Francis Spellman

{{short description|American Catholic prelate (1889–1967)}} {{about||high schools of the same name|Cardinal Spellman High School (disambiguation)|the weightlifter|Frank Spellman}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Cardinal | honorific-prefix = | name = Francis Spellman | honorific-suffix = | title = {{br separated entries | Archbishop of New York}} | image = Cardinal Francis Spellman 1946.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = Cardinal Spellman in 1946 | church = {{ubl | Catholic Church | Latin Church }} | archdiocese = New York | appointed = April 15, 1939 | enthroned = May 23, 1939 | ended = December 2, 1967 | predecessor = Patrick Joseph Hayes | successor = Terence Cooke | other_post = {{indented plainlist| * Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo (1946{{nbnd}}1967) * Ordinary/Apostolic Vicar for the United States Armed Forces (1939{{nbnd}}1967) }} | ordination = May 14, 1916 | ordained_by = Giuseppe Ceppetelli | consecration = September 8, 1932 | consecrated_by = Eugenio Pacelli | cardinal = February 18, 1946 | created_cardinal_by = Pius XII | rank = Cardinal Priest | previous_post = {{indented plainlist| * Auxiliary Bishop of Boston (1932{{nbnd}}1939) }} | birth_name = Francis Joseph Spellman | birth_date = {{birth date|1889|05|04|mf=y}} | birth_place = Whitman, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1967|12|02|1889|05|04|mf=y}} | death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. | buried = St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York | residence = | parents =  | occupation = | profession = | education = {{Ubl | Fordham University | Pontifical North American College}} | signature = | coat_of_arms = | motto = {{br separated entries |{{Lang|la|Sequere Deum}} | (Follow God)}} | honorific_prefix = His Eminence }} {{Ordination | consecrated by = Eugenio Pacelli | date of consecration = September 8, 1932 | bishop 1 = John Francis O'Hara, C.S.C. | consecration date 1 = January 15, 1940 | bishop 2 = James Francis McIntyre | consecration date 2 = January 8, 1941 | bishop 3 = William Tibertus McCarty, C.Ss.R. | consecration date 3 = January 25, 1943 | bishop 4 = Joseph Patrick Donahue | consecration date 4 = March 19, 1945 | bishop 5 = William Richard Arnold | consecration date 5 = October 11, 1945 | bishop 6 = Thomas John McDonnell | consecration date 6 = September 15, 1947 | bishop 7 = Patrick O'Boyle | consecration date 7 = January 14, 1948 | bishop 8 = Joseph Francis Flannelly | consecration date 8 = December 16, 1948 | bishop 9 = James Henry Ambrose Griffiths | consecration date 9 = January 18, 1950 | bishop 10 = Christopher Joseph Weldon | consecration date 10 = March 24, 1950 | bishop 11 = David Frederick Cunningham | consecration date 11 = June 8, 1950 | bishop 12 = Joseph Oliver Bowers, S.V.D. | consecration date 12 = January 8, 1953 | bishop 13 = Lawrence B. Casey | consecration date 13 = May 5, 1953 | bishop 14 = Joseph Maria Pernicone | consecration date 14 = May 5, 1954 | bishop 15 = Philip Joseph Furlong | consecration date 15 = January 25, 1956 | bishop 16 = Charles Arthur Brown, M.M. | consecration date 16 = February 27, 1957 | bishop 17 = Vincent Ignatius Kennally, S.J. | consecration date 17 = March 25, 1957 | bishop 18 = John Michael Fearns | consecration date 18 = December 10, 1957 | bishop 19 = John William Comber, M.M. | consecration date 19 = April 9, 1959 | bishop 20 = John Joseph Maguire | consecration date 20 = June 29, 1959 | bishop 21 = Tomás Roberto Manning, O.F.M. | consecration date 21 = July 14, 1959 | bishop 22 = Luis Aponte Martínez | consecration date 22 = October 12, 1960 | bishop 23 = Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez, C.S.C. | consecration date 23 = October 28, 1960 | bishop 24 = Francis Frederick Reh | consecration date 24 = June 29, 1962 | bishop 25 = Thomas Andrew Donnellan | consecration date 25 = April 9, 1964 | bishop 26 = George Theodore Boileau, S.J. | consecration date 26 = July 31, 1964 | bishop 27 = George Henry Guilfoyle | consecration date 27 = November 30, 1964 | bishop 28 = Juan Fremiot Torres Oliver | consecration date 28 = December 21, 1964 | bishop 29 = Terence Cooke | consecration date 29 = December 13, 1965 | bishop 30 = William Joseph Moran | consecration date 30 = December 13, 1965 | bishop 31 = John Joseph Thomas Ryan | consecration date 31 = March 25, 1966 | bishop 32 = Edwin Broderick | consecration date 32 = March 8, 1967 }}

'''Francis Joseph Spellman''' (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1939 until his death in 1967. From 1932 to 1939, Spellman served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston. He was created a cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946.

==Early life and education==

[[File:Spellman window, Clonmel.jpg|thumb|Stained glass window donated to St. Mary's Church, Clonmel, by Spellman in memory of his grandfather Patrick Spellman|390x390px]]

Francis Spellman was born on May 4, 1889, in Whitman, Massachusetts, to William Spellman and Ellen (née Conway) Spellman. William Spellman was a grocer whose own parents had immigrated to the United States from Clonmel and Leighlinbridge, Ireland.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Fogarty |first=Gerald P. |title=Spellman, Francis Joseph |date=1999}}</ref> Spellman had two younger brothers, Martin and John, and two younger sisters, Marian and Helene.

