SPELLMAN, FRANCIS

Cardinal; b. Whitman, Massachusetts, May 4, 1889;d. New York, Dec. 2, 1967. He was the son of William and Ellen Conway Spellman. After attending public elementary and secondary schools in Whitman, Spellman entered Fordham College, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1911. With the approval of Archbishop William O'Connell of Boston, he entered the North American College in Rome. In 1916 he received a doctorate in theology, and on May 14 of the same year he was ordained a priest in the Church of St. Apollinaris in Rome. He returned to Boston and was assigned as an assistant pastor at All Saints Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was appointed assistant chancellor of the archdiocese in 1922 and became archivist a year later.

Spellman accompanied a Holy Year diocesan pilgrimage to Rome in 1925 and remained there to direct playgrounds presented to the Holy See by the Knights of Columbus. The same year Pope Pius XI appointed him to the Vatican Secretariat of State. It was there that he became friendly with Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future secretary of state and later Pope Pius XII. Pope Pius XI named him auxiliary bishop of Boston, and he was consecrated in St. Peter's Basilica by Pacelli on Sept. 8, 1932. Spellman returned to Boston where he became pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Newton Center. When Pacelli visited the United States as papal secretary of state in 1936, Spellman accompanied him on his visits throughout the country.

On April 15, 1939, the recently elected Pope Pius XII appointed Spellman as archbishop of New York, and on Feb. 18, 1946 named him cardinal. Under Spellman the Archdiocese of New York underwent years of extraordinary expansion and development. During his first year in New York, he refinanced a $28 million debt incurred by the diocese and the parishes during the Depression. Also in 1939 he established the Building Commission to supervise and advise on building projects throughout the archdiocese. The Institutional Commodity Services was established in 1941 as a central purchasing agency for the churches and institutions of the archdiocese, thereby saving them more than $1.5 million a year in purchases.

Under Spellman the Catholic Charities of the archdiocese underwent enormous expansion. Spellman constructed or renovated more than 370 elementary and secondary schools at a cost of $500 million, earning for him the title, "cardinal of education." Recognizing the value of television in education, he purchased the RCA color broadcast equipment at the New York World's Fair and established the Instructional Television Center in 1966. He sponsored the publication of the Catholic Encyclopedia for School and Home (1965), and the New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967). Under his direction St. Joseph's Seminary was completely renovated.

Spellman was also military vicar of the Armed Forces, consisting of more than two million servicemen and their families and 2,700 chaplains. From 1942 until 1966 he journeyed throughout the world visiting military installations, and was preparing his 17th annual Christmas pastoral visit when he died. As a national figure, the cardinal was outspoken in support of racial justice and equality and of the rights and interests of Catholic students at every level. His statements on communism, immorality, and education received international attention.

In 1960 Pope John XXIII appointed him to the Central Preparatory Commission for the Second Vatican Council. He was also appointed by Pope Paul VI to the Central Post-Conciliar Commission to implement and interpret the decrees of the council. He spoke frequently during the four sessions of the council and was especially influential in the formulation of the Declaration on Religious Freedom during the third and fourth sessions. He was among the first American bishops of the country to implement the decrees of the council concerning reforms in the liturgy, the establishment of episcopal vicars in areas of the archdiocese, and the formation of a senate of priests to assist the archbishop.

Bibliography: j. cooney, The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman (New York 1984).

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