Francis Spellman
Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman (born May 4, 1889 in Whitman , Plymouth County , Massachusetts , † December 2, 1967 in New York City ) was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of New York .
Life
He was born Frank Spellman in the US state of Massachusetts and, according to his biographer Robert I. Gannon, had a typical American childhood, which also included playing baseball at school. His father (1858–1957), whose parents immigrated from Ireland , initially worked as a shoemaker and later opened a grocery store. The family had five children, of whom Frank was the eldest. He served as an altar boy in the local Holy Spirit Church. From 1907 to 1911 he attended the private Fordham University in New York. After he decided to become a priest, he studied Catholic theology in Rome and was ordained a priest on May 14, 1916 . He spent the next nine years in the Archdiocese of Boston .
In 1925 he was appointed the first American attaché of the Vatican State Secretariat. In this office he made close acquaintance with Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. , whom he accompanied on a trip to Germany in 1927; this resulted in a lifelong friendship. On July 30, 1932 he was from Pius XI. Appointed Titular Bishop of Sila and Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Boston, on September 8, 1932 Cardinal Pacelli donated him episcopal ordination ; Co- consecrators were Archbishop of the Curia Giuseppe Pizzardo and the Apostolic Nuncio in Italy, Archbishop Francesco Borgongini Duca .
Shortly after his election as Pope, Pius XII appointed him. on April 15, 1939 as Archbishop of New York and on December 11, 1939 as Military Archbishop of the USA . On December 11, 1939, he was appointed Vicar Apostolic in charge of the Roman Catholic members of the US armed forces. On February 18, 1946 Spellman was accepted as a cardinal priest with the titular Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in the college of cardinals . He was the Grand Prior of America to the Order of Malta .
He died at the age of 78. His grave is in the crypt of St. Patrick's Cathedral . At 28 years of service, he was the longest-serving archbishop of New York.
Act
Spellman arranged and organized Cardinal Pacelli's visit to the United States in 1936, including a meeting between the Cardinal and President Franklin D. Roosevelt .
Throughout his career, Spellman also became a close confidante of President Roosevelt. During the Second World War he visited a total of 16 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East within four months on behalf of Roosevelt in 1943. After 1945 he was an ardent opinion leader of the right and conservatives in the United States. He supported Joseph McCarthy and was a pioneering supporter of the Vietnam War , which is why he was mainly criticized by the global peace movement. He also opposed a union among Church staff and criticized the sexual openness in mainstream American cinema.
In 1960 Spellman supported Republican Richard Nixon in the presidential election , even though his Democratic rival John F. Kennedy was Catholic. The reason was the Kennedys' resistance to government aid for church schools and the appointment of a US ambassador to the Holy See . His support for Nixon ended a long partnership with John F. Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy .
Within the church, he turned against the liberalization of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). One of the reforms he opposed was the introduction of the recitation of the Mass in languages other than Latin (Volkssprachen-Messe). According to his biographer John Cooney, Cardinal Spellman saw Latin as "a true Catholic language" that was "unchangeable". Spellman was a member of the Coordinating Commission during the Second Vatican Council.
Honors
- 1949: Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity
- 1955: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
literature
- Cooney, John. The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman. New York Times Books 1984.
- Robert I. Gannon. The Cardinal Spellman Story. New York, 1962 (English original).
- Robert Ignatius Gannon. Cardinal Spellman. Neuenbürg 1963 (first German translation).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Leitgöb: Meeting the Council. Formative personalities of the Second Vatican Council . In: Topos paperbacks . tape 815 . Kevelaer 2012, p. 119-121 .
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Patrick Joseph Cardinal Hayes |
Archbishop of New York 1939–1967 |
Terence Cardinal Cooke |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spellman, Francis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Spellman, Cardinal Francis Joseph (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Cardinal and Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 4, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Whitman , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd December 1967 |
| Place of death | New York City |