Philip Matthew Hannan, the archbishop who built an ever-widening network of services for the poor during nearly a quarter-century as the pastor of nearly a half-million New Orleans’ Catholics, died Thursday at 3 a.m. at Chateau de Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of New Orleans said. He was 98.
Born in Washington, D.C., Archbishop Hannan came to New Orleans at a moment of crisis in October 1965, in the wake of Hurricane Betsy. He spent nearly 25 years at the head of a regional church with nearly 500,000 Catholics.
Although he once said the crowning moment of his tenure came when he played host to Pope John Paul II in September 1987, he will be remembered as an enormously popular churchman who, in partnership with the federal government, established a vast network of housing, medical, literacy and other services for the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Before Houma/Thibodaux was a diocese- we were part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans-I remember the Sisters at our school getting so excited when he came to town. They loved him dearly. It was as if the Pope were coming.
Years later as I watched and listened to him- I understood why they loved him so much.Our city(in new orleans now) our state our country, our church and the world has a special intecessor in heaven now.
He is definitely a part of the legacy of faith I inherited. Thank you God for Him and may his soul an the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.
I’ve watched some videos on YouTube of President Kennedy’s funeral in 1963, where then-Bishop Hannan gave the eulogy in St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington. It was a very dignified and heartfelt tribute.
Gosh, what a life His Excellency lived! A seminarian studying in Rome when it was under the Fascists, an US Army chaplain with the 82nd Airborne in World War II, a media spokesman during Vatican II, a friend of the Kennedy family, a good shepherd of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
May Our Lady of Prompt Succor, patroness of New Orleans and Louisiana, receive Archbishop Hannan into her motherly arms and present him to her Son in the Kingdom of Heaven.
He’s got to be one of the last Bishops who were present at Vatican II.
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