Francis Spellman

File:Spellman window, Clonmel.jpg 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.{{Cite book |last=Fogarty |first=Gerald P. |title=Spellman, Francis Joseph |date=1999}} 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.{{Cite book |last=Thornton |first=Francis Beauchesne. |title=Our American Princes: The Story of the Seventeen American Cardinals. |date=1963 |publisher=Putnam |pages=201}} 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.

Spellman was ordained a priest at the Sant'Apollinare Basilica in Rome by Patriarch Giuseppe Ceppetelli on May 14, 1916.{{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}} Upon his return to the United States, the archdiocese assigned Spellman to pastoral positions at its parishes.{{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}} 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."Time 1967 Spellman served a series of relatively insignificant assignments.{{vague|date=November 2016}}{{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 }}

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.{{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}} The archbishop named him as assistant chancellor in 1918 and archivist of the archdiocese in 1924.{{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}}

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.{{cite web |title=The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church – February 18, 1946 |url=http://webdept.fiu.edu/~mirandas/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}} 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.

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

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.{{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}} 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.{{Cite book |last=Cooney |first=John |title=The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman |date=1984 |publisher=Time Books}}

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

Spellman was the first American to be consecrated a bishop at St. Peter's.Time September 19, 1932 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").{{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 }}

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.Cooney

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. Spellman arranged and attended the meeting with Pacelli and Roosevelt at Springwood, the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, New York.{{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}}

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.

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.{{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}}Boyea, Earl. "The Reverend Charles Coughlin and the Church: the Gallagher Years, 1930–1937". Catholic Historical Review 81 (2) (1995): 211–225 In 1939, Coughlin was forced off the air by the National Association of Broadcasters.

File:Archbishop Francis J. Spellman gives Communion (49768446103).jpg 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. 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.{{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}}

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.

During his tenure in New York, Spellman's considerable national influence{{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

}}{{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

}} in religious and political matters earned his residence the nickname "the Powerhouse."Quinn 2006 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. 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.{{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 }}{{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}} During World War II, Roosevelt asked Spellman to visit Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in 1943, 16 countries in four months.Time June 7, 1943 As archbishop and a military vicar, he would have "greater freedom than official diplomats". 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.

{{Infobox cardinal styles

|cardinal name=Francis Spellman

|dipstyle=His Eminence

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|See=New York

|image= Coat of arms of Francis Joseph Spellman.svg

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

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.Time March 14, 1949 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." The strike was supported by the Catholic activist Dorothy Day and the author Ernest Hemingway, who wrote a scathing letter about it to Spellman.

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." 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.

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, 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. In his years as a cardinal, Spellman built 15 churches, 94 schools, 22 rectories, 60 convents, and 34 other institutions. 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.

Spellman attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965 and sat on its board of presidency. 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." A theological conservative, Spellman supported ecumenism on pragmatic grounds.

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. 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.

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.

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."{{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}}

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.{{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}}

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.{{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}}

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."{{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}}

In 2002, journalist Michelangelo Signorile called Spellman "one of the most notorious, powerful and sexually voracious homosexuals in the American Catholic Church's history."{{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}} 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. 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. The published book contained these two sentences:

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.

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. Spellman opposed racial discrimination in public housingO'Donnell 2009 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.

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

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".NYT November 8, 1954

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 Vietnam, Spellman started urging President Eisenhower to intervene in the conflict.{{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}}

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. While there, he quoted Commodore Stephen Decatur, declaring, "My country, may it always be right, but right or wrong, my country." Spellman also called the war a "war for civilization" and "Christ's war against the Vietcong and the people of North Vietnam."

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". In January 1967, antiwar protestors disrupted a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Spellman's support for the war and his opposition to church reform greatly undermined his clout within the church and country. 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.{{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}}

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".Truman Library He called Barden an "apostle of bigotry".{{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}}

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. In response, Spellman accused her of anti-Catholicism and called her column a document "of discrimination unworthy of an American mother". 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 non-Catholic. This was because Kennedy opposed federal aid for parochial schools and the appointment of a U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. 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.

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.

• 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.{{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}}{{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}}
• 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."
• 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 about the Immaculate Conception.{{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}}
• Spellman called the 1956 film Baby Doll, starring Carroll Baker, "revolting" and "morally repellent."{{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}}
• 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."DeMarco 1998 The play's producer, Herman Shumlin, called Spellman's words a "calculated threat to really drive a wedge between Christians and Jews."

• 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.{{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}}
• Distinguished Service Medal from the American Legion – 1963{{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}}
• Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York – 1967{{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}}

Author Russell Shaw in 2014 wrote that Spellman

embodied the fusion of Americanism and Catholicism in the mid-20th century. Spellman's enduring accomplishments were his personal acts of kindness toward individuals and the religious and charitable institutions he founded or strengthened.

• In July 1947, a Jesuit residential building opened on the campus of Fordham University named in his honor.{{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}}
• Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx was named in his honor.{{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}}
• Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton, Massachusetts, was named for him.{{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}}
• Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, houses Spellman's extensive stamp collection.{{Cite web |title=About, Spellman Museum |url=https://spellmanmuseum.org/about-us/ |access-date=2025-03-30 |language=en-US}}

{{Portal|Catholicism}}

{{Div col}}

• Cardinal Spellman High School (Brockton, Massachusetts)
• Cardinal Spellman High School (The Bronx, New York City)
• Catholic Church in the United States
• Hierarchy of the Catholic Church
• Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
• List of Catholic bishops of the United States: military service
• Lists of popes, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops
• Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• 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://web.archive.org/web/20000902001044/http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/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).

{{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-start}}

{{s-rel|ca}}

{{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}}

{{Second Vatican Council}}

{{Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York}}

{{Pope Pius XII}}

{{Roman Catholic Military Ordinariates}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spellman, Francis}}

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