Francis Spellman | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal, Archbishop of New York | |
 Cardinal Spellman in 1946 | |
| Church | |
| Archdiocese | New York |
| Appointed | April 15, 1939 |
| Installed | May 23, 1939 |
| Term ended | December 2, 1967 |
| Predecessor | Patrick Joseph Hayes |
| Successor | Terence Cooke |
| Other post(s) |
|
| Previous post(s) |
|
| Orders | |
| Ordination | May 14, 1916 by Giuseppe Ceppetelli |
| Consecration | September 8, 1932 by Eugenio Pacelli |
| Created cardinal | February 18, 1946 byPius XII |
| Rank | Cardinal Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Francis Joseph Spellman (1889-05-04)May 4, 1889 Whitman, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | December 2, 1967(1967-12-02) (aged 78) Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Buried | St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York |
| Education | |
| Motto | Sequere Deum (Follow God) |
Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was anAmerican Catholic prelate who served asArchbishop of New York from 1939 until his death in 1967. From 1932 to 1939, Spellman served as anauxiliary bishop of theArchdiocese of Boston. He was created acardinal byPope Pius XII in 1946.
Francis Spellman was born on May 4, 1889, inWhitman, Massachusetts, to William Spellman and Ellen (née Conway) Spellman. William Spellman was a grocer whose own parents had immigrated to the United States fromClonmel andLeighlinbridge, Ireland.[1] Spellman had two younger brothers, Martin and John, and two younger sisters, Marian and Helene.
Spellman attendedWhitman High School, a public school, because there was no Catholic school in Whitman. He enjoyed photography and baseball; he playedfirst base during his freshman year of high school until suffering a hand injury. Spellman later managed the baseball team. After his high school graduation, Spellman enteredFordham University in New York City in 1907. He graduated in 1911 and decided to study for the priesthood.
ArchbishopWilliam O'Connell sent Spellman to study at thePontifical North American College inRome.[2] He suffered so badly frompneumonia that the college administrators wanted to send him home to recover. He refused to leave and eventually completed his theological studies. During his years in Rome, Spellman befriended future cardinalsGaetano Bisleti, Francesco Borgongini Duca, andDomenico Tardini.[2]
Spellman was ordained a priest at theSant'Apollinare Basilica in Rome by PatriarchGiuseppe Ceppetelli on May 14, 1916.[3] Upon his return to the United States, the archdiocese assigned Spellman to pastoral positions at its parishes.[4] O'Connell, who had earlier sent Spellman to Rome, described him as a "littlepopinjay". He later said, "Francis epitomizes what happens to a bookkeeper when you teach him how to read."[5] Spellman served a series of relatively insignificant assignments.[vague][6]
After the United States enteredWorld War I in 1917, Spellman tried to enlist to become amilitary chaplain in the US Army, but failed to meet the height requirement. Spellman also applied to be a chaplain in theUS Navy, but his application was personally rejected twice by Assistant Secretary of the NavyFranklin D. Roosevelt.
O'Connell eventually assigned Spellman to promote subscriptions for the archdiocesan newspaper,The Pilot.[7] The archbishop named him as assistantchancellor in 1918 and archivist of the archdiocese in 1924.[8]
After Spellman translated two books by his friend Borgongini Duca into English, the Vatican appointed Spellman as first American attaché of theVatican Secretariat of State in Rome in 1925.[9] While serving in the Secretariat, he also worked with theKnights of Columbus in running children's playgrounds in Rome.Pope Pius XI raised O'Connor to the rank ofprivy chamberlain on October 4, 1926.[9]
During a trip to Germany in 1927, Spellman established a lifelong friendship with ArchbishopEugenio Pacelli, who was serving there asapostolic nuncio.[10] Spellman translated Pius XI's first broadcast overVatican Radio into English in 1931.[11]
Later in 1931, with the fascist government ofBenito Mussolini in power in Italy, Spellman secretly transported a papal encyclical,Non abbiamo bisogno, that condemned fascism, out of Rome to Paris for publication.[2][11][12] He also served as secretary to CardinalLorenzo Lauri at the 1932International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, and helped reform theVatican's press office, introducingmimeograph machines and issuing press releases.[13]
On July 30, 1932, Spellman was appointed as anauxiliary bishop of Boston andtitular bishop ofSila byPope Pius XI.[3][4] The pope had originally considered appointing Spellman as bishop of Dioceses ofPortland in Maine orManchester in New Hampshire.[13] Spellman received hisconsecration on September 8, 1932, from Pacelli atSt. Peter's Basilica in Rome. ArchbishopsGiuseppe Pizzardo andFrancesco Borgongini Duca acted asco-consecrators.[2]
Spellman was the first American to be consecrated a bishop at St. Peter's.[14] Borgongini-Duca designed a coat of arms for Spellman that incorporatedChristopher Columbus's ship theSanta Maria. Pius XI gave him the mottoSequere Deum ("Follow God").[15]