Spellman attended Whitman High School, a public school, because there was no Catholic school in Whitman. He enjoyed photography and baseball; he played first base during his freshman year of high school until suffering a hand injury. Spellman later managed the baseball team. After his high school graduation, Spellman entered Fordham University in New York City in 1907. He graduated in 1911 and decided to study for the priesthood.

Archbishop William O'Connell sent Spellman to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Thornton |first=Francis Beauchesne. |title=Our American Princes: The Story of the Seventeen American Cardinals. |date=1963 |publisher=Putnam |pages=201}}</ref> He suffered so badly from pneumonia that the college administrators wanted to send him home to recover. He refused to leave and eventually completed his theological studies. During his years in Rome, Spellman befriended future cardinals Gaetano Bisleti, Francesco Borgongini Duca, and Domenico Tardini.<ref name=":0" />

==Priesthood==

Spellman was ordained a priest at the Sant'Apollinare Basilica in Rome by Patriarch Giuseppe Ceppetelli on May 14, 1916.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman [Catholic-Hierarchy] |url=https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bspellman.html |access-date=2024-04-26 |website=www.catholic-hierarchy.org}}</ref> Upon his return to the United States, the archdiocese assigned Spellman to pastoral positions at its parishes.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church - February 18, 1946 |url=https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1946.htm#Spellman |access-date=2024-04-26 |website=cardinals.fiu.edu}}</ref> O'Connell, who had earlier sent Spellman to Rome, described him as a "little popinjay". He later said, "Francis epitomizes what happens to a bookkeeper when you teach him how to read."<ref name=spellman>''Time'' 1967</ref> Spellman served a series of relatively insignificant assignments.{{vague|date=November 2016}}<ref name=McNamara>{{cite web | url=http://www.patheos.com/Catholic/Powerhouse-Spellman-Pat-McNamara-12-18-2012 | title=The Powerhouse: Cardinal Francis Spellman | work=Catholic | publisher=Patheos | date=December 17, 2012 | access-date=May 26, 2019 | author=McNamara, Pat | archive-date=July 10, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710163234/https://www.patheos.com/catholic/powerhouse-spellman-pat-mcnamara-12-18-2012 | url-status=live }}</ref>

After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Spellman tried to enlist to become a military chaplain in the US Army, but failed to meet the height requirement. Spellman also applied to be a chaplain in the US Navy, but his application was personally rejected twice by Assistant Secretary of the Navy (and future President of the United States) Franklin D. Roosevelt.

O'Connell eventually assigned Spellman to promote subscriptions for the archdiocesan newspaper, ''The Pilot''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thebostonpilot.com/index.asp|title=Catholic News from The Pilot: America's oldest Catholic newspaper.|website=www.thebostonpilot.com|access-date=May 25, 2019|archive-date=May 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525221424/https://www.thebostonpilot.com/index.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> The archbishop named him as assistant chancellor in 1918 and archivist of the archdiocese in 1924.<ref name="gwu">{{cite web|url=https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/spellman-cardinal.cfm|title=Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman (1889–1967)|website=www2.gwu.edu|access-date=May 25, 2019|archive-date=October 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008124938/https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/spellman-cardinal.cfm|url-status=live}}</ref>

After Spellman translated two books by his friend Borgongini Duca into English, the Vatican appointed Spellman as first American attaché of the Vatican Secretariat of State in Rome in 1925.<ref name="cardinals">{{cite web |title=The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church – February 18, 1946 |url=https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1946.htm#Spellman |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20191126084646/http://webdept.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1946.htm%23Micara#Spellman |archive-date=November 26, 2019 |access-date=May 25, 2019 |website=webdept.fiu.edu}}</ref> While serving in the Secretariat, he also worked with the Knights of Columbus in running children's playgrounds in Rome. Pope Pius XI raised O'Connor to the rank of privy chamberlain on October 4, 1926.<ref name="cardinals" />

During a trip to Germany in 1927, Spellman established a lifelong friendship with Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli, who was serving there as apostolic nuncio.<ref name="princes">Thornton</ref> Spellman translated Pius XI's first broadcast over Vatican Radio into English in 1931.<ref name="bishop">''Time'' August 15, 1932</ref>

Later in 1931, with the fascist government of Benito Mussolini in power in Italy, Spellman secretly transported a papal encyclical, ''Non abbiamo bisogno'', that condemned fascism, out of Rome to Paris for publication.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="bishop" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Fogarty |first=Gerald P. |date=2014 |title=Archbishop Francis J. Spellman's Visit to Wartime Rome |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43898532 |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |volume=100 |issue=1 |pages=72–96 |jstor=43898532 |issn=0008-8080}}</ref> He also served as secretary to Cardinal Lorenzo Lauri at the 1932 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, and helped reform the Vatican's press office, introducing mimeograph machines and issuing press releases.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Cooney |first=John |title=The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman |date=1984 |publisher=Time Books}}</ref>

==Episcopal career==

===Auxiliary Bishop of Boston===

On July 30, 1932, Spellman was appointed as an auxiliary bishop of Boston and titular bishop of Sila by Pope Pius XI.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> The pope had originally considered appointing Spellman as bishop of the Dioceses of Portland in Maine or Manchester in New Hampshire.<ref name=":5" /> Spellman received his consecration on September 8, 1932, from Cardinal Pacelli at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Archbishops Giuseppe Pizzardo and Francesco Borgongini Duca acted as co-consecrators.<ref name=":0" />

