 After harassment by his detractors and members of the curia made life difficult for him, he turned over the administration of the archdiocese to his coadjutor bishop, Patrick John Ryan, in 1871.Upon Ryan being made the Archbishop of Philadelphia, the diocese which Kenrick's brother had previously headed, Kenrick took back active administration of his diocese.During the period when the Knights of Labor, a strongly Roman Catholic labor union and the first national labor union, turned to violence, Kenrick vocally opposed them and condemned their actions.