Delbarton School and Bishop Walsh
Maintenance of the estate and of the monastery in Morristown proved to be a considerable financial burden on the abbey in Newark, especially as the Great Depression of the early 1930s made its effects felt everywhere. The community thus sought additional sources of income in Morristown consistent with its apostolate.
What could be more appropriate than a school? Abbot Ernest appointed a committee, headed by Father Vincent, to seek additional income and to explore the feasibility of opening a school at Delbarton. An interesting example of ecclesiastical politics ensued when, on 7 May, the Chapter of St. Mary’s Abbey, meeting with the authorization, but in the absence of Abbot Ernest, approved the recommendation of the committee to establish a “country day school with some residents” at Delbarton, beginning the following September.
It was assumed that the authorization of Abbot Ernest and the approval of the Bishop of Newark, Thomas J. Walsh, in whose diocese Morris County still lay, would be sought. But news of the projected school was somehow leaked to the press. Bishop Walsh, feeling that his authority had been transgressed, promptly aborted the plan, thus delaying the founding of Delbarton School for another seven years.
Prior Anslem Kienle was forced to write a letter of apology to Bishop Walsh, but the idea was clearly percolating in the Benedictine community and, providentially, in the mind of Walsh’s secretary, Monsignor Thomas McLaughlin. In late 1937, McLaughlin became the first bishop of the new Diocese of Paterson of which Morris County would form a part and he would encourage the Benedictines’ school project.
While the monastic community in Newark continued to struggle through the depression without income from Morristown, voices were raised within the community in favor of selling Delbarton. Abbot Ernest, however, did not agree, even to the point of wanting to expand in Morristown by building a large monastery there. Age and ill health were sapping his strength, however, and he would be forced leave this project to his successor.