Spellman was the first American to be consecrated a bishop at St. Peter's.<ref name="promised">''Time'' September 19, 1932</ref> Borgongini-Duca designed a coat of arms for Spellman that incorporated Christopher Columbus's ship the ''Santa Maria''. Pius XI gave him the motto ''Sequere Deum'' ("Follow God").<ref name="fogarty">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2000 |title=Spellman, Francis Joseph (1889–1967), Roman Catholic prelate |encyclopedia=American National Biography |url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-0801438 |access-date=May 25, 2019 |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0801438 |isbn=978-0-19-860669-7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525221501/https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-0801438 |archive-date=May 25, 2019 |last1=Fogarty |first1=Gerald P. |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

After his return to the United States, Spellman took up residence at St. John's Seminary in Boston. The archdiocese later assigned him as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Newton Centre; while there, he erased the church's $43,000 debt through fundraising. When Spellman's mother died in 1935, Massachusetts Governor James Curley, Lieutenant Governor Joseph Hurley, and many members of the clergy, with the exception of O'Connell, attended the funeral.<ref name="cooney">Cooney</ref>

In the autumn of 1936, Pacelli came to the United States, ostensibly to visit several cities and be the guest of philanthropist Genevieve Brady. The real reason for the trip was to meet with President Roosevelt to discuss American diplomatic recognition of Vatican City.<ref name=":2" /> Spellman arranged and attended the meeting with Pacelli and Roosevelt at Springwood, the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, New York.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cortesio |first=Arnaldo Cortesi |date=1936-10-01 |title=Papal Secretary of State Coming Here; Rome Speculates on Subject of Mission |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/10/01/archives/papal-secretary-of-state-coming-here-rome-speculates-on-subject-of.html |access-date=2024-04-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Spellman became an early friend of Joseph Kennedy Sr, the US ambassador to the United Kingdom and the head of a rich Catholic family. Over the years, Spellman witnessed the marriages of several Kennedy children, including future Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Jean Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, and future Senator Edward Kennedy.<ref name=":5" />

On Pacelli's trip to the United States, he, Kennedy, and Spellman attempted to stop the vitriolic radio broadcasts of Reverend Charles Coughlin. The Vatican and the apostolic legation in Washington wanted his broadcasts to end, but Coughlin's superior, Bishop Michael Gallagher of Detroit, refused to curb him.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ware |first=Leonard |date=1936-10-18 |title=COUGHLIN IMPERILS CURLEY'S CHANCES; Priest's Exciting Visit to Bay State Leaves Democratic Leaders in Confusion. THEY AWAIT ROOSEVELT |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/10/18/archives/coughlin-imperils-curleys-chances-priests-exciting-visit-to-bay.html |access-date=2024-04-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>Boyea, Earl. "The Reverend Charles Coughlin and the Church: the Gallagher Years, 1930–1937". Catholic Historical Review 81 (2) (1995): 211–225</ref> In 1939, Coughlin was forced off the air by the National Association of Broadcasters.

===Archbishop of New York===

[[File:Archbishop Francis J. Spellman gives Communion (49768446103).jpg|thumb|Archbishop Spellman distributing holy communion at mass during a visit to the US Fifth Army in Italy 1944 during World War II.|291x291px]]

After Pius XI's death, Pacelli was elected as Pope Pius XII. One of his first acts was to appoint Spellman as the sixth archbishop of New York on April 15, 1939. He was installed as archbishop on May 23, 1939.<ref name=":3" /> He was painted twice in 1940 and again in 1941 by the artist Adolfo Müller-Ury. Spellman inaugurated the first regularly scheduled Spanish-language masses in the archdiocese at St. Cecilia's Parish in East Harlem.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P9YsLQor6HgC&dq=Francis+Cardinal+Spellman&pg=PA57|title=Hispanas de Queens: Latino Panethnicity in a New York City Neighborhood|first1=Milagros|last1=Ricourt|first2=Ruby|last2=Danta|date=June 17, 2003|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0801487951 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

In addition to his duties as diocesan bishop, Pius XII named Spellman as apostolic vicar for the U.S. Armed Forces on December 11, 1939. Over the years, Spellman celebrated many Christmases with American troops stationed in Japan, South Korea, and Europe.<ref name="Shannon_NYT" />

During his tenure in New York, Spellman's considerable national influence<ref>{{cite video | year =1945 | title =Video: Christmas Brings Joy To Everyone, 1945/12/10 (1945) | url =https://archive.org/details/1945-12-10_Christmas_Brings_Joy_To_Everyone | publisher =Universal Newsreel | access-date =February 21, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite video | year =1953 | title =Coal Strike Ended, 1946/05/29 (1946) | url =https://archive.org/details/1946-05-29_Coal_Strike_Ended | publisher =Universal Newsreel | access-date =February 22, 2012 }}</ref> in religious and political matters earned his residence the nickname "the Powerhouse".<ref name=century>Quinn 2006</ref> He hosted many prominent clergy, entertainers, and politicians, including the statesman Bernard Baruch, U.S. Senator David I. Walsh, and U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader John William McCormack.<ref name=":5" /> In 1945, Spellman instituted the Al Smith Dinner in Manhattan, an annual white tie fundraiser for Catholic Charities that is attended by prominent national figures.

