The American Pope; The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman
Sandee Brawarsky (Author photograph) New York: Times Books, 1984. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xx, [1], 364 pages. Illustrations. Chapter Notes. Bibliography [and Sources]. Index. DJ is price clipped. Recounts the career of one of the most powerful, influential Americans of the century, detailing the patterns of Spellman's ambitions, his cooperation with the FBI and CIA, and power struggles with other American bishops. Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. From 1939 to his death, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston from 1932 to 1939. He was created a cardinal in 1946. He was named assistant chancellor in 1918 and in 1924 archivist of the Archdiocese.[8] After translating into English two books written by his friend Borgongini Duca, Spellman was made the first American attaché of the Vatican Secretariat of State in 1925. He was raised to the rank of Privy Chamberlain on October 4, 1926, by Pope Pius XI. During a trip to Germany in 1927, Spellman established a lifelong friendship with Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli, who was serving as Apostolic Nuncio. After the death of Pope Pius XI, Pacelli was elected as Pope Pius XII, and one of his first acts was to appoint Spellman the sixth Archbishop of New York on April 15, 1939. In addition to his duties as diocesan bishop, he was named Apostolic Vicar for the U.S. Armed Forces on December 11, 1939. Spellman was awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1967. Derived from an article in Publishers Weekly: In muckraking fashion, Cooney, a former writer for the Wall Street Journal, portrays an ambitious, aggressive Cardinal Spellman who from 1939 until his death in 1967 wielded tremendous power from his base in New York City. What will intrigue readers are Cooney's allegations that Spellman was gay and that he fell into bouts of drinking and depression as his secular power waned. PW called this biography ""debunking, controversial, startling.'' Derived from a Kirkus review: A hatchet job on a distasteful man who seems to deserve most of what he gets. Americans under 40 scarcely remember Spellman (1889-1967) but, in his day, he was a potent figure. Trained in Rome, "Spelly" cultivated all the right people at the Vatican, including Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pius XII just in time (1939) to appoint him archbishop of New York. With little academic intelligence and limited charm, he was nonetheless a solid administrator and an adroit politician. He renegotiated all the archdiocese's mortgages, centralized its buying, and embarked on a massive building program (eventually totaling 5 hospitals, 37 churches, 130 schools, and numerous convents, orphanages, and old-folks homes). He was Military Vicar of the US Army, the intimate of presidents and a major force in New York City politics for almost 40 years. He was a superpatriot, a strikebreaker (using seminarians against a Catholic gravediggers' union). As Cooney sees him, Spellman had no deep passions save anti-Communism and ambition. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: WWII, Religion, Cold War, Vatican, Politics & Government, Joseph Kennedy, New York, Joseph McCarthy, Cardinal Spellman, Catholic Church, Americanism, Anti-Communism, Pius XII
ISBN: 0812911202
[Book #20845]
Price: $65.00