Aulnecollege 19th century The American College was founded in 1857 by U.S. bishops under the leadership of Bishop
Martin J. Spalding of
Archdiocese of Louisville and Bishop
Peter Paul Lefevere of
Archdiocese of Detroit. It was created to train young European men to serve as
missionary priests in North America and to give U.S. seminarians the opportunity to study at the
Catholic University of Louvain. The college's signature song was a
Marian hymn,
O Sodales, authored by Gustave Limpens in 1862. The College grew rapidly in its early years, most notably under the rectorship of John De Neve, its second rector. Over 800 priests trained at the American College served in dioceses and vicariates during the second half of the 19th century across the United States. Some of the priests were eventually appointed as bishops of newly formed dioceses: • Bishop
Charles John Seghers, founder of the Alaska mission • Bishop
Patrick Riordan of the
Archdiocese of San Francisco • Bishop
Alphonse Glorieux of the
Diocese of Boise • Bishop
John Baptist Brondel of the
Diocese of Helena 20th century The college continued to train young men for service to the Church in the United States into the twentieth century under the rectorship of Jules De Becker. it remained open during German occupation in
First World War. The college staff hid many documents and other valuable items of Leuven, including the statue of the
Sedes Sapientiae, The staff converted the college into an emergency hospital and dispensary of food and clothing. At its peak, the college was assisting 1,500 Leuven residents per day. With the declaration of war in 1939, the college closed. In 1965,
Leo Jozef Suenens,
Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, invited the college to assume pastoral responsibility for a mooted "American parish" in the environs of
Brussels. Consequently, on December 4th of that year, Albion Bulger, vice-rector of the college, was formally appointed
pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in
Uccle. This gave anglophone Catholics access to
Mass in their own
vernacular, a phenomenon then growing significantly in prominence as a consequence of the liturgical reforms of the
Second Vatican Council. The parish quickly emerged as a center for multinational anglophone Catholic life in the Brussels area. In 1968, a major ethnic dispute known as the
Leuven crisis erupted in Belgium between the
Flemish-speaking population and the
Walloons (French speakers). To resolve the dispute, the Catholic University of Louvain was split into KU Leuven in Leuven and the
Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) in
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. The American College, remaining in Leuven, maintained ties with both new institutions.
21st century == Sponsorship and governorship ==