Francis Beckman

Francis Joseph Beckman (born October 25, 1875 in Cincinnati , Ohio , † October 17, 1948 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American Roman Catholic clergyman. Beckman was Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Dubuque .

Life

The son of Francis and Elizabeth Beckman attended St. Gregory's Preparatory Seminary and Mount St. Mary's Seminary , a seminary in Cincinnati. At the end of the 19th century Beckman also came to Europe , where he was a student at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium , as well as at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome . On June 20, 1902, Beckman also received the sacrament of ordination in Rome . In 1908 he earned a doctorate in theology at the Gregoriana .

In 1908 he returned to the United States, where he got a position as a professor of philosophy and dogmatics at his alma mater , Mount St. Mary's Seminary . In 1912 he was appointed principal of the school; in this function he worked until 1924. He also worked as a theological advisor in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati .

On December 23, 1923, Pope Pius XI appointed Beckman as Bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln . On May 1, 1924, he was ordained a bishop by Archbishop Henry K. Moeller . Co-consecrators were the bishops Joseph Schrembs and Joseph Chartrand . Beckman served as the Diocesan Bishop of Lincoln for six years, until 1930. In parallel, he was Apostolic Administrator in the Archdiocese of Omaha .

Also by Pope Pius XI. Beckman was appointed Archbishop of Dubuque on January 17, 1930. In the 16 years in which he headed his archdiocese, he led it through the times of the Depression as well as the Second World War . With his support, numerous Catholic organizations such as the Vinzenzgemeinschaft or the Catholic Youth Organization were able to start and expand their work in Dubuque. In 1939, the previously named Columbia College was renamed Loras College , a reference to Mathias Loras , the first bishop of Dubuque.

Beckman has long been an advocate of a neutral, pacifist USA. He also wrote a letter to Senator William Borah , in which he argued that the United States should stay out of the war in Europe.

Impressed by the cultural diversity he had seen during his stay in Europe, Beckman began buying numerous works of art by Rembrandt , Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck in the late 1930s and early 1940s . In Loras College he founded his own small museum for this purpose. The artwork was valued at $ 1.5 million. In order to have more money to buy more works of art, Beckman began speculating in gold mines in California from 1936 . However, the speculative business turned out badly and the financial situation of the archdiocese came to a head. At the behest of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt , the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traveled to Dubuque. Many of the works of art already acquired had to be sold in order to minimize the damage. Nevertheless, the archdiocese suffered a financial loss of half a million dollars.

As an ecclesiastical consequence, on June 15, 1944, Beckman was assigned Henry Rohlman , the previous bishop of the Davenport diocese , as coadjutor bishop . Beckman was still allowed to bear the title of archbishop, but from now on Rohlman was in charge. On November 9, 1946, Beckman submitted to Pope Pius XII. his resignation, which was also granted. He then left Dubuque and moved back to Cincinnati.

Just two years later, on October 17, 1948, Beckman died at the age of 72 in a Chicago hospital . He was buried in St. Raphael's Cathedral in Dubuque.

Web links

• Entry for Francis Beckman on catholic-hierarchy.org

predecessor	Office	successor
James Keane	Archbishop of Dubuque 1930–1946	Henry Rohlman
Charles Joseph O'Reilly	Bishop of Lincoln 1923–1930	Louis Benedict Kucera