Born in Whitman, Massachusetts, in 1889, Francis
Joseph Spellman attended Fordham University and
the American
College at Rome while preparing to enter the priesthood.
He received his ordination as a Roman Catholic
priest
in 1916 and, in 1924, he was named archivist of the
Archdiocese of Boston. Later the following year,
Spellman
went
on pilgrimage to Rome and was subsequently appointed
the first American assistant to the papal secretariat
of state. Remaining in Rome between 1925 and 1931,
Spellman was forced to leave the Vatican when
the
church hierarchy assigned him the dangerous mission
of smuggling an antifascist encyclical out of
Italy.
In 1932, Spellman returned to the United States and
was quickly appointed auxiliary bishop of Boston,
a position he retained until 1939 when Pope Pius XII
made him archbishop of New York and vicar of the United
States Armed Forces (a position that charged him with
overseeing spiritual services to all Roman Catholics
in the U.S. military). Skillfully using his newfound
prestige in the American Catholic hierarchy, Spellman
was instrumental in mobilizing American Catholics
behind the war effort. For his efforts he was again
rewarded by Pius XII in 1946 when the Pope elevated
him to the College of Cardinals.
A steadfast social, political, and theological conservative,
Cardinal Spellman often took positions on public policy
issues, and in the summer of 1949 he engaged Eleanor
Roosevelt in a vitriolic public debate about the merits
of federal funding for parochial schools. When ER
indicated her opposition to direct federal aid for
religious schools in her "My Day" column,
Spellman accused her of anti-Catholicism, thus opening
a bitter public rift with the former first lady that
lasted until August 1949 when both parties diffused
the tension by releasing statements that clarified
their views. Remaining archbishop of New York until
his death in 1967, Cardinal Spellman continued to
use his considerable political muscle to lobby for
restored diplomatic relations between the United States
and the Vatican, and then later in support of American
involvement in Vietnam.
Sources:
Beasley, Maurine H., Holly C. Shulman, and Henry
R. Beasley, eds. The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia.
Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2001, 498-502.
The Concise Dictionary of American Biography.
5th ed. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997, 1205-1206.