After his return to the United States, Spellman took up residence atSt. John's Seminary in Boston. The archdiocese later assigned him as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish inNewton Centre; while there, he erased the church's $43,000 debt through fundraising. When Spellman's mother died in 1935, Massachusetts GovernorJames Curley, Lieutenant GovernorJoseph Hurley, and many members of the clergy, with the exception of O'Connell, attended the funeral.[16]
In the autumn of 1936,Pacelli came to the United States, ostensibly to visit several cities and be the guest of philanthropistGenevieve Brady. The real reason for the trip was to meet with President Roosevelt to discuss American diplomatic recognition ofVatican City.[1] Spellman arranged and attended the meeting with Pacelli and Roosevelt at Springwood, theRoosevelt estate in Hyde Park, New York.[17]
Spellman became an early friend ofJoseph Kennedy Sr, the US ambassador to the United Kingdom and the head of a rich Catholic family. Over the years, Spellman witnessed the marriages of several Kennedy children, including future SenatorRobert F. Kennedy, Jean Kennedy,Eunice Kennedy, and future SenatorEdward Kennedy.[13]
On Pacelli's trip to the United States, he, Kennedy, and Spellman attempted to stop the vitriolic radio broadcasts of ReverendCharles Coughlin. The Vatican and the apostolic legation in Washington wanted his broadcasts to end, but Coughlin's superior, BishopMichael Gallagher of Detroit, refused to curb him.[18][19] In 1939, Coughlin was forced off the air by theNational Association of Broadcasters.
.jpg)
After Pius XI's death, Pacelli waselected as Pope Pius XII. One of his first acts was to appoint Spellman as the sixth archbishop of New York on April 15, 1939. He was installed as archbishop on May 23, 1939.[3] He was painted twice in 1940 and again in 1941 by the artistAdolfo Müller-Ury. Spellman inaugurated the first regularly scheduled Spanish-language masses in the archdiocese at St. Cecilia's Parish inEast Harlem.[20]
In addition to his duties asdiocesan bishop, Pius XII named Spellman asapostolic vicar for the U.S. Armed Forces on December 11, 1939. Over the years, Spellman celebrated many Christmases with American troops stationed in Japan,South Korea, and Europe.[21]
During his tenure in New York, Spellman's considerable national influence[22][23] in religious and political matters earned his residence the nickname "the Powerhouse."[24] He hosted many prominent clergy, entertainers, and politicians, including the statesmanBernard Baruch, US SenatorDavid I. Walshand US House of Representatives Majority LeaderJohn William McCormack.[13] In 1945, Spellman instituted theAl Smith Dinner in Manhattan, an annualwhite tie fundraiser forCatholic Charities that is attended by prominent national figures.
After his appointment as archbishop, Spellman also became a close confidant of President Roosevelt.[21][25] DuringWorld War II, Roosevelt asked Spellman to visit Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in 1943, 16 countries in four months.[26] As archbishop and a military vicar, he would have "greater freedom than official diplomats".[13] During the Alliedcampaign in Italy, Spellman acted as a liaison between Pius XII and Roosevelt in efforts to declare Rome anopen city to save it from bombing and street fighting.[27]
| Styles of Francis Spellman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | New York |
Pius XII created Spellman ascardinal-priest ofSanti Giovanni e Paolo Church in Rome during theconsistory of February 18, 1946.[3] According to the historianWilliam V. Shannon, Spellman was "deeply reactionary in his theology and secular politics."[21]
In 1949, whengravediggers atCalvary Cemetery inQueenswent on strike for a pay raise, Spellman accused them of being Communists and recruitedseminarians of the Archdiocese fromSt. Joseph's Seminary asstrikebreakers.[28] He described the actions of the gravediggers, who belonged to theFood, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union of America, as "an unjustified and immoral strike against the innocent dead and their bereaved families, against their religion and human decency."[28] The strike was supported by the Catholic activistDorothy Day and the authorErnest Hemingway, who wrote a scathing letter about it to Spellman.[13]
Spellman was instrumental in persuading President Eisenhower to nominateWilliam Brennan to theSupreme Court in 1956, but later regretted it. JusticeWilliam O. Douglas once said,
"I came to know several Americans who I felt had greatly dishonored our American ideal. One was Cardinal Spellman."[13]
Spellmanparticipated in the1958 papal conclave in Rome that electedPope John XXIII. Spellman was allegedly dismissive of John XXIII, reportedly saying, "He's no Pope. He should be selling bananas." In 1959, Spellman served as papal delegate to theEucharistic Congress in Guatemala; during his journey, he stopped inNicaragua and, contrary to the pope's orders, publicly appeared with future dictatorAnastasio Somoza Debayle.[13]According to the Catholic journalistRaymond Arroyo's foreword to a 2008 edition ofFulton Sheen's autobiography,Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, "It is widely believed that Cardinal Spellman drove Sheen off the air." Besides being pressured to leave television, Sheen also "found himself unwelcome in the churches of New York City. Spellman canceled Sheen's annualGood Friday sermons at St. Patrick's Cathedral and discouraged clergy from befriending the Bishop."
