Francis Spellman

Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1939 until his death. Spellman previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston from 1932 to 1939. He was created a cardinal in 1946.

Early life and education


Francis Spellman was born in Whitman, Massachusetts, to William Spellman and Ellen (née Conway) Spellman. William Spellman was a grocer whose own parents had immigrated to the United States from Clonmel and Leighlinbridge, Ireland. Spellman had two younger brothers, Martin and John, and two younger sisters, Marian and Helene.

Spellman attended Whitman High School because there was no Catholic school in Whitman. He enjoyed photography and baseball; he played first base during his freshman year of high school until suffering a hand injury. Spellman later managed the team. After his high school graduation, Spellman entered Fordham University in New York City in 1907. He graduated in 1911 and decided to study for the priesthood. He was then sent by Archbishop William O'Connell to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Spellman suffered so badly from pneumonia that the college administrators wanted to send him home to recover. He nevertheless remained at the college and completed his theological studies. During his years in Rome, Spellman befriended future cardinals Gaetano Bisleti, Francesco Borgongini Duca, and Domenico Tardini.

Priesthood
Spellman was ordained a priest at the Sant'Apollinare Basilica in Rome by Patriarch Giuseppe Ceppetelli on May 14, 1916. Upon his return to the United States, the archdiocese assigned Spellman to pastoral positions at parishes. Cardinal William O'Connell, who had earlier sent Spellman to Rome, described him as a "little popinjay". He later said, "Francis epitomizes what happens to a bookkeeper when you teach him how to read." Spellman served a series of relatively insignificant assignments.

After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Spellman applied to become a military chaplain in the US Army, but did not meet the height requirement. Spellman also applied to be a chaplain in the US Navy, but his application was personally rejected, twice, by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

O'Connell eventually assigned Spellman to promote subscriptions for the archdiocesan newspaper, The Pilot. The archbishop named him as assistant chancellor in 1918 and archivist of the archdiocese in 1924.

After Spellman translated two books written by his friend Borgongini Duca into English, the Vatican appointed Spellman as first American attaché of the Vatican Secretariat of State in 1925. While serving in the Secretariat, he also worked with the Knights of Columbus in running children's playgrounds in Rome. Pope Pius XI raised O'Connor to the rank of privy chamberlain on October 4, 1926.

During a trip to Germany in 1927, Spellman established a lifelong friendship with Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli, who was serving there as apostolic nuncio. Spellman translated Pius XI's first broadcast over Vatican Radio in 1931. Later that year, Spellman transported a papal encyclical, Non abbiamo bisogno, that condemned fascism, out of Rome to Paris for publication. He also served as secretary to Cardinal Lorenzo Lauri at the 1932 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, and helped reform the Vatican's press office, introducing mimeograph machines and issuing press releases.

Auxiliary Bishop of Boston
On July 30, 1932, Spellman was appointed auxiliary bishop of Boston and titular bishop of Sila by Pope Pius XI. The pope had originally considered appointing Spellman as bishop of Dioceses of Portland in Maine and Manchester in New Hampshire. Spellman received his consecration on September 8, 1932, from Pacelli at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Archbishops Giuseppe Pizzardo and Francesco Borgongini Duca acted as co-consecrators. Spellman was the first American to be consecrated a bishop at St. Peter's. Borgongini-Duca designed a coat of arms for Spellmans that incorporated the explorer Christopher Columbus' ship, the Santa Maria. Pius XI gave him the motto Sequere Deum ("Follow God").

After his return to the United States, Spellman took up residence at St. John's Seminary in Boston. He was later made pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Newton Centre; there he erased the church's $43,000 debt through fundraising. When Spellman's mother died in 1935, Massachusetts Governor James Curley, Lieutenant Governor Joseph Hurley, and many members of the clergy, with the exception of O'Connell, attended the funeral.

In the autumn of 1936, Pacelli came to the United States, ostensibly to visit several cities and be the guest of philanthropist Genevieve Brady. However, the real reason for the trip was to meet with President Roosevelt to discuss American diplomatic recognition of Vatican City. Spellman arranged and attended the meeting at the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, New York.

Spellman became an early friend of Joseph Kennedy Sr, the US ambassador to the United Kingdom and the head of a rich Catholic family. Over the years, Spellman married several Kennedy children, including future Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Jean Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, and future Senator Edward Kennedy.

On Pacelli's trip to the United States, he, Kennedy and Spellman attempted to stop the vitriolic radio broadcasts of Reverend Charles Coughlin. The Vatican and the apostolic legation in Washington wanted him silenced, but Coughlin's superior, Bishop Michael Gallagher of Detroit, refused to curb him. In 1939, Coughlin was forced off the air by the National Association of Broadcasters.