After his appointment as archbishop, Spellman also became a close confidant of President Roosevelt.<ref name="Shannon_NYT">{{cite news |author=William V. Shannon |date=October 28, 1984 |title=Guileless and Machiavellian: Review of John Cooney, ''The American Pope'' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/28/books/guileless-and-machiavellian.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=October 23, 2018 |archive-date=October 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023160644/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/28/books/guileless-and-machiavellian.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Hampson">{{cite web |author=Hampson, Rick |date=September 28, 1984 |title=Comment: The American Pope: the Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00552R000606360001-1.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123083526/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00552R000606360001-1.pdf |archive-date=January 23, 2017 |access-date=May 26, 2019 |publisher=CIA |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> During World War II, Roosevelt asked Spellman to visit Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in 1943, 16 countries in four months.<ref name=odyssey>''Time'' June 7, 1943</ref> As archbishop and a military vicar, he would have "greater freedom than official diplomats".<ref name=":5" /> During the Allied campaign in Italy, Spellman acted as a liaison between Pius XII and Roosevelt in efforts to declare Rome an open city to save it from bombing and street fighting.<ref name=Shaw/>

====Cardinal====

{{Infobox cardinal styles |cardinal name=Francis Spellman |dipstyle=His Eminence |offstyle=Your Eminence |See=New York |image= Coat of arms of Francis Joseph Spellman.svg |image_size = 200px}}

Pius XII created Spellman as cardinal-priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo Church in Rome during the consistory of February 18, 1946.<ref name=":3" /> According to the historian William V. Shannon, Spellman was "deeply reactionary in his theology and secular politics."<ref name="Shannon_NYT" />

In 1949, when gravediggers at Calvary Cemetery in Queens went on strike for a pay raise, Spellman accused them of being Communists and recruited seminarians of the Archdiocese from St. Joseph's Seminary as strikebreakers.<ref name="strike">''Time'' March 14, 1949</ref> He described the actions of the gravediggers, who belonged to the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union of America, as "an unjustified and immoral strike against the innocent dead and their bereaved families, against their religion and human decency."<ref name="strike" /> The strike was supported by the Catholic activist Dorothy Day and the author Ernest Hemingway, who wrote a scathing letter about it to Spellman.<ref name=":5" />

Spellman was instrumental in persuading President Eisenhower to nominate William J. Brennan Jr. to the Supreme Court in 1956, but later regretted it. Justice William O. Douglas once said, "I came to know several Americans who I felt had greatly dishonored our American ideal. One was Cardinal Spellman."<ref name=":5" /> Spellman participated in the 1958 papal conclave in Rome that elected Pope John XXIII. He was allegedly dismissive of John XXIII, reportedly saying, "He's no Pope. He should be selling bananas." In 1959, Spellman served as papal delegate to the Eucharistic Congress in Guatemala; during his journey, he stopped in Nicaragua and, contrary to the Pope's orders, publicly appeared with future dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle.<ref name=":5" />

According to the Catholic journalist Raymond Arroyo's foreword to a 2008 edition of Fulton Sheen's autobiography, ''Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen'', "It is widely believed that Cardinal Spellman drove Sheen off the air." Besides being pressured to leave television, Sheen also "found himself unwelcome in the churches of New York City. Spellman canceled Sheen's annual Good Friday sermons at St. Patrick's Cathedral and discouraged clergy from befriending the Bishop."{{further|Fulton J. Sheen#Falling-out with Cardinal Spellman}}

[[File:Hope Portocarrero de Somoza & Cardinal Francis Spellman.png|thumb|Cardinal Spellman and Madame Hope Somoza, first lady of Nicaragua, at a New York City reception]]

The historian Pat McNamara views Spellman's outreach to the city's growing Puerto Rican community as years ahead of its time. He sent priests overseas to study Spanish, and by 1960, a quarter of the archdiocese's parishes had an outreach to Spanish-speaking Catholics.<ref name="McNamara" /> In his years as a cardinal, Spellman built 15 churches, 94 schools, 22 rectories, 60 convents, and 34 other institutions.<ref name="Shannon_NYT" /> He also visited Ecuador, where he founded three schools: Cardinal Spellman High School and Cardinal Spellman Girls' School, both in Quito, and Cardinal Spellman High School in Guayaquil.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church – Francis Joseph Spellman |url=https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios-sz/sz_spellman.html |website=Florida International University |publisher=FIU Libraries |quote=Papal legate to the First Plenary Council of Ecuador, Quito (July 28, 1957); Papal legate to the National Eucharistic Congress, Guayaquil (August 28, 1957). |access-date=5 October 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ecuador – "Cardenal Spellman”: más de 60 años formando buenos cristianos y honrados ciudadanos |trans-title=Ecuador – Cardinal Spellman: more than 60 years forming good Christians and honest citizens |url=https://www.infoans.org/es/secciones/foto-historia/item/9013-ecuador-cardenal-spellman-mas-de-60-anos-formando-buenos-cristianos-y-honrados-ciudadanos |website=ANS – Agencia Info Salesiana |trans-website=ANS – Salesian Information Agency |date=18 October 2019 |language=es |quote=Un 1 de octubre de 1957 se fundó el colegio "Cardenal Spellman" [...] gestionado por el arzobispo de Quito y con colaboración económica del Cardenal Francis Spellman. |trans-quote=On October 1, 1957, the "Cardinal Spellman" school was founded [...] administered by the Archbishop of Quito, with financial support from Cardinal Francis Spellman. |access-date=5 October 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Nuestra Historia |trans-title=Our History |url=https://cardinalspellman.edu.ec/institucion/nuestra-historia/ |website=Unidad Educativa Particular Bilingüe "Cardenal Spellman" (Quito) |trans-website="Cardinal Spellman" Private Bilingual Educational Unit (Quito) |language=es |quote=El Ministerio de Educación [...] autoriza el funcionamiento de la "Cardinal Spellman Girl's School" [sic] (26 de agosto de 1959). El 19 de octubre de 1959 marca la apertura de esta Institución. |trans-quote=The Ministry of Education [...] authorizes the operation of the "Cardinal Spellman Girl's School" [sic] (August 26, 1959). October 19, 1959, marks the opening of this institution. |access-date=5 October 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Nuestra Historia – UES Cardenal Spellman |trans-title=Our History – UES Cardinal Spellman |url=https://www.spellman.edu.ec/nuestra-historia/ |website=Unidad Educativa Salesiana Cardenal Spellman (Quito) |trans-website=Cardinal Spellman Salesian Educational Unit (Quito) |language=es |quote=La institución remonta sus orígenes al 1º de octubre de 1957. |trans-quote=The institution traces its origins back to October 1, 1957. |access-date=5 October 2025}}</ref>

