FINK, LOUIS MARY (MICHAEL)

Bishop; b. Triftersberg, Bavaria, July 12, 1834; d. Kansas City, Kans., March 17, 1904. He was the son of Peter and Barbara (Hecht) Fink. About 1850 he came to St. Vincent Archabbey, Westmoreland County, Pa., as one of Archabbot Boniface Wimmer's recruits. He took his vows in the Order of St. Benedict on Jan. 6, 1854, and was ordained on May 28, 1857. After serving as pastor in several parishes, he was named prior of St. Benedict's Priory, Atchison, Kans., in 1868. At the request of JohnB. Miège, SJ, Vicar Apostolic of Kansas and of the Indian Territory, Fink was made coadjutor bishop and consecrated on June 11, 1871. Miège resigned at the end of 1874, and on May 22, 1877, Kansas was made a diocese with its see at Leavenworth. Fink, faced with the problems of a frontier state, established "Christian Forts" (mission centers) in areas where land was available. Catholic immigrants were then directed to these districts through colonization societies, railroad brochures, and the Catholic press. This campaign successfully established Catholic settlements for which Fink provided a resident pastor and a parochial school. When grasshoppers destroyed the crops in 1874, he collected alms in the Eastern states for his needy settlers. His pastoral letters, reflecting the rural character of his diocese, linked the Biblical world of the husbandman with the lives of his people. He was a vigorous promoter of the American Federation of Catholic Societies, and he also encouraged Catholics to join the Farmers' Alliance, forerunner of the Populist Movement. As Catholic immigrants were increasingly attracted to Kansas City, Fink turned his attention to problems of urban industrialism. He recognized the necessity of unions, but opposed the closed shop and, in the interests of family, encouraged the abolition of Sunday work. Fink moved his residence to Kansas City after his diocese was divided in 1887.

[p. beckman]