. He opposed the theory of theistic evolution suggested by Rev. John A. Zahm's Evolution and Dogma (1896). Among De Concilio's works were Catholicity and Pantheism (1873), The Knowledge of Mary (1878), The Elements of Intellectual Philosophy (1878), The Doctrine of Saint Thomas on the Right of Property and Its Use (1887), The Harmony Between Science and Revelation (1889), and Child of Mary (1891). He also wrote two plays, The Irish Heroine and Woman's Rights.

Bibliography: c. d. hinrichsen, The Diocese of Newark, 1873–1901 (Doctoral diss. unpub., Catholic University of America 1962).

[c. d. hinrichsen]