The historian Pat McNamara views Spellman's outreach to the city's growingPuerto Rican community as years ahead of its time. He sent priests overseas to study Spanish, and by 1960, a quarter of the archdiocese's parishes had an outreach to Spanish-speaking Catholics.[6] In his years as a cardinal, Spellman built 15 churches, 94 schools, 22 rectories, 60 convents, and 34 other institutions.[21] He also visitedEcuador, where he founded three schools: Cardinal Spellman High School and Cardinal Spellman Girls' School, both inQuito, and Cardinal Spellman High School inGuayaquil.
Spellman attended theSecond Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965 and sat on its board of presidency.[9] He believed that the Vatican was appointing predominantlyliberal clergymen to the council's commissions. He opposed the Council reform that introducedvernacular language into the mass, saying,
"The Latin language, which is truly the Catholic language, is unchangeable, is not vulgar, and has for many centuries been the guardian of the unity of the Western Church."[13]
A theological conservative, Spellman supportedecumenism on pragmatic grounds.[27]
In April 1963, Spellman brought the ReverendJohn Murray as aperitus (expert) to the Second Vatican Council. This was despite the well-known animosity of CardinalAlfredo Ottaviani, the secretary of theHoly Office, toward Murray. The apostolic delegate to the U.S., ArchbishopEgidio Vagnozzi, attempted to silence Murray, but Spellman and Murray's Jesuit superiors shielded him from most attempts at curial interference. Murray's work helped shape the council's declaration on religious freedom.[6] According to McNamara, Spellman's support of Murray contributed to his significant influence on the drafting ofDignitatis humanae, the Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom.[6]
After John XXIII's death, Spellman participated in theconclave of 1963 that resulted in the election ofPope Paul VI. Spellman later agreed to US PresidentLyndon Johnson's requests to send priests to theDominican Republic to defuseanti-American sentiments after the Americanintervention of 1965.[13]
Spellman led his archdiocese through an extensive period of building Catholic infrastructure, particularly churches, schools, and hospitals. He consolidated all parish building programs into his own hands and thereby received better interest rates from bankers. Spellman convinced Pius XII of the need to internationalize the Vatican's Italy-centered investments after World War II; for his financial skill, he was sometimes called "Cardinal Moneybags."[29]
In 1966, Spellman offered his resignation to Paul VI after the latter instituted a policy requiring bishops to retire at age 75, but Paul asked him to remain in his post.[30]
Spellman died in New York City on December 2, 1967, at age 78. He was interred in the crypt under the main altar atSt. Patrick's Cathedral. Hisfuneral mass was attended by President Johnson, Vice PresidentHubert Humphrey, Robert F. Kennedy, New York SenatorJacob Javits, New York GovernorNelson Rockefeller, New York MayorJohn Lindsay, US Ambassador to the United NationsArthur Goldberg, and Greek Orthodox ArchbishopIakovos.[31]
Curt Gentry, a 1991 biographer of FBI DirectorJ. Edgar Hoover, said that Hoover's secret files contained "numerous allegations that Spellman was a very active homosexual."[32]
In 2002, journalistMichelangelo Signorile called Spellman "one of the most notorious, powerful and sexually voracious homosexuals in the American Catholic Church's history."[33] John Cooney published a biography of Spellman,The American Pope (1984). Signorile reported that Cooney's manuscript initially contained interviews with several people with personal knowledge of Spellman's homosexuality, including the researcherC. A. Tripp. According to Signorile, the Catholic Church pressured Cooney's publisher,Times Books, to reduce the four pages discussing Spellman's sexuality to a single paragraph.[33][21] The published book contained these two sentences:
"For years rumors abounded about Cardinal Spellman being a homosexual. As a result, many felt—and continue to feel—that Spellman the public moralist may well have been a contradiction of the man of the flesh."[21]
Both Signorile and John Loughery cite a story suggesting that Spellman was sexually active. They also relate a story that Spellman had a personal relationship with a male member of the chorus in the 1943Broadway revueOne Touch of Venus.[33][34]
Although he had once expressed his personal opposition to demonstrations during theAmerican Civil Rights Movement, Spellman declinedJ. Edgar Hoover's requests to condemn Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Spellman funded the trip by a group of New York priests andreligious sisters to the 1965Selma to Montgomery marches. Spellman opposedracial discrimination in public housing[35] but also the social activism of such priests as ReverendDaniel Berrigan and his brother, ReveremdPhilip Berrigan, as well as a youngMelkite priest,David Kirk.[13]