====Second Vatican Council====

Spellman attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965 and sat on its board of presidency.<ref name=cardinals/> He believed that the Vatican was appointing predominantly liberal clergymen to the council's commissions. He opposed the Council reform that introduced vernacular language into the mass, saying, "The Latin language, which is truly the Catholic language, is unchangeable, is not vulgar, and has for many centuries been the guardian of the unity of the Western Church."<ref name=":5" /> A theological conservative, Spellman supported ecumenism on pragmatic grounds.<ref name="Shaw" />

In April 1963, Spellman brought the Reverend John Murray as a ''peritus'' (expert) to the Second Vatican Council. This was despite the well-known animosity of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, the secretary of the Holy Office, toward Murray. The apostolic delegate to the U.S., Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, attempted to silence Murray, but Spellman and Murray's Jesuit superiors shielded him from most attempts at curial interference. Murray's work helped shape the council's declaration on religious freedom.<ref name="McNamara" /> According to McNamara, Spellman's support of Murray contributed to his significant influence on the drafting of ''Dignitatis humanae'', the Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom.<ref name="McNamara" />

After Pope John XXIII's death, Spellman participated in the conclave of 1963 that resulted in the election of Pope Paul VI. Spellman later agreed to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's requests to send priests to the Dominican Republic to defuse anti-American sentiment after the U.S. invasion.<ref name=":5" />

Spellman led his archdiocese through an extensive period of building Catholic infrastructure, particularly churches, schools, and hospitals. He consolidated all parish building programs into his own hands and thereby received better interest rates from bankers. Spellman convinced Pius XII of the need to internationalize the Vatican's Italy-centered investments after World War II; for his financial skill, he was sometimes called "Cardinal Moneybags".<ref name="pastor">{{cite magazine |date=May 15, 1964 |title=The Pastor-Executive |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871039,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213235710/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871039,00.html |archive-date=December 13, 2011 |magazine=Time}}</ref>

====Later life and death====

In 1966, Spellman offered his resignation to Pope Paul VI after the latter instituted a policy requiring bishops to retire at age 75, but Paul asked him to remain in his post.<ref name=resignation>{{cite magazine|date=October 21, 1966|magazine=Time|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836510-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524053256/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836510-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 24, 2011 | title=People: Oct. 21, 1966 | access-date=May 2, 2010}}</ref>

Spellman died in New York City on December 2, 1967, at age 78. He was interred in the crypt under the main altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral. His funeral Mass was attended by President Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Robert F. Kennedy, New York Senator Jacob Javits, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, New York Mayor John Lindsay, US Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur Goldberg, and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos.<ref name=requiem>{{cite magazine|date=December 15, 1967|magazine=Time|title=Requiem for a Cardinal|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837619,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215133447/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837619,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 15, 2008}}</ref>

===Homosexuality===

Curt Gentry, a 1991 biographer of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, said that Hoover's secret files contained "numerous allegations that Spellman was a very active homosexual."<ref>{{cite book |author=Curt Gentry |url=https://archive.org/details/jedgarhoovermans00gent |title=J. Edgar Hoover, The Man and the Secrets |publisher=W. W. Norton |year=1991 |isbn=9780393024043 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/jedgarhoovermans00gent/page/347 347] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In 2002, journalist Michelangelo Signorile called Spellman "one of the most notorious, powerful and sexually voracious homosexuals in the American Catholic Church's history."<ref name="Signorile">{{cite news |author=Michelangelo Signorile |date=May 7, 2002 |title=Cardinal Spellman's Dark Legacy |url=http://nypress.com/cardinal-spellmans-dark-legacy/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731053540/http://www.nypress.com/cardinal-spellmans-dark-legacy/ |archive-date=July 31, 2019 |newspaper=New York Press}}</ref> John Cooney published a biography of Spellman, ''The American Pope'' (1984). Signorile reported that Cooney's manuscript initially contained interviews with several people with personal knowledge of Spellman's homosexuality, including the researcher C. A. Tripp and the novelist Gore Vidal. According to Signorile, the Catholic Church pressured Cooney's publisher, Times Books, to reduce the four pages discussing Spellman's sexuality to a single paragraph.<ref name="Signorile" /><ref name="Shannon_NYT" /> The published book contained these two sentences: <blockquote>For years rumors abounded about Cardinal Spellman being a homosexual. As a result, many felt—and continue to feel—that Spellman the public moralist may well have been a contradiction of the man of the flesh.<ref name="Shannon_NYT" /></blockquote>Both Signorile and John Loughery cite a story suggesting that Spellman was sexually active. They also relate that Spellman had a personal relationship with a male member of the chorus in the 1943 Broadway revue ''One Touch of Venus''.<ref name="Signorile" /> In a ''New York Times'' article on the Cooney book, Monsignor V. Clark of Annunciation Church in Crestwood, New York, who was Spellman's private secretary and knew him for more than 15 years, denied the homosexuality allegations.<ref>{{cite web |last=McDowell |first=Edwin |date=August 2, 1984 |title=SUBSTANTIATION IS ASKED OF SPELLMAN BIOGRAPHER |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/02/books/substantiation-is-asked-of-spellman-biographer.html |access-date=December 19, 2025 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

