Francis Spellman

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Francis Cardinal Spellman
Church positions
See New York
Title Cardinal Archbishop of New York
Period in office April 15, 1939 – December 2, 1967
Created cardinal February 18, 1946
Personal
Date of birth May 4, 1889
Place of birth Whitman, Massachusetts
Date of death December 2, 1967 (aged 78)

Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was the ninth bishop and sixth archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. He served as Archbishop of New York from 1939 until his death, and was named a cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Francis Joseph Spellman was born in Whitman, Massachusetts to William and Ellen (née Conway) Spellman. His father (d. 1957) was a grocer. Francis also served as an altar boy at the local church[1]. He studied at Fordham College in New York, and the North American College in Rome before being ordained to the priesthood by Patriarch Giuseppe Ceppetelli on 14 May 1916. Spellman then did pastoral work in Boston until 1918, at which time he became assistant Diocesan Chancellor. An attaché of the Secretariat of State in the Roman Curia from 1925 to 1932, Spellman was raised to the rank of Monsignor on October 4, 1926 by Pope Pius XI.

On July 30, 1932, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Boston and Titular Bishop of Sila. Spellman received his episcopal consecration on the following September 8 from close friend Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, with Archbishops Giuseppe Pizzardo and Francesco Borgongini Duca serving as co-consecrators, in St. Peter's Basilica. His was the first consecration of an American bishop ever to be held in St. Peter's[2].

Styles of
Francis Cardinal Spellman †
Reference style His Eminence
Spoken style Your Eminence
Informal style Cardinal
See New York


Spellman was promoted to sixth Archbishop of New York on April 15, 1939, and on December 11 of that same year, named Apostolic Vicar for the US Armed Forces. He was created Cardinal Priest of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo (Rome) by Pope Pius XII in the consistory of February 18, 1946; his cardinalatial church was the same one held by Pope Pius before he was elected to the papacy.

During World War II, he visited 16 countries in four months on behalf of the Pope[3].

He led his archdiocese through an extensive period of building the Catholic infrastructure, particularly the parochial schools. He was a staunch opponent of Communism, and often criticized films he viewed as "indecent." Spellman once engaged in a dispute with Eleanor Roosevelt over federally funded education at parochial schools, even accusing her of anti-Catholicism[4]. He attended the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), and sat on its Board of Presidency. He was a cardinal elector in the 1958 papal conclave, and again voted in the conclave of 1963. In 1966, Spellman offered his resignation to Pope Paul VI, but the latter asked him to remain in his post[5].

The Cardinal died in New York at age 78, and is buried in the crypt under the altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral. To date, Spellman's twenty-eight year tenure as Archbishop is the longest one in the history of the Archdiocese of New York.

[edit] Trivia

  • Spellman was editor of the The Boston Pilot from 1924 to 1935.
  • He translated and delivered in English the first papal radio broadcast[6], and was charged with releasing Pius XI's encyclical on Catholic Action to the world[7].
  • The Cardinal was instrumental in getting William Brennan appointed to the Supreme Court in 1956, but would later regret the decision.
  • According to Peter Bander in The Prophecies of Malachy (TAN Books and Publisher, 1969) during the 1958 conclave which was to elect John XXIII, Spellman, evidently having taken Malachy's forecast that the next pope would be "pastor and mariner" literally, rented a boat, filled it with sheep and sailed up and down the Tiber.
  • He was Grand Prior of USA of the Sovereign Order of Malta and Grand Prior of America of the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus.
  • In 1946, Spellman received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." For his service to soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, Cardinal Spellman was awarded the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1967.
  • Cardinal Spellman is the Archbishop who assigned Ivan Illich as pastor to a Puerto Rican parish in Washington Heights, New York City, in 1951.

[edit] Quotes

"Spellman held his tongue in Rome, where it would be unwise to be indiscreet about the new pope (Pope John XXIII). But when he returned home, the Cardinal announced his disdain. 'He's no Pope,' Spellman scoffed to his aides. 'He should be selling bananas.'" [8]

[edit] See also

Preceded by
Patrick Joseph Cardinal Hayes		 Archbishop of New York
1939–1967		 Succeeded by
Terence James Cardinal Cooke

1967–1983
Preceded by
John Francis O'Hara		 Archbishop for the Military Services
1939–1967
v • d • e
Ordinaries of the Archdiocese of New York
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York

[edit] References

  1. ^ TIME Magazine Cardinal's Birthday May 11, 1959
  2. ^ TIME Magazine. Crosier & Mitre September 19, 1932
  3. ^ TIME Magazine Odyssey for the Millennium June 7, 1943
  4. ^ TIME Magazine. My Day in the Lion's Mouth August 1, 1949
  5. ^ TIME Magazine. [1] October 21, 1966
  6. ^ TIME Magazine Cardinal's Birthday May 11, 1959
  7. ^ TIME Magazine Spellman to St. Patrick's June 5, 1939
  8. ^ Cooney, John (1984). The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman. New York: New York Times Books, p.333. ISBN 0-440-10194-8.