Submitted by: Dan Rich

Rev. George Joseph Finnigan CSC

? – Aug. 13, 1932

South Bend Tribune 8/17/1932

Prominent members of the Catholic Clergy from throughout the United States will come to Notre Dame next Monday to pay final respects to the Rt. Rev George Joseph Finnegan CSC, STD, bishop of the Helena, Mont. Diocese of the church, who died Sunday in Helena. Bishop Finnegan’s death was attributed to heart trouble.

The funeral will be held in the Church of the Sacred Heart at 9 o’clock Monday morning. Admission to the church will be by ticket only, it has been announced by Rev. Michael Mulcaire CSC, vice president of the university. Bishop John F. Noll DD, of the Fort Wayne diocese, will say the mass. Burial will be in Community Cemetery on the Notre Dame campus.

Bishop Finnegan was well known here, first coming to Notre Dame and South Bend in 1903. He was professed in 1907 and ordained in 1915. When the United States entered the World War, he became chaplain of the local 137th Field Artillery Regiment which was stationed at Fort Shelby, Hattiesburg, Miss. He later served in France with the 80th Field Artillery, receiving a captain’s commission. Returning to the United States he was made superior of the Holy Cross Seminary at Notre Dame and in 1925 was appointed vice president for two years. Later he was made provincial superior of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, at Notre Dame. On Aug. 1, 1927 he was consecrated bishop of the Helena diocese at which service he was working when called to his reward.