Archbishop of New York
After the death of Pope Pius XI, Pacelli was elected 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. He was painted twice in 1940 and again in 1941 by the artist Adolfo Müller-Ury. Spellman inaugurated first regularly-scheduled Spanish language masses in the archdiocese at St. Cecilia's Parish in East Harlem.

In addition to his duties as diocesan bishop, Pius XII named Spellman as apostolic 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.

During his tenure in New York, Spellman's considerable national influence in religious and political matters earned his residence the nickname of "the Powerhouse." He hosted many prominent clergy, entertainers and politicians, including the statesman Bernard Baruch, US Senator David I. Walsh, and US House of Representative Majority Leader John William McCormack. In 1945, Spellman instituted the Al Smith Dinner in Manhattan, an annual white tie fundraiser for Catholic Charities that is attended by prominent national figures.

After his appointment as archbishop, Spellman also became a close confidant of President Roosevelt. During World War II, Roosevelt asked Spellman to visit Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in 1943, 16 countries in four months. As archbishop and a military vicar, he would have greater freedom than official diplomats." During the Allied campaign in Italy, Spellman acted as a liaison between Pius XII and Roosevelt in efforts to declare Rome an open city to save it from bombing and street fighting.

Cardinal
Pius XII created Spellman as Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in the consistory of February 18, 1946. According to the historian William V. Shannon, Spellman was "deeply reactionary in his theology and secular politics."

In 1949, when gravediggers at Calvary Cemetery in Queens went on strike for a pay raise, the Cardinal accused them of being Communists and recruited seminarians of the Archdiocese from St. Joseph's Seminary as strikebreakers. He described the actions of the gravediggers, who belonged to the Food, 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." The strike was supported by the activist Dorothy Day and the author Ernest Hemingway, who wrote a scathing letter about it to Spellman.

Spellman was instrumental in getting William Brennan appointed to the Supreme Court in 1956 but would later regret the decision. Justice William O. Douglas once said, "I came to know several Americans who I felt had greatly dishonored our American ideal. One was Cardinal Spellman."

Spellman participated in the 1958 papal conclave that elected Pope 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 the Eucharistic Congress in Guatemala; during his journey, he stopped in Nicaragua and, contrary to the Pope's orders, publicly appeared with future dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle.

According to the Catholic journalist Raymond Arroyo's foreword written for a 2008 edition of Fulton 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 cancelled Sheen's annual Good Friday sermons at St. Patrick's Cathedral and discouraged clergy from befriending the Bishop."

Spellman had a long relationship with Joseph P. Kennedy Sr, the former American ambassador to the United Kingdom and the head of an influential Catholic family.

The historian Pat McNamara views Spellman's outreach to the city's growing Puerto 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. In his years as a cardinal, Spellman built 15 churches, 94 schools, 22 rectories, 60 convents, and 34 other institutions. He also visited Ecuador, where he founded three schools: Cardinal Spellman High School and Cardinal Spellman Girls' School, both in Quito, and Cardinal Spellman High School in Guayaquil.

Second Vatican Council
Spellman attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965 and sat on its board of presidency. He believed that the Vatican was appointing predominantly liberal clergymen to the council's commissions. He opposed the Council reform that introduced vernacular 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." A theological conservative, Spellman supported ecumenism on pragmatic grounds.

In April 1963, Spellman brought the Reverend John Murray as a peritus (expert) to the Second Vatican Council. This was despite the well-known animosity of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, the secretary of the Holy Office, toward Murray. The Apostolic Delegate to the U.S., Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, attempted to silence Murray. However, Spellman and Murray's Jesuit superiors managed to shield him from most attempts at curial interference. Murray's work helped shape the council's declaration on religious freedom.

After the death of John XXIII, Spellman participated in the conclave of 1963 that resulted in the election of Pope Paul VI. Spellman later agreed to Johnson's requests to send priests to the Dominican Republic to defuse anti-American sentiments after the American invasion of 1965.

Spellman led his archdiocese through an extensive period of building the Catholic infrastructure, particularly the construction of numerous churches, schools, and hospitals. He consolidated all parish building programs into his own hands and thereby got better interest rates from bankers, and he 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."

Later life and death
In 1966, Spellman offered his resignation to Paul VI after the latter instituted a policy requiring bishops to retire at age 75, but the pope asked him to remain in his post.

Spellman died in New York City on December 2, 1967, at age 78. He was interred in the crypt under the main altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral. His funeral mass was attended by President Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Robert F. Kennedy, New York Senator Jacob Javits, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, New York Mayor John Lindsay, Arthur Goldberg, and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos.

Homosexuality and anti-homosexuality
Curt Gentry, a 1991 biographer of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, said that Hoover's files contained "numerous allegations that Spellman was a very active homosexual."

In 2002, journalist Michelangelo Signorile described Spellman as "one of the most notorious, powerful and sexually voracious homosexuals in the American Catholic Church's history." John Cooney had 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 researcher C. 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. 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."

