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=                           Enoch Fenwick                            =
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                             Introduction                             
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Enoch Fenwick  (May 15, 1780 - November 25, 1827) was an American
Catholic priest and Jesuit who ministered throughout Maryland and
became the twelfth president of Georgetown College. Descending from
one of the original Catholic settlers of the Province of Maryland, he
studied at Georgetown College in what is now Washington, D.C. Like his
brother and future bishop, Benedict Joseph Fenwick, he entered the
priesthood, studying at St. Mary's Seminary before entering the
Society of Jesus, which was suppressed at the time. He was made rector
of St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral in Baltimore by Archbishop John Carroll,
and remained in the position for ten years. Near the end of his
pastorate, he was also made vicar general of the Archdiocese of
Baltimore, which involved traveling to say Mass in remote parishes
throughout rural Maryland.

In 1820, Fenwick reluctantly accepted his appointment as president of
Georgetown College. While he made some improvements to the curriculum,
contemporaries generally considered his presidency unsuccessful due to
declining enrollment and mounting debt. In August 1825, he abandoned
the presidency following a disagreement with the provincial superior.
Two years later, he died at Georgetown.


                              Early life                              
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Enoch Fenwick was born on May 15, 1780, in St. Mary's County,
Maryland. He was one of four brothers, three of whom would become
priests. He descended from one of the original Catholic settlers of
the Maryland Province, Cuthbert Fenwick. One of his brothers was
Benedict Joseph Fenwick, who became the Bishop of Boston and a
president of Georgetown College. Another brother, George Fenwick, also
entered the priesthood, while another brother did not enter religious
life.

Fenwick enrolled at Georgetown College in 1793, which he attended
until 1797. The president, Louis William Valentine DuBourg, identified
him as the best student in the college, and appointed him in 1797 to
teach rudiments to the young students in the lower school. He then
entered St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore in 1805. The following year,
he entered the Society of Jesus on October 10, becoming a member of
the first class in the Jesuit novitiate at Georgetown, and one of four
who were the first Jesuits ordained priests in the United States.

As the Jesuit order had been officially suppressed by Pope Clement
XIV, Fenwick was admitted to the Corporation of Catholic Clergymen,
the civil corporation that sought to preserve the Society and its
property until its restoration by Pope Pius VII in 1815. He was
ordained a priest on March 12, 1808, in Georgetown, by Bishop Leonard
Neale.


                        Ministry in Baltimore                         
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Following his ordination, he was made the assistant to the Archbishop
of Baltimore, John Carroll. Upon the death of Francis Beeston in 1809,
Fenwick was appointed by Carroll as rector of St. Peter's
Pro-Cathedral in Baltimore, where he raised money for the construction
of a new St. Peter's church building. He oversaw work that began in
1806 and continued until 1812, before being halted by the War of 1812.
Construction resumed in 1815, and was completed in 1821. Fenwick held
the position of rector until 1820, when he was succeeded by James
Whitfield. From 1809 to 1815, he also served on the board of directors
of Georgetown College.

Simultaneous with his rectorship, he became vicar general for the
Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1819. In this position he served as
chaplain in Port Tobacco, Maryland, where he said Mass every other
Sunday. He was also required to travel to three other parishes
throughout Charles County (in Lower Zacchia, Upper Zacchia, and
Pomfret) every other Sunday, because they had been abandoned by a
priest who returned to England.

He was considered on several occasions for being raised to the
episcopate, specifically as Bishop of Louisiana and the Two Floridas
or Bishop of Detroit. He was also considered by Bishop Edward Fenwick
for being made the coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Cincinnati.


                          Georgetown College                          
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The Jesuit visitor to the United States, Peter Kenney, recommended to
Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal of Baltimore that Fenwick be appointed
president of Georgetown College in the summer of 1820. This
recommendation heeded, he was informed that he would be named to the
office in August of that year, and his term officially began on
September 16, 1820. He assumed the office very reluctantly from
Anthony Kohlmann, who quit the presidency to establish the Washington
Seminary. Resenting his transfer from the cathedral in Baltimore to
Georgetown, Fenwick viewed the college as having "one foot in the
grave of disgrace" and little prospect for recovery.

Fenwick undertook several reforms of the curriculum. He divided the
year into two semesters, and definitively prescribed the course of
study as including one class of rudiments, three in grammar, one in
humanities, and one in rhetoric. Each professor also taught Ancient
Greek, French, Latin, and English in their classes. The first college
journal, called 'The Minerva', was also circulated. Printing presses
were not available to the school, so it was written in manuscript
form, and lasted for only a few issues. The college's library saw
substantial growth during his tenure, and he personally donated a
number of books.

Despite these reforms, Fenwick's administration of the college was
evaluated by Stephen Larigaurdelle Dubuisson, a subsequent president
of Georgetown, as "wretched". The size of the student body declined,
due to the opening of Columbian College and the Washington Seminary
nearby, and the college's debts grew, as he viewed pursuing parents
for overdue tuition and board distasteful during the economic
recession. The reputation of the school suffered due to this. Fenwick
attempted to offset this decline by publishing a new prospectus and
placing advertisements in newspapers. His administration was markedly
hands-off, as he allowed the prefect of studies, Roger Baxter, to
manage most of the affairs of the school. Baxter was known for his
liberal attitude toward student discipline and in his own consumption
of alcohol and alleged unaccompanied visitation of women in the City
of Washington; Baxter was later deported to Europe by the provincial
superior, Francis Dzierozynski.

On March 10, 1824, Ann Carbery Mattingly, the sister of Mayor Thomas
Carbery of Washington, D.C., was apparently cured of terminal breast
cancer after being delivered a Eucharist by Dubuisson, then a priest
at St. Patrick's Church, in conjunction with the prayers of Prince
Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst in Germany. News of
the event spread quickly throughout the city and the cure was promoted
as a miracle by Dubuisson and Kohlmann. Meanwhile, an anonymous letter
was published in the 'National Intelligencer' in April denouncing the
legitimacy of the miracle and sharply criticizing Kohlmann. It was
immediately suspected that the author of the letter was Thomas Levins,
an Irish Jesuit professor at Georgetown. Dzierozynski demanded an
explanation from Levins and Levins's superior, Fenwick, but both
refused to answer. In October 1824, a series of even harsher letters
was published, and Levins was expelled from the Society of Jesus by
the Jesuit Superior General, Luigi Fortis, in January 1825.

After being confronted by Dzierozynski, Fenwick left the college in
August 1825 for St. Thomas Manor in Maryland andalthough he had not
officially resigned the presidencyrefused to return to Georgetown.
This effectively left Dzierozynski, who spoke little English and was
unfamiliar with American ways, in charge of the school. Fenwick was
officially replaced by his brother, Benedict, on September 15, 1825,
who resumed the office in an acting capacity. Fenwick died on November
25, 1827, at Georgetown College, and was buried in the Jesuit
Community Cemetery.


                            External links                            
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*

| before = Francis Beeston
}}
| title = Rector of St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral
| order = 3rd
| years = 1809-1820
}}
| after = James Whitfield
}}

| before = -
}}
| title = Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Baltimore
| years = 1819-1820
}}
| after = -
}}

| before = Anthony Kohlmann
}}
| title = President of Georgetown College
| order = 12th
| years = 1820-1825
}}
| after = Benedict Joseph Fenwick
| as = Acting President
}}


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_Fenwick