Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was split from Germany in 1920. On April 24, 1922 Achille Ratti, now Pope Pius XI, nominated O'Rourke to the post of an Apostolic Administrator of the Free City of Danzig and the titular bishop of Pergamon on 21 December 1922. After the creation of the Diocese of Danzig on December 30, 1925, O'Rourke became the first Bishop of Danzig. First having a good relationship with the authorities, who granted him citizenship on 12 June 1926, and the mostly Protestant population, he conflicted with the new local Nazis after 1933. Having hosted synode on 10 to 12 December 1935, growing pressure from the Nazi majority senate made him resign as bishop of Danzig after he had tried to implement four additional Polish parish priests. On 13 June 1938 he was appointed Titular bishop of Sophene. He adopted Polish citizenship in December 1938 as well as the office of Cathedral Canon in Gniezno/Poznań. When the Germans attacked Poland in September 1939 O'Rourke was on a journey to Estonia and travelled via Warsaw and Königsberg to Berlin, where he applied for a Visa to Italy. After his arrival in Rome O'Rourke tried to return to his Diocese in Poznań, but his visa application was rejected by the Germans.
O'Rourke died in Rome on June 27, 1943, his successor after his death was the Bishop of Danzig Carl Maria Splett.
In 1972 his ashes were moved from Campo Verano to his former bishopric to be buried in a crypt in the Oliwa Cathedral.
Read more about this topic: Edward O'Rourke
Famous quotes containing the words free, city and/or danzig:
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