Both Signorile and John Loughery cite a story suggesting that Spellman was sexually active. They also related a story that Spellman had a personal relationship with a male member of the chorus in the 1943 Broadway revue One Touch of Venus.

Racism
Although he had once expressed his personal opposition to demonstrations during the American Civil Rights Movement, Spellman declined J. Edgar Hoover's requests to condemn Martin Luther King Jr. He funded the trip by a group of New York priests and religious sisters to the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. Spellman opposed racial discrimination in public housing but also the social activism of such priests as Daniel Berrigan and his brother, Philip Berrigan, as well as a young Melkite priest, David Kirk.

Communism
Spellman once said that "a true American can neither be a Communist nor a Communist condoner" and that "the first loyalty of every American is vigilantly to weed out and counteract Communism and convert American Communists to Americanism".

Spellman defended Senator Joseph McCarthy's 1953 investigations of Communist subversives in the federal government, stating 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".

As early as 1954, Spellman was warning the Eisenhower Administration about the advance of communism in French 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 the Viet Minh at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Spellman started urging the Eisenhower Administration to intervene in the conflict.

When the United States entered into the Vietnam 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 in South Vietnam. While there, he quoted Commodore Stephen Decatur in declaring, "My country, may it always be right, but right or wrong, my country." Spellman also described the Vietnam War as a "war for civilization" and "Christ's war against the Vietcong and the people of North Vietnam."

Some critics referred to the Vietnam War as "Spelly's War" and Spellman as the "Bob Hope of the clergy”. One priest accused Spellman of "[blessing] the guns which the pope is begging us to put down". In January 1967, antiwar protestors disrupted a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Spellman's support for the Vietnam War, along with his opposition to church reform, greatly undermined his clout within the church and country. The illustrator Edward Sorel designed a poster in 1967, Pass the Lord and Praise the Ammunition, showing Spellman carrying a rifle with a bayonet. However, the poster was never distributed because Spellman died right after its printing.

Politics
Spellman denounced the efforts of US Representative Graham Barden to provide federal funding only to public schools as "a craven crusade of religious prejudice against Catholic children" and even called Barden himself an "apostle of bigotry."

Spellman engaged in a heated public dispute in 1949 with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt when she expressed her opposition to federal funding to parochial schools in her column, My Day. In response, Spellman accused her of anti-Catholicism and called her column a "[document] of discrimination unworthy of an American mother". Spellman eventually met with Roosevelt at her Hyde Park home to settle the dispute.

When Senator John F. Kennedy ran for president in the 1960 presidential election, Spellman supported his opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon, a non-Catholic. This was because Kennedy opposed federal aid for parochial schools and the appointment of a U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. Kennedy aide David 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.

During the 1964 presidential election, Spellman supported President Lyndon B. Johnson, whose Higher Education Facilities Act and Economic Opportunity Act had greatly benefited the Catholic Church.

Films and plays

 * Spellman described the 1941 film Two-Faced Woman, starring the actress Greta Garbo, as "an occasion of sin ... dangerous to public morals". He condemned Garbo for her alleged lesbian and bisexual morality.
 * Spellman's condemnation of the 1947 film Forever Amber prompted the producer William Perlberg to refuse publicly to "bowdlerize the film to placate the Roman Catholic Church."
 * Spellman referred to the 1948 film The Miracle as a "vile and harmful picture ... a despicable affront to every Christian".
 * Spellman called the 1956 film Baby Doll "revolting" and "morally repellent."
 * When The Deputy, a play about Pius XII's actions during the Holocaust, opened on Broadway in 1964, Spellman condemned it as "an outrageous desecration of the honor of a great and good man." The play's producer, Herman Shumlin, called Spellman's words a "calculated threat to really drive a wedge between Christians and Jews."

Awards

 * Gold Medal Award from The Hundred Year Association of New York's "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York"– 1946
 * Distinguished Service Medal from the American Legion –1963
 * Order of Ruben Dario the Nicaraguan goverments highest award on his visit to Central America in 1958 and Nicaraguan postage stamp issued in 1959.
 * Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York – 1967

Legacy
Russell Shaw states that Spellman "embodied the fusion of Americanism and Catholicism" in the mid-20th century. Spellman's support of John Courtney Murray contributed to Murray's significant influence on the drafting of Dignitatis humanae, the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom. "Spellman's enduring accomplishments were his personal acts of kindness toward individuals and the religious and charitable institutions he founded or strengthened."

Henry Morton Robinson's novel The Cardinal (1950) was based in part on Spellman's career that was made in 1963 into a film of the same name with Tom Tryon as the eventual Cardinal.

In July 1947, a Jesuit residential building opened on the campus of Fordham University, Spellman's alma mater, named in his honor.