num_pages: 364
description: In his twenty-eight-year reign as archbishop of New York, Francis Cardinal Spellman extended the power and influence of the American Catholic Church further, and wielded them more forcefully, than anyone before or since. Spellman's mark was so great that at his death the Church was said to have become Spellmanized.In this, the first major biography of one of the most important Americans of the twentieth century, John Cooney examines Spellman's rise from a young seminarian from Massachusetts to the clergyman with unparalleled influence on domestic and international politics as well as on American Catholicism.From his first days at the North American College in Rome, Spellman carefully cultivated the Vatican inner circle - Cardinal Pacelli, later to become Pope Pius XII, the powerful Sister Pascalina, and Vatican banker Count Galeazzi. Through this trio and his alliances in america - with FDR, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and Joseph Kennedy, among others - Spellman's brand of strict, conservative American patriotism, in combination with his vociferous anti-Communism, was given full voice for over thirty years.When New York's Archbishop Hayes died, Spellman quickly made it clear to Rome that he wanted to run the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful archdiocese in America.Run it he did, as if it were a major corporation. Spellman raised more money and built more schools, churches, and hospitals than any of his predecessors. His network, already stretching to Washington and Rome, had a never-before-seen-effect. From the mayor's office to New York City banks interested in doing business with the Catholic Church, from economic sanctions against Dorothy Schiff's liberal newspaper, the New York Post, to feuds with Cardinal Cushing and Bishop Fulton Sheen, Spellman's power was everywhere. And while he ran the archdiocese, politicians seeking election, President Johnson needing a spokesman in Southeast Asia, the CIA needing an ecclesiastical emissary in Central America, Senator McCarthy eager for a supporter in his war against domestic Communism - all made their pilgrimages to the American Pope.Spellman was to his large and admiring public the kindly man whose avowed aim in life was to be a simple parish priest. In this startling portrait, based in part on Spellman's personal diary and on hundreds of interviews, John Cooney shows us the man behind the image and reveals the extent to which power is sought, acquired, used, abused, and lost.
language: English
title: The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman
titlecomplete: The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman
genres: Biography, History
ratings_count: 20
publisher: Dell Pub Co