By Tom Deignan

I don't have much use for people who scoff at the notion of anniversaries. They like to point out that, in the end, whatever event is being marked or celebrated is just another number on the calendar.

Technically they’re right. But that’s a cold way to look at life, ignoring an opportunity to look back, reflect and assess what the passage of time really means.

This year will mark two anniversaries -- one historical, the other purely personal. They are, nevertheless, intimately linked.

First is the 200th birthday of the New York Archdiocese. This comes at a time of massive change for New York City Catholics. For some it is a grim time to mark such an occasion because their own parish might have been one of those targeted for elimination just last week.

The second anniversary, the one which will not be the focus of any museum exhibits or history books? This year marks the 100th anniversary of my family, the Deignans, coming to America.

Let’s start with the bicentennial of the New York Archdiocese. The actual date the archdiocese was formed is April 1808, but as Edward Cardinal Egan recently announced, church officials will launch a series of high profile events and exhibitions in April of this year to build momentum towards the bicentennial celebration.

"We're going to celebrate in every way we can," Cardinal Egan said.

An exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York entitled "Catholics in New York, 1808–1946" will open and an academic convocation of campus ministers will be held at Columbia University.

Also, Fordham professor Monsignor Thomas Shelley has been commissioned by the archdiocese to write two books about the history of Catholics in New York. The Archdiocese is now made up of 2.5 million Catholics living in Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx, as well as the upstate counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester.

Archdioceses in Boston, Philadelphia, and (of all places) Bardstown, Kentucky were also established in April 1808.

It should go without saying that even at its founding, decades before the Famine sent so many Irish Catholics to New York, the Irish were instrumental in the New York church.

Bishop John Conn-olly came to New York from Ireland in 1815 to oversee a diocese that back then included all of New York State and half of New Jersey. The estimated 13,000 Catholics in New York City had a mere four priests and two churches at their disposal.

Cork native Father John Power came to New York in 1819 and founded The Truth Teller, New York's first Catholic newspaper.

Then, of course, there is “Dagger” John Hughes, who oversaw the church’s vast expansion, the erection of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and, in 1850, became New York’s first archbishop.

Less well known is Hughes’ sister Angela who, along with three other Sisters of Charity, opened St. Vincent's, New York State’s first Catholic hospital, on East 13th Street in Manhattan.

In October of 1907, by the time the archdiocese had been around 100 years and become a cultural force, a Belfast-built ship from the White Star and Dominion Lines named the Cedric sailed into New York. My 3 year-old grandfather Leo was one of nearly 10 family members on board.

They left Liverpool, which had served as a stopover for their home in Boyle, Co. Roscommon. They would be meeting several family members who were already here, while waiting for others who would arrive later.

Now, let me state that I’m not audacious enough to suggest that the arrival of the Deignan clan is somehow on par with any event as vast and far-reaching as the creation of the New York Archdiocese. Nor, however, will I be so humble as to ignore any connection whatsoever.

The New York church was and remains an immigrant church. Each arrival of a ship, a plane, a train marks a small but important moment. It is history at the street level.

A dozen Deignans came over in 1907. These days, that many Deignans and their children may well be at a typical Sunday dinner at my mother’s house. That represents a mere fraction of those who have built lives for themselves and their children in the U.S. since 1907.

Is that a mere number? I don’t think so.

(Contact at tomdeignan@earthlink.net)