Spellman, Francis J. 1889-1967

SPELLMAN, FRANCIS J. 1889-1967

Archbishop of new york

The American Pope

On 23 December 1945 Francis J. Spellman, archbishop of New York, was named cardinal by Pope Pius XII. The appointment represented the culmination of an extraordinary career within the Catholic Church and within American society. By 1945 Spellman was the leading Roman Catholic clergyman in the United States, the confidant of powerful political and business figures, and the spiritual leader of the largest Catholic archdiocese in America, His influence on American political affairs, both domestic and foreign, was considerable, leading critics to dub him "the American Pope."

Background

Spellman was born in Whitman, Massachusetts, on 4 May 1889 to an upper-middle-class grocer. An indifferent and unexceptional student, he nonetheless went to Fordham University in 1907, determined to make his mark in the priesthood. After graduating he attended the North American College in Rome, where he ingratiated himself with several powerful bishops. Already Spellman evidenced a knack for cultivating relationships with the powerful and well-placed, although it was not through charm, as Spellman was noted through-out his life for his brusque and unmannered treatment of others. He was accepted into the priesthood on 14 May 1916 and assigned as a chaplain at Saint Clement's Home, an institution for elderly women in Boston. He was soon reassigned to the Catholic newspaper Pilot as a subscription manager and editor.

Rise in the Church

Spellman's thinly veiled ambition soon ran afoul of Boston's archbishop, William O'Connell, and hurt his reputation in church circles. His contacts in Rome nonetheless returned him to the Vatican in 1925. As a church administrator Spellman proved adept at money management and at negotiating church affairs with businessmen and political figures. In 1927 he met papal diplomat Eugenio Pacelli, who had been the Vatican's ambassador to Germany, and embraced his militant anticommunism. The two men began a long and close association, which was especially beneficial to Spellman after Pacelli became Pope Pius XII in 1939. Spellman soon became the leading American at the Vatican, acting as a de facto emissary to the United States and as a de facto American ambassador to Rome. In 1932 he was named auxiliary archbishop to Boston and returned home. In Boston he quickly made allies of powerful political figures, especially Irish Catholic politicians such as Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and Boston mayor James Michael Curley. He also continued his climb in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. In 1939 he became archbishop of the New York archdiocese, the largest and most powerful in the United States. He used the position to make himself even more powerful, eventually earning the archdiocese in New York the nickname of "the Powerhouse."

Interventionist

Spellman's activities before and during World War II made him a nationally recognized figure. As archbishop of the nation's most powerful archdiocese, with nearly 2 million Catholic voters, he was a magnet for political figures. He sought them out as well, eager to associate the church more closely with national endeavors. He strengthened his ties to the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, combating the isolationism prevalent in the Catholic hierarchy before World War II. At the National Eucharistic Congress in June 1941 he connected Roosevelt's Atlantic Charter to the church, arguing that the real peace program of the Allies had ten points—the Ten Commandments. In the fall of 1941 Spellman had even drafted an official statement on world interventionism that Roosevelt read at the first drawing of the draft. "We really can no longer afford to be moles who cannot see or ostriches who will not see," wrote Spellman. "We Americans want peace and we shall be prepared for a peace, but not a peace whose definition is slavery or death."

Wartime Activities

With the outbreak of war Spellman's political duties increased. He acted as Roosevelt's secret emissary to foreign governments, such as that of Spain, when such communications proved too politically volatile for official channels. He also made a habit of visiting the front lines, conducting masses for the troops and bolstering morale. On 13 March 1943 he said mass over the grave of Rev. Clement Falter, a Catholic chaplain who was the first chaplain killed in the war.

The Chaplain of the Cold War

Spellman was a militant anti-Communist, constantly ferreting out red activities. He contributed to the fear and suspicion between the United States and the Soviet Union that followed the wartime alliance. In 1944 he had a Polish-American priest, Stanislaus Orelemanski, banished to a monastery after the priest encouraged closer American relations with the Soviets. Spellman denounced communism from the pulpit routinely, in 1948 asserting, "We stand at a crossroads of civilization, a civilization threatened with the crucifixion of Communism." He was a prominent radio figure, urging Americans to "weed out and counteract" Communist subversives within the United States. When grave-diggers at the church-owned Calvary Cemetery went on strike for higher wages in 1949, he automatically condemned them as Communists. Naturally enough, he was among Sen. Joseph McCarthy's most ardent champions, endorsing him at a 1953 mass in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York. When Jesuit leader Robert Harnett denounced McCarthy in the pages of the Jesuit journal America, Spellman had the Vatican silence him. He went so far as to offer to spy for the FBI in an attempt to purge communism from the labor unions.

Public Aid to Schools

During World War II the success of federal assistance in abetting American higher education set a precedent for proposals for federal aid for all American education. Spellman was instrumental in attempting to get this assistance extended to parochial schools. However, many Americans, anxious over the separation of church and state, favored assistance to public schools alone. When Spellman denounced a 1949 congressional bill that limited assistance to public schools, he was admonished by Eleanor Roosevelt concerning the separation of church and state. He replied by accusing her of anti-Catholicism, a common tactic for him with non-Catholic enemies. His response to the affair (the bill ultimately died), as well as his thin-skinned tendency to heap abuse on detractors, did much to harm the ecumenical spirit dominant in the postwar era, as did his stands on several moral issues.

Morals and the Public Good

Like many other Catholic leaders, Spellman was concerned with the impact of mass media on social morals and consistently reacted to movies he considered morally offensive. In November 1941 he denounced Greta Garbo's movie Two-Faced Woman as "dangerous to public morals." He actively condemned two movies in the 1950s, Roberto Rossellini's The Miracle (1950) for its "sacrilegious" nature and Baby Doll (1956) for its "corrupting influence." His attack on such films was not limited to speeches. In New York a theater in which The Miracle played was closed due to fire violations, as Spellman applied political pressure to city leaders. After two academics, Frank Getlein of Fairfield University and William P. Clancy of Notre Dame University, expressed support for the movie, they were fired from their posts. Spellman's campaign backfired, however, as The Miracle became a liberal cause célèbre, leading in part to the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking blasphemy from the criminal code in 1952. Nevertheless, Spellman sent priests into the lobbies of theaters showing Baby Doll to take down the names of any parishioner attending the film.

Later Activities

Spellman's anticommunism and patriotism only gained strength in the 1950s, and he continued his trips to military camps abroad, especially during the Korean War. The election of John F. Kennedy to the presidency, however, marked the beginning of Spellman's decline in power. Kennedy favored the cardinal of Boston, Richard Cushing, to Spellman. Spellman, moreover, opposed the liberalization of Catholicism that occurred after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1964) and fell out of favor in Rome. His vocal advocacy of American military involvement and bombing in Vietnam, moreover, strained his relations with the more pacific Vatican to the breaking point. His power waned considerably, and he was no longer a political force to be feared when he died on 2 December 1967.

Source:

John Cooney, The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman (New York: Times Books, 1984).