Spellman, Francis Cardinal (1889–1967), Catholic archbishop of New York.Born in Whitman, Massachusetts, and educated at Fordham University and the American College at Rome, Francis Joseph Spellman entered the priesthood in 1916. After serving in the
Boston diocese and as assistant to the papal secretary of state in the Vatican, he became auxiliary bishop of Boston in 1932, archbishop of New York in 1939, and a cardinal in 1946.
Spellman was one of the most influential leaders of American Catholicism during his nearly thirty years as leader of the New York archdiocese. From his midtown residence, known locally as “the powerhouse,” Cardinal Spellman was an aggressive and influential player in
New York City politics who worked to advance the institutional interests of his church. Cardinal Spellman was also a powerful figure in the international life of the Roman Catholic church. Close to both Pope Pius XII and President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, Spellman played an important role as an intermediary between the Vatican and the White House during
World War II. In fact, Spellman's influential voice in the Vatican earned him the nickname “The American Pope.” In terms of internal church politics, he may have been the most powerful prelate in American history.
Francis Spellman embodied American Catholicism's anticommunist zeal and patriotic fervor during the
Cold War. As military vicar, or special bishop to America's armed forces, he outspokenly defended U.S. foreign policy and, near the end of this life, enthusiastically supported the
Vietnam War. In 1965, echoing the early nineteenth‐century naval hero Stephen Decatur, Spellman declared, “My country, may it always be right, but right or wrong, my country.”
See also
Anticommunism;
Religion;
Roman Catholicism.
Bibliography
John Cooney , The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman, 1984.
William A. Au , The Cross, the Flag, and the Bomb: American Catholics Debate War and Peace, 1985.
Timothy A. Byrnes
