William A. Hickey

William Augustine Hickey (May 13, 1869 – October 4, 1933) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Providence from 1921 until his death in 1933.

Hickey attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, then went to France to study at St. Sulpice Seminary in Issy-les-Moulineaux.

From 1903 to 1917, Hickey served as a pastor in Gilbertville, Massachusetts, where he would preach in four different languages (English, French, Polish, and Lithuanian) every Sunday.

[3] While Daignault had wide support in the parish, not everyone agree with his vitriolic attacks on Hickey and other Irish clergy.

[2][3]They first appealed Hickey's decision to Archbishop Pietro Fumasoni-Biondi, the apostolic delegate, or Vatican representative, to the United States.

[4][5] In 1928, four years after the language controversy started, Hickey excommunicated Daignault and 62 other Sentinellists and placed La Sentinelle on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum., prohibiting Catholics from reading it.

He barred them in 1929 from entering any Catholic churches in the diocese Daignault and other Sentinellists quickly recanted their opposition to Hickey and he lifted their excommunications.