Spellman once said "a true American can neither be a Communist nor a Communist condoner"[35] and "the first loyalty of every American is vigilantly to weed out and counteract Communism and convert American Communists to Americanism".[35]
Spellman defended SenatorJoseph McCarthy's 1953 investigations of alleged Communist subversives in the federal government. He said in 1954 that McCarthy had "told us about the Communists and about Communist methods" and that he was "not only against communism—but ... against the methods of the Communists".[36]
As early as 1954, Spellman was warning theEisenhower Administration about the advance of communism inFrench Indochina. He had met the future South Vietnamese president,Ngô Đình Diệm, in 1950, and was favorably impressed by his strongly Catholic and anti-Communist views. After the French defeat by theViet Minh at the battle ofDien Bien Phu in 1954, and their withdrawal from Vietnam, Spellman started urging PresidentDwight Eisenhower to intervene in the conflict.[37][13]
When the United States entered into theVietnam War in 1965, he became a staunch supporter of the intervention. A group of college students protested outside Spellman's residence in December 1965 for suppressing antiwar priests. Spellman spent Christmas 1965 with troops inSouth Vietnam.[13] While there, he quoted CommodoreStephen Decatur, declaring, "My country, may it always be right, but right or wrong, my country."[6] Spellman also called theVietnam War a "war for civilization" and "Christ's war against theVietcong and the people ofNorth Vietnam."[13]
Some critics called the Vietnam War "Spelly's War" and Spellman the "Bob Hope of the clergy”. One priest accused him of blessing "the guns which the pope is begging us to put down".[35] In January 1967, antiwar protestors disrupted a mass atSt. Patrick's Cathedral.[6] Spellman's support for the war and his opposition to church reform greatly undermined his clout within the church and country.[13] The illustratorEdward Sorel designed a poster in 1967,Pass the Lord and Praise the Ammunition, showing Spellman carrying a rifle with a bayonet. The poster was never distributed because Spellman died right after its printing.[38]
Spellman denounced the efforts of US RepresentativeGraham Barden to provide federal funding only to public schools as "a craven crusade of religious prejudice against Catholic children."[39] He called Barden an "apostle of bigotry."[40]
Spellman engaged in a heated public dispute in 1949 with former First LadyEleanor Roosevelt when she expressed her opposition to federal funding to parochial schools in her columnMy Day.[40] In response, Spellman accused her ofanti-Catholicism and called her column a document "of discrimination unworthy of an American mother".[40] Spellman eventually met with Roosevelt at Hyde Park to settle their dispute.
When Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy ran for president in the1960 presidential election, Spellman endorsed his Republican opponent, Vice PresidentRichard Nixon, a non-Catholic. This was because Kennedy opposed federal aid for parochial schools and the appointment of aU.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.[13] Kennedy aideDavid Powers recalled that in 1960, Kennedy asked him, "Why is Spellman against me?" Powers replied, "Spellman is the most powerful Catholic in the country. When you become president, you will be." Spellman's endorsement of Nixon ended his long relationship with the Kennedy family.[25]
In the1964 presidential election, Spellman supported PresidentLyndon B. Johnson, whoseHigher Education Facilities Act andEconomic Opportunity Act had greatly benefited the Catholic Church.[12]
Author Russell Shaw in 2014 wrote that Spellman
"embodied the fusion of Americanism and Catholicism in the mid-20th century.[27] Spellman's enduring accomplishments were his personal acts of kindness toward individuals and the religious and charitable institutions he founded or strengthened."[21]
Henry Morton Robinson's novelThe Cardinal (1950) was based partly on Spellman. The book was adapted into the 1963 filmThe Cardinal, withTom Tryon playing the eventual cardinal.[27]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by See Created | Titular Bishop of Sila 1932–1939 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop of New York 1939–1967 | Succeeded by |
| Apostolic Vicar for the Military Services 1939–1967 | ||
| Preceded by | Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo 1946–1967 | |
| Documents |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People |
| ||||||||||
| General | |||||||||||
| Other | |||||||||||
| Criticism | |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, 2 March 1876 – 9 October 1958
| ||
| Biography |  | |
| Encyclicals in chronological order |
| |
| World War II | ||
| Foreign relations | ||
| Theology | ||
| Writings | ||
| Appointments | ||
| Advisers | ||
| Works on Pius XII | ||
| Related | ||