Writer and journalist Lucian K. Truscott IV has written that, when Truscott was a junior at West Point in 1967, he went to St. Patrick's Cathedral to interview Spellman for the cadet magazine ''The Pointer'': "Before I could even ask my first question, Spellman put his hand on my thigh and started moving it toward my crotch." A monsignor who was the cardinal's personal assistant stopped Spellman, who then gave Truscott a gold-plated trinket. "He did it over and over again, and I just kept asking questions and recording his answers like nothing happened. I left the cardinal's residence that day carrying a couple of tie clasps, three key chains, and a couple of gold-plated tie tacks." Truscott also wrote, "I heard from several priests I befriended [...] that his nickname for decades had been 'Mary.'"<ref>{{cite web|last=Truscott IV|first=Lucian K|date=February 9, 2019|url=https://www.salon.com/2019/02/09/i-was-groped-by-a-man-called-mary-the-world-changes-but-not-the-catholic-church/|title=I was groped by a man called “Mary”: The world changes but not the Catholic Church|work=Salon|access-date=December 19, 2025}}</ref>

== Viewpoints ==

=== Racism ===

Although he had once expressed his personal opposition to demonstrations during the American Civil Rights Movement, Spellman declined J. Edgar Hoover's requests to condemn Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Spellman funded the trip by a group of New York priests and religious sisters to the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. He opposed racial discrimination in public housing<ref name="echo">O'Donnell 2009</ref> but also the social activism of such priests as Daniel Berrigan and his brother Philip Berrigan, as well as a young Melkite priest, David Kirk.<ref name=":5" />

=== Communism ===

Spellman once said "a true American can neither be a Communist nor a Communist condoner"<ref name="echo" /> and "the first loyalty of every American is vigilantly to weed out and counteract Communism and convert American Communists to Americanism".<ref name="echo" />

Spellman defended Senator Joseph McCarthy's 1953 investigations of alleged Communist subversives in the federal government. He said in 1954 that McCarthy had "told us about the Communists and about Communist methods" and that he was "not only against communism—but ... against the methods of the Communists".<ref>''NYT'' November 8, 1954</ref>

As early as 1954, Spellman was warning the Eisenhower Administration about the advance of communism in French Indochina. He had met the future South Vietnamese president, Ngô Đình Diệm, in 1950, and was favorably impressed by his strongly Catholic and anti-Communist views. After France was defeated by the Viet Minh at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and withdrew from French Indochina, Spellman started urging President Eisenhower to intervene in the conflict.<ref name="GPB">{{cite web |author=GPB |date=March 29, 2006 |title=Cardinal Francis Spellman: "The American Pope" |url=https://excatholicsforchrist.com/cardinal-francis-spellman/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525221257/https://excatholicsforchrist.com/cardinal-francis-spellman/ |archive-date=May 25, 2019 |access-date=May 26, 2019 |publisher=Ex-Catholics For Christ}}</ref><ref name=":5" />

When the U.S. entered the Vietnam War in 1965, Spellman staunchly supported the intervention. A group of college students protested outside his residence in December 1965 for suppressing antiwar priests. Spellman spent Christmas 1965 with troops in South Vietnam.<ref name=":5" /> While there, he quoted Commodore Stephen Decatur, declaring, "My country, may it always be right, but right or wrong, my country."<ref name="McNamara" /> Spellman also called the war a "war for civilization" and "Christ's war against the Vietcong and the people of North Vietnam."<ref name=":5" />

Some critics called the Vietnam War "Spelly's War" and Spellman the "Bob Hope of the clergy". One priest accused him of blessing "the guns which the pope is begging us to put down".<ref name="echo" /> In January 1967, antiwar protestors disrupted a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.<ref name="McNamara" /> Spellman's support for the war and his opposition to church reform greatly undermined his clout within the church and country.<ref name=":5" /> The illustrator Edward Sorel designed a poster in 1967, ''Pass the Lord and Praise the Ammunition'', showing Spellman carrying a rifle with a bayonet. The poster was never distributed because Spellman died right after its printing.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=Unauthorized Portraits: The Drawings of Edward Sorel {{!}} Joseph Francis Spellman |url=https://npg.si.edu/exh/sorel/spell.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211084002/https://npg.si.edu/exh/sorel/spell.htm |archive-date=February 11, 2021 |access-date=17 June 2023 |website=npg.si.edu |publisher=National Portrait Gallery}}</ref>

=== Politics ===

Spellman denounced the efforts of U.S. Representative Graham Arthur Barden to provide federal funding only to public schools as "a craven crusade of religious prejudice against Catholic children".<ref name="truman">Truman Library</ref> He called Barden an "apostle of bigotry".<ref name="eleanor">{{cite magazine |date=August 1, 1949 |title=My Day in the Lion's Mouth |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794889-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001004244/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794889-1,00.html |archive-date=October 1, 2007 |magazine=Time}}</ref>

Spellman engaged in a heated public dispute in 1949 with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt when she expressed her opposition to federal funding to parochial schools in her column ''My Day''.<ref name="eleanor" /> In response, Spellman accused her of anti-Catholicism and called her column a document "of discrimination unworthy of an American mother".<ref name="eleanor" /> Spellman eventually met with Roosevelt at Hyde Park to settle their dispute.

When Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy ran for president in the 1960 presidential election, Spellman endorsed his Republican opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon, a Quaker. This was because Kennedy opposed federal aid for parochial schools and the appointment of a U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.<ref name=":5" /> Kennedy aide David Powers recalled that in 1960, Kennedy asked him, "Why is Spellman against me?" Powers replied, "Spellman is the most powerful Catholic in the country. When you become president, you will be." Spellman's endorsement of Nixon ended his long relationship with the Kennedy family.<ref name="Hampson" />

In the 1964 presidential election, Spellman supported President Lyndon B. Johnson, whose Higher Education Facilities Act and Economic Opportunity Act had greatly benefited the Catholic Church.<ref name=":6" />

=== Films and plays ===

* Spellman called the 1941 film ''Two-Faced Woman,'' starring Greta Garbo, "an occasion of sin ... dangerous to public morals". He condemned Garbo for her alleged lesbian and bisexual morality.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news |date=November 27, 1941 |title=Spellman Scores New Garbo Film; Archbishop Warns Catholics That Seeing It May Be 'an Occasion of Sin' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/11/27/archives/spellman-scores-new-garbo-film-archbishop-warns-catholics-that.html |access-date=2024-04-21 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="garbo">{{cite magazine |date=December 8, 1941 |title=To See Is to Sin |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849670,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609224357/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849670,00.html |archive-date=June 9, 2008 |magazine=Time}}</ref> * Spellman's condemnation of the 1947 film ''Forever Amber'' prompted the producer William Perlberg to refuse publicly to "bowdlerize the film to placate the Roman Catholic Church."<ref name="cooney" /> * Spellman called the 1948 Italian film ''L'Amore'' a "vile and harmful picture ... a despicable affront to every Christian". The film contained a modern-day storyline alluding to the Virgin birth of Jesus.<ref name="miracle">{{cite magazine |date=February 19, 1951 |title=The Miracle |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814334,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123140410/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814334,00.html |archive-date=November 23, 2010 |magazine=Time}}</ref> * Spellman called the 1956 film ''Baby Doll'', starring Carroll Baker, "revolting" and "morally repellent."<ref name="baby">{{cite magazine |date=January 14, 1956 |title=The Trouble with Baby Doll |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824692,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111101013840/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824692,00.html |archive-date=November 1, 2011 |magazine=Time}}</ref> * When ''The Deputy'', a play about Pope Pius XII's actions during the Holocaust, opened on Broadway in 1964, Spellman condemned it as "an outrageous desecration of the honor of a great and good man."<ref>DeMarco 1998</ref> The play's producer, Herman Shumlin, called Spellman's words a "calculated threat to really drive a wedge between Christians and Jews."<ref name="cooney" />

== Awards ==

* Gold Medal Award from The Hundred Year Association of New York "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York" – 1946 * Order of Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan government's highest award, on his visit to Central America in 1958 and a Nicaraguan postage stamp issued in 1959.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Catholic Transcript 27 August 1959 — The Catholic News Archive |url=https://thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=CTR19590827-01.2.74&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------- |access-date=2024-07-16 |website=thecatholicnewsarchive.org}}</ref> * Distinguished Service Medal from the American Legion – 1963<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cardinal Francis Spellman {{!}} Distinguished Service Medal |url=https://www.legion.org/distinguishedservicemedal/1963/cardinal-francis-spellman |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=www.legion.org}}</ref> * Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York – 1967<ref>{{Cite news |last=Val |first=Val Adams |date=1967-05-07 |title=Spellman Is Given West Point Honor – Cardinal Is First Clergyman Cited by Graduates |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/05/07/archives/spellman-is-given-west-point-honor-cardinal-is-first-clergyman.html |access-date=2024-04-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==Legacy==

Author Russell Shaw in 2014 wrote that Spellman <blockquote>embodied the fusion of Americanism and Catholicism in the mid-20th century.<ref name="Shaw" /> Spellman's enduring accomplishments were his personal acts of kindness toward individuals and the religious and charitable institutions he founded or strengthened.<ref name="Shannon_NYT" /></blockquote>Henry Morton Robinson's novel ''The Cardinal'' (1950) was based partly on Spellman. The book was adapted into the 1963 film The Cardinal, with Tom Tryon playing the eventual cardinal.<ref name="Shaw">{{cite web | url=https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/ByIssue/Article/TabId/735/ArtMID/13636/ArticleID/15955/The-hard-fought-rise-of-Cardinal-Francis-Spellman.aspx | title=The hard-fought rise of Cardinal Francis Spellman | work=OSV Weekly | date=August 27, 2014 | access-date=May 26, 2019 | author=Shaw, Russell | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192757/https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/ByIssue/Article/TabId/735/ArtMID/13636/ArticleID/15955/The-hard-fought-rise-of-Cardinal-Francis-Spellman.aspx | archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

* In July 1947, a Jesuit residential building opened on the campus of Fordham University named in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.fordham.edu/inside-fordham-category/spellman-hall-opens-named-for-fordham-alumnus/|work=Fordham News|title=This Month in Fordham History: Spellman Hall Opens, Named for Fordham Alumnus|access-date=June 27, 2017|date=July 16, 2012|author=Gosier, Chris}}</ref> * Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx was named in his honor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.cardinalspellman.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=320994&type=d |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=www.cardinalspellman.org |language=en}}</ref> * Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton, Massachusetts, was named for him.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Historical Sketch - Cardinal Spellman High School |url=https://spellmancom-2-us-east1-01.preview.finalsitecdn.com/a-historical-sketch |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=www.spellman.com |language=en-US}}</ref> * Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, houses Spellman's extensive stamp collection.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About, Spellman Museum |url=https://spellmanmuseum.org/about-us/ |access-date=2025-03-30 |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Footnotes == {{Reflist}}

