Thomas Joseph Toolen

Thomas Joseph Toolen around the time of his episcopal ordination

Thomas Joseph Toolen (born February 28, 1886 in Baltimore , Maryland , † December 4, 1976 in Mobile , Alabama ) was an American Roman Catholic clergyman. Toolen was bishop of the Diocese of Mobile from 1927 to 1969 , with the personal title of archbishop since 1954 .

Life

Thomas Toolen was born in Baltimore, one of six children of Thomas and Mary Toolen, Irish immigrants. His father died in 1897 when Toolen was eleven years old. He graduated from Loyola High School in Towson and then from Loyola University Maryland .

At the age of twelve he already knew that he wanted to be a priest . He then enrolled at St. Mary's Seminary and University , where he studied theology . On September 27, 1910 he received by Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore Cathedral , the ordination . He then enrolled at the Catholic University of America , where he studied canon law and received his bachelor's degree in 1912 .

Toolen took over his first congregation in 1912 as curate of St. Bernard Church in Baltimore. He remained in this position until 1925, when he was appointed director of the papal faith-spreading agency in his diocese.

On February 28, 1927, his 41st birthday, Toolen received from Pope Pius XI. entrusted the diocese of Mobile as bishop. The episcopal ordination donated to him on May 4, 1927 Archbishop Michael Joseph Curley and his co-consecrators, Bishops Michael Joseph Keyes and Richard Oliver Gerow . On May 18, 1927, he was introduced to office in Mobile. In October 1949 he received the title of Papal Assistant to the Throne . On May 27, 1954, Pope Pius XII awarded him . ad personam the title archbishop . From 1962 to 1965 he was a participant in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council .

Toolen was considered a bishop who had good relations with the African American Catholics. In 1950, for example, he opened St. Martin de Porres Hospital , the first hospital in Alabama where black doctors were allowed to practice and where black pregnant women were also treated. He also allowed the nun Mother Angelica and the Order of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration to open a convent for blacks in Mobile in 1962. He also ended segregation in Catholic schools in Alabama in 1964 , so that black children were allowed to attend classes with whites.

On September 29, 1969, after 42 years as a bishop, Toolen submitted to Pope Paul VI. his resignation, which he accepted. He was named titular bishop of Glastonia on the same day .

He died seven years later, in December 1976, while sleeping. He was 90 years old.

Web links

Commons : Thomas Joseph Toolen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Thomas Joseph Toolen on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on August 8, 2017.

predecessor	Office	successor
Edward Patrick Allen	Bishop of Mobile 1927–1969	John Lawrence May