Praise, fond remembrances of Archbishop Hannan follow his death

Clergymen, politicians and civic leaders alike are all taking time today to praise and remember former Archbishop Philip Matthew Hannan, who died early this morning at the age of 98. He had been in declining health for years. “From the time he first arrived in Louisiana, Archbishop Hannan helped comfort the people of New Orleans and our entire state as we worked to rebuild after multiple storms,” Gov. Bobby Jindal said in a statement. As auxiliary bishop of Washington in 1963, Hannan gave the funeral eulogy for President John F. Kennedy; he went on to serve more than three decades as the head of the New Orleans Roman Catholic Archdiocese. Hannan was the 11th archbishop in New Orleans history and one of the most active. He was particularly touched by the plight of the city’s poor, especially those affected by Hurricane Betsy the year he arrived, in 1965. Gordon Wadge, president of New Orleans’ Catholic Charities, recalls Hannan starting a summer program designed to help boost education for black children by combining classroom work with recreation. At the time, public swimming pools were shutting down rather than integrating, Wadge says, so Hannan brought the children to the pool at Notre Dame Seminary. “He said, ‘We’ll just have all the kids come swimming at my house,’ ” Wadge says. When he turned 75 and had to retire as archbishop, Hannan became president of WLAE-TV, the public television station he founded. Highlights of his tenure as archbishop include the 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II—a visit that Hannan began angling for in 1984. After a while, Hannan once said, “Every time he saw me, he’d simply say, ‘New Orleans! New Orleans!’ ” Read more about Hannan, including funeral services, in The Times-Picayune here. Click here to read a statement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge on Hannan’s death.