== Works cited == * Cardinal Spellman High School. n.d. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090312092417/http://www.spellman.com/s/190/cardinalspellman.aspx?sid=190&gid=1&pgid=882 "An Historical Sketch of Cardinal Spellman High School"]. * Catholic Hierarchy (unofficial website). n.d. [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bspellman.html "Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman"]. * {{cite book |title=The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman |publisher=Times Books |author=Cooney |first=John |year=1984 |location=New York |isbn=0-4401-0194-8 |url-access= |url=}} * DeMarco, Donald. [https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/history/800-000-saved-by-pius-xiis-silence.html "800,000 Saved by Pius XIIs Silence"] {{sic}}. ''National Catholic Register'', May 18, 1998. * Dugan, George. [https://www.nytimes.com/1954/11/08/archives/huge-fund-to-oust-mccarthy-reported-priest-sees-move-to-oust.html "Huge Fund to Oust McCarthy Reported"]. ''The New York Times'', 1954-11-08. * Epstein, Alessandra. 2001. [https://archive.today/20121212005739/http://web.bu.edu/com/co201mag/contest/s04/rebelwithacause.htm "Rebel with a Cause"]. ''201 Magazine''. Boston University, College of Communication. * National Portrait Gallery. ''[https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.89.213 Pass the Lord and Praise the Ammunition]'' ([https://npg.si.edu/exh/sorel/spell.htm description]). Image of the satirical poster of Cardinal Spellman produced in 1967 by Edward Sorel. * Gannon, Robert I. ''The Cardinal Spellman Story''. New York, 1962. * Loughery, John. 1998. ''The Other Side of Silence: Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth Century History''. Henry Holt. * Miranda, Salvador. 1998. [https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios-s.htm#Spellman The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. "Spellman, Francis Joseph"]. * ''The New York Times''. 1984, August 4. [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2hQOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=onwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5525%2C3712132 "New book on Cardinal Spellman stirs controversy"]{{Dead link|date=November 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. * O'Donnell, Edward T. [http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=14219 "Spellman leads crusade against communism"].{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} ''Irish Echo Online'', 82(44), November 4–10, 2009. * Quinn, Peter. [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/nyregion/thecity/04cath.html "New York's Catholic Century"] (essay). ''The New York Times'', 2006-06-04. * Roosevelt, Eleanor (2004). Neal, Steve (ed.). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Lf6T7xWf7TsC ''Eleanor & Harry: The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman'']. * Signorile, Michelangelo. [https://web.archive.org/web/20190731053540/http://www.nypress.com/cardinal-spellmans-dark-legacy/ "Cardinal Spellman's Dark Legacy"]. ''New York Press'', 2002-05-07. * Thornton, Francis Beauchesne. 1963. [https://archive.org/details/ouramericanprinc017789mbp ''Our American Princes: The Story of the Seventeen American Cardinals'']. Putnam. (Chapter on Spellman pp. 201ff.) * ''Time''. July 13, 1931. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081215024143/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742012,00.html "Everything Is Promised"]. * ''Time''. August 15, 1932. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070213225647/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,744185,00.html "Boston's Bishop"]. * ''Time''. September 19, 1932. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090525152032/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,744398,00.html "Crosier & Mitre"]. * ''Time''. June 7, 1943. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081214190043/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,884953,00.html "Odyssey for the Millennium"]. * ''Time''. March 14, 1949. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101123092937/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794687,00.html "Strike in the Graveyard"].  * ''Time''. November 5, 1959. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930142612/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,865830,00.html "Cardinal's Birthday"]. * ''Time''. December 8, 1967. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080127015531/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844255,00.html "The Master Builder"] (obituary of Cardinal Spellman).

== External links == {{Commons category|Francis Spellman}} * [http://www.milarch.org/ Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA], official website * [http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/unit0.htm Archdiocese for the Military Services of the United States]. GCatholic.org. Retrieved August 20, 2010. * [http://vault.fbi.gov/Cardinal%20Francis%20Spellman FBI file on Cardinal Spellman] * [https://www.archny.org/ Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York], official website

{{s-bef| before = See Created }} {{s-ttl| title = Titular Bishop of Sila | years = 1932–1939 }} {{s-aft| after = Thomas Arthur Connolly }}

{{s-bef| rows = 2 |before = Patrick Joseph Hayes }} {{s-ttl| title = Archbishop of New York | years = 1939–1967 }} {{s-aft| rows = 3 | after = Terence Cooke }}

{{s-ttl| title = Apostolic Vicar for the Military Services | years = 1939–1967 }}

{{s-bef| before = Eugenio Pacelli }} {{s-ttl| title = Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo | years = 1946–1967 }} {{S-end}}

{{Cardinals created by Pius XII}} {{Second Vatican Council}} {{Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York}} {{Pope Pius XII}} {{Roman Catholic Military Ordinariates}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spellman, Francis}} Category:1889 births Category:1967 deaths Category:Antisemitism in the United States Category:People from Whitman, Massachusetts Category:Catholics from Massachusetts Category:Whitman-Hanson Regional High School alumni Category:Fordham University alumni Category:Pontifical North American College alumni Category:American Roman Catholic clergy of Irish descent Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Pius XI Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Pius XII Category:Roman Catholic archbishops of New York Category:Cardinals created by Pope Pius XII Category:20th-century American cardinals Category:Pope Pius XII advisers Category:Officials of the Roman Curia Category:Participants in the Second Vatican Council Category:American anti-communists Category:American critics of atheism Category:American military chaplains Category:Catholic military chaplains Category:American Philatelic Society Category:American philatelists Category:New York (state) Republicans Category:Anti-LGBTQ Catholic activists Category:Knights of Malta Category:Burials at St. Patrick's Cathedral (Manhattan) Category:Critics of Freemasonry