One of the youngest and most prominent church prelates is undoubtedly Cardinal Mundelein, Archbishop of Chicago. Cardinal Mundelein was at the age of 37 already Assistant Bishop, at 43 years, Archbishop, and at 52 years, Cardinal. He achieved thereby a career which led him, in a comparatively short time, to the highest position of the Catholic Hierarchy.

George W. Mundelein was born in 1872 the son of German parents in what was at that time a strictly German settlement, on the lower east side of New York City. He attended Manhattan College, and later studied theology at the Seminary of Beatty, Pennsylvania. In Rome, he studied at the Propoganda Collegium, where he received his degree of Doctor of Theology. He was ordained as priest, became secretary to the bishop of Brooklyn, then priest of the Latvanian Church, and later chancellor of the Brooklyn diocese, from which he was appointed in 1909 as assistant bishop. In 1915 he was appointed as Archbishop of Chicago, where he found a wide field of activity for his extraordinary talent of organization.

The Eucharistic Congress of 1926 was his work, and to some extent, his 2crowning endeavor.