Cardinal Spellman High School. n.d. "An Historical Sketch of Cardinal Spellman High School". Catholic Hierarchy (unofficial website). n.d. "Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman". Cooney, John (1984). The American Pope: The Life and Times of Francis Cardinal Spellman. New York: Times Books.
Spellman attended Whitman High School (now Whitman-Hanson Regional High School) because there was no local Catholic school. He enjoyed photography and baseball; he was a first baseman during his first year of high school until a hand injury forced him to stop playing, and later managed the team.
"This Month in Fordham History: Spellman Hall Opens, Named for Fordham Alumnus". Fordham News. Retrieved June 27, 2017. Cardinal Spellman High School. n.d.
Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church.
One priest accused Spellman 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. His support for the Vietnam War, along with his opposition to church reform, greatly undermined Spellman's clout within the church and country.
However, during the trip Pacelli met with Roosevelt to discuss diplomatic recognition of the sovereignty of Vatican City. Spellman was present at the meeting, which he arranged to take place at the president's boyhood home at Hyde Park, New York, on November 5, 1936, two days after his reelection to a second term.
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.
He was then sent by Archbishop William Henry O'Connell to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. During his years in Rome, Spellman befriended such figures as Gaetano Bisleti, Francesco Borgongini Duca and Domenico Tardini.
When The Deputy, a controversial play about Pius XII's actions during the Holocaust, opened on Broadway in 1964, Spellman condemned the play as "an outrageous desecration of the honor of a great and good man". The play's producer, Herman Shumlin, responded by calling Spellman's words a "calculated threat to really drive a wedge between Christians and Jews".
In 1945, he instituted the Al Smith Dinner, an annual white tie fundraiser for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese which is attended by prominent national figures, including presidential nominees . Following his promotion to New York, Spellman also became a close confidant of President Roosevelt.
Francis Spellman was born in Whitman, Massachusetts , to William Spellman (1858–1957) and Ellen ( née Conway) Spellman. His father was a grocer whose own parents had emigrated to the United States from Clonmel and Leighlinbridge in Ireland. The eldest of five children, Spellman had two brothers, Martin and John, and two sisters, Marian and Helene. As a child, he served as an altar boy at Holy Ghost Church.