Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

né le 17 mai 1890 à Blacktrench dans le diocèse de Kildare, Irlande membre de la SMA le 2 juin 1917 prêtre le 29 juin 1919 décédé le 27 mai 1970

1920-1924 missionnaire au Liberia 1925-1970 missionnaire aux Etats-Unis East Saint-Louis, Illinois Folk, Missouri décédé à Jefferson City, USA, le 27 mai 1970, à l'âge de 80 ans

James Stanley was born in Blacktrench, Naas, Co Kildare, Ireland, in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, on May 17, 1890. He died at the Charles E. Still Hospital, in Jefferson City, USA, on May 27, 1970.

James (Jim) was one of seven children born to John and Jane (nee Keogh) Stanley. Jim received his primary education in the local national school in Newbridge (1896-1904). Records show that he came to the Society’s apostolic school in Cork - St. Joseph's college, Wilton – in 1909, remaining there until he graduated in 1914. He then entered the Society’s major seminary at Blackrock, Cork - also named after St. Joseph – where he spent two years studying philosophy. Jim received his theological formation also in Blackrock. He was admitted to membership of the Society on June 2, 1917 and was ordained a priest, with four classmates, in St. Joseph's church, Blackrock Road, on June 29, 1919. The ordaining prelate was Bishop John O'Gorman CSSp, Vicar Apostolic of Sierra Leone.

After ordination Jim was appointed to the Prefecture of Liberia. Situated in West Africa, this was the first mission entrusted to the Irish Province in the year of its erection, 1912. Liberia was arguably the most difficult mission field in Africa. Before the SMA took charge in l906, three missionary expeditions to that Black Republic (established in the early l9th century by freed slaves from the USA) had failed. Liberia was an impoverished country, with virtually no roads, few medical facilities, a small and widely scattered population, a land where outbreaks of civil strife between the indigenous people and the Americo-Liberian ruling elite were frequent, where Protestantism of a virulent anti-Catholic strain was strongly established and where, above all, there was a hazardous climate. This was the original 'Whiteman's grave', situated only a few degrees from the Equator.

Jim joined a staff of ten missionaries, almost all young Irishmen, under the leadership of an Alsatian, Jean Ogé. His first appointment was to Grand Cess mission on the Kru Coast where he assisted Eugene O'Hea. A letter from the 'Visitor', John Collins (responsible for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the confrères), informed the Provincial that the Grand Cess mission residence had been allowed to deteriorate in recent years and that the first task of the two Fathers (Frs. O'Hea and Stanley) would be to put it in order. But there was much more to be done in Grand Cess, which was one of the largest stations in Liberia, founded in 1916, with almost 700 Catholic members as well as 100 catechumens and a large elementary school. Jim was alone in the station during much of 1920 while Fr. O'Hea was busy constructing buildings for a new station which was being opened at Kinekale. In July 1921 he developed a skin disorder and was sent nearly 450 miles west to Monrovia where the nearest doctor was stationed. He returned to his mission in September just after the death of Denis O'Hara, who had been ordained in June 1920 and was only ten months in Liberia, in the nearby station of New Sasstown. The death of Jim's mother was another heavy blow. So also was the death of Francis McGovern, at Betu, in April 1922, a mere nine months after his ordination.

In June 1922 Jim was appointed to assist Michael McEniry at Kinekale. Three months later Fr. Collins reported that 'Kinekale is progressing well. It seems to suit Fr. Stanley far better than Grand Cess did.’ By now there were 120 Catholic members and 30 catechumens in the station, as well as an elementary school with 170 pupils. In September 1923 Jim went to Monrovia for a vacation, staying with Fr. McEniry in the mission. On his return, in the best of spirits, he was appointed to Betu. There, in July 1924, Jim and a second young priest, Timothy Cadogan, fell seriously ill and were transferred to Monrovia for attention. The doctor who attended them (a Frenchman) insisted that they be repatriated without delay. They sailed for Europe on August 29. Mgr. Ogé wrote to the Provincial of the good work done by Jim, despite persistent ill health, during the five years he had spent in Liberia.

Jim spent some months recuperating in Ireland. Clearly no longer fit to return to the tropics his superiors assigned him to the USA. The Irish Province had decided to open a mission in America in 1921 in order to find placements for confrères in poor health, and also in the hope of extending the Society to America. Peter Harrington was dispatched to pioneer the foundation which was specifically to serve African Americans. Gaining admission to the diocese of Belleville in Southern Illinois, he established the Province's first American mission at East St. Louis. It was to this mission parish, named after St. Augustine, and situated at 1400 East Broadway, that Jim was appointed when he arrived in America on July 9, 1925. He joined a staff led by Peter Harrington, with Claude Taylor as the associate pastor. There were over 500 Catholic members in the parish, with 100 catechumens, and one school. In l928 Peter Harrington founded a second mission-parish, named after St. Columba, in the town of Cairo, near East St. Louis. Claude Taylor was named pastor of this new mission, which was located at 412 Fourteenth Street. In 1939 Jim was transferred to this parish to assist Fr. Taylor. St. Columba's was a smaller parish, with less than 200 Catholics and a handful of catechumens. The people of the town, almost all African Americans, were poor and without much prospects.

In March 1941 the Society's American branch was erected as a Province. Apart from the Irish Province's parishes in Belleville diocese, there were several older missions which had been founded in the South, in towns like August, Macon, Atlanta and Savannah, as well a mission in Los Angeles and a promotion and recruitment center at Tenafly, New Jersey. Jim was one of 30 members of the Society who formed the nucleus of the new Province. In 1946 Ignace Lissner, founder of the Province and first Provincial, re-assigned Jim to his old mission of St. Augustine's, where Peter Harrington (soon to become Provincial) was still pastor. In 1950 Jim had a number of acute asthmatic attacks and took up a post as a hospital chaplain in Douglas, Arizona, while undergoing a cure. From Arizona he returned to East St. Louis for a spell and was later assigned to St. Joseph's parish in Walsh, Illinois. After serving a few years there he went to Norbornne, Missouri, and from there returned once again to St. Augustine's in East St. Louis, until the parish was phased out in 1961. In October of the same year, Jim transferred to the diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, where he was made pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church, Folk, Missouri.

Jim Stanley was the 'James Reilly' who helped Kildare to win the l9l9 All Ireland football championship. Jim, who was the second priest to win an All Ireland medal - the first was Fr. Wheeler on the successful Wexford team of l9l5-l9l8 - was a brother of the great midfielder and high jumper of that era, Larry Stanley. He also won a Cork county senior football medal with Collegians in l9l6. Jim held strong views on the sport at which he excelled. In the archives of the American Province at Tenafly there is a letter from Jim published in The Josephinum Review of November 17, 1954 which took strong exception to remarks about the game of Gaelic Football. Jim condemned the manner in which ‘the ill-informed scribe misrepresents Irish hospitality; grossly maligns Irish sports and sportsmanship … In the ten years that I played Gaelic football, I never suffered anything approaching an injury, nor have I seen or known anyone else who did...’ Jim was held in high esteem by colleagues, clergy and people wherever he worked, for his priestly dedication and for his warm humanity.

Jim corresponded with Cardinal Cody of Chicago and a number of letters between them are extant in the Provincial archives. He also corresponded with Cardinal Cushing and wrote a lengthy congratulatory letter to John F. Kennedy on his election as President, a copy of which is preserved in the archives.

He is buried in St. Anthony Cemetery, Folk, Missouri, USA.