Fitzgerald, Edward A. Fr. – Ordained 1916

FITZGERALD

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/25/2021 at 20:55:23

Cresco Plain Dealer July 28, 1916 P-1 C-5

Former Cresco Boy Enters Priesthood.
A great occasion for the Catholic people is planned for the coming Sunday, when Rev. Fr. Edward A. Fitzgerald will say his first mass in the Church of the Holy Name, in West Union. His ordination took place yesterday morning in St. Raphael’s cathedral in Dubuque. He and another young man being ordained by Archbishop James J. Keane.
Rev. Fr. Fitzgerald and his mother, Mrs. Emma Fitzgerald, of this city, left Thursday for Dubuque. His sister Miss Mary and brother Donald went Monday morning and his brother Leslie went Monday evening. Following the ordination services, Rev. Fr. Fitzgerald went to Eagle Grove to be present when his associate, Rev. Fr. Mulligan, says his first mass.
Two thousand people were present in the cathedral at Dubuque yesterday when the two young men were ordained by Archbishop Keane.
It is expected that Holy Name church will be crowded to its capacity at 10:30 Sunday morning, when Rev. Fr. Fitzgerald says his first solemn mass. The Knights of Columbus will attend in a body. If it is a fair day it is expected that twenty or more priests will drive in from neighboring parishes.—West Union Argo.

Cresco Plain Dealer Aug. 11, 1916 P-1 C-5

Father Fitzgerald Celebrates Mass.
Rev. Father Edward A. Fitzgerald, who was ordained at St. Raphael's Cathedral, Dubuque, a week ago Tuesday, celebrated his first high Mass Sunday morning at 10:30 o'clock at Holy Name church in this city, in the presence of a large congregation which completely filled the church and every available space that could be utilized. The sermon following the Mass was delivered by Rev. Father Gorman, president of Dubuque college, an old friend of the Fitzgerald family, who had known the newly ordained priest since infancy, and delighted in the consumation of the desire of his onetime pupil.
Father Edward Fitzgerald graduated from the Cresco high school at the age of fifteen, and after spending one year at his home there, went to Dubuque to continue his studies at Dubuque college and from there went to Montreal where he finished the prescribed course this spring. At an early age he decided upon the holy priesthood as his life’s work and bent every energy to the culmination of that desire, and no finer appearing young man ever dedicated himself to the ministry and a life of celibacy than Father Fitzgerald.
Fifty-seven guests were entertained by the family at dinner Sunday at Hotel Commercial and many friends called at the home during the day to offer congratulations and wish the newly ordained Father, “Godspeed.” The Cresco friends sent a purse of over sixty-five dollars as a mark of their esteem.
Cresco people who attended the service were Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Clark, Mrs. D. A. Lyon, Gerald and Leonard Lyons, Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Laub, Conseulo, Cecelia and George Laub, Mr. and Mrs. O. J. McHugh, Katherine and Margaret McHugh, also Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Fitzgerald, Emily, John and Lucien Fitzgerald, of Lanesboro, Minn.
Father Fitzgerald enters the priesthood fully equipped with a common and high school education followed by seven years of college training. He goes the latter part of September to a theological school at Washington, D. C., to take a post graduate course and to specialize in Psychology, after which he returns to Iowa to take a position as one of the instructors at Dubuque college.—West Union Union.