Monday, March 18, AD 2024 10:27pm

Cardinal Mooney and the Conclave of 1958

 

 

Edward Cardinal Mooney added a bit of tragic drama to the Conclave of 1958.  Born in 1882 in Mount Savage, Maryland, the seventh child in his family,  he moved with them to Youngstown, Ohio at the age of 5.  His father was a tube mill worker and died in the early 1890’s.  His mother opened a small baking shop to support the family, and George and his brothers and sisters delivered the goods to customers.  He began his studies for the priesthood at Saint Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and concluded them at the North American pontifical college.  Ordained in 1909, he taught dogmatic theology at Saint Mary’s Seminary in Cleveland until 1916.  He was the founding principal of the Cathedral Latin School in Cleveland from 1916-1922.

Made the spiritual director of the North American Pontifical College in Rome in 1923, he received the unique assignment of being the Apostolic Delegate to India and made a Titular Archbishop.  In India he helped found 15 missions and three parishes.  In 1931 he was made Apostolic Delegate to Japan.  In 1933 he was made fourth Bishop of Rochester with the personal title of Archbishop.  In 1937 he was named the first Archbishop of Detroit, receiving a Cardinal’s cap from Pope Pius XII in 1946.

Like most Catholic clergy of his generation, he was very pro-labor unions which stood him in good stead in the heavily unionized Detroit.  He immediately clashed heads with Father Charles Coughlin, the fiery controversial radio priest who operated from Royal Oak, Michigan.  The clashes continued until Father Coughlin agreed to end his radio program in 1942.

During World War II he was a strong supporter of the war effort viewing Nazi Germany as a mortal adversary of Christianity.

At the Conclave of 1958 he had a massive heart attack in Rome and died at age 70 just three hours before the Conclave began.  The more deranged sedevacantists claim that Mooney was murdered to help deny Cardinal Siri the papal throne, which is pure, unadulterated one hundred percent bunk.

If Cardinal Mooney had not died before the Conclave, the Conclave might have killed him.  It lasted four days and 11 ballots before the election of Angelo Roncalli,  Patriarch of Venice, was elected as a compromise candidate.  No one was more surprised than the 77 year old Roncalli at his election.  He had purchased a round trip ticket and hoped that the Conclave would be a short one so that he could get home quickly.  He decided to reign as Pope John XXIII.

Roncalli was born in 1881 to a family of peasants,  the fourth child and first son, in a family that would grow to 13 kids.  He was ordained a priest in 1904.  In 1905 he became secretary to the Bishop of Bergamo, working in that capacity until 1915 while lecturing at the local seminary.  He served in the Italian Army during World War I as a sergeant, assigned as a stretcher bearer and a chaplain.    Of his experiences during the War he wrote:    “I thank God that I served as a sergeant and army  chaplain in the First World War. How much I learned about the human  heart during this time, how much experience I gained, what grace I  received.”

After the War he was appointed spiritual director of the seminary in Bergamo.  In 1921 Pope Benedict named him the director of the Italian society for the propagation of the faith.  In 1925 Pope Pius XI made him Apostolic Visitor for Bulgaria where he served for a decade.  His perpetual sunny demeanor behind which a very shrewd mind lurked made him a natural diplomat.  In 1935 he was made Apostolic Delegate to Greece and Turkey.  During the war he saved thousands of lives of those, especially Jews, under threat from the Nazis.  One of his tactics was to issue “baptismal certificates of convenience” to priests to fill out to falsely assert that Jews were actually baptized Catholics.  When he was praised for his activity after the War he said that all praise should be directed towards Pope Pius XII who made it clear that the lives of innocents suffering persecution were to be saved.

In 1953 the Pope made him cardinal and Patriarch of Venice.  No doubt at his age Cardinal Roncalli assumed that he reached the pinnacle of his career and only retirement awaited.

After his election as Pope, John XXIII  charmed the world with his pronounced sense of humor, warmth and his obvious love for all of humanity.  His five year papacy of course was dominated by his calling Vatican II.  How one looks at the Council can’t help but determine how one looks at Pope John.  Of course John did not live to implement the Council or even to see its end, dying stoically of stomach cancer in 1963.  Pope John was a man of traditional Catholic spirituality.  I can’t help but think he would have been appalled at much of the implementation of Vatican II.  How he would have reacted to it if he had lived is one of the great “what ifs” of modern Church history.

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Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Tuesday, March 12, AD 2013 3:57pm

I wondered why there is a Catholic high school named for Cardinal Mooney in Youngstown, as Youngstown is a rather new diocese (formed, I believe, in the 1940s by Pope Pius XII during WWII, from the Cleveland diocese – and obviously does not have a cardinal as its bishop)

Now I know. Thank you.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Tuesday, March 12, AD 2013 10:35pm

“The more deranged sedevacantists claim that Mooney was murdered to help deny Cardinal Siri the papal throne, which is pure, unadulterated one hundred percent bunk.”

Let’s see, one faction of deranged “traditionalists” says that Cdl Siri was actually elected Pope Gregory XVII in 1958 and was persuaded to renounce. Which faction are we to believe? An illustration of how off the rails these groups can be.

As far as the name Gregory XVII is concerned, I do hope the next pope takes that name…not that I am biased or anything.

trackback
Wednesday, March 13, AD 2013 12:02am

[…] Week in Lent – Zphyrns Meatless Friday, Roasted Vegetables with Pasta – A Catholic Mom in Hawaii Crd. Mooney & Conclave of 1958 – D. McClarey JD, The American Catholic Why The Bachelor’s Marriage Isn’t Doomed – A. […]

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Wednesday, March 13, AD 2013 8:00am

From 1944, Archbishop Roncalli, as he then was, served as nuncio in France, where he is still remembered with gratitude and affection for his work of reconciliation, both within the Church and between the Church and the wider society, in the aftermath of Vichy.

The spiritual mission of the Church had been gravely hampered, during the previous 70 years by the open hostility of most Catholics to the Republic, which neatly matched the anti-clericalism of the bouffeurs de curé. Leo XIII had exhorted Catholic to “rally to the Republic,” explaining that a distinction must be drawn between the form of government, which ought to be accepted, and its laws which ought to be improved, only to be accused by the Catholic press of “kissing the feet of their executioners.” In 1940, alas, too many Catholics rallied, not to the Republic, but to Vichy.

When he was appointed a Cardinal in 1953, he received the red biretta at the hands of the French President, Vincent Auriol, signalling a new relationship between the Church and the Republic.

kelso
kelso
Wednesday, March 13, AD 2013 8:05am

Curious fact about the 1958 conclave. White smoke did come prematurely from the chimney prompting Vatican Radio to announce that “we have a pope” when, apparently we did not. Siri was the frontrunner, so to speak, among the papabile. I never heard anyone knowledgeable claim that he took the name Gregory or that he ever accepted the election if, indeed, he had received the quorum. Fact is he never spoke about a “non-acceptance”, nor could he have if such were the case. You can be fairly sure, however, that some cardinal would have leaked that info, if it were true. The white smoke is certainly strange. Hard to believe it was not deliberate. Then, shortly after, the smoke turned black. Vatican Radio had to take a culpa.

Dave W
Wednesday, March 13, AD 2013 11:13am

From this convert who once called Ytown home (and still loves the gritty city) … and who was beaten down mercifully by Mooney’s football team for 3 years, I appreciate the post. I’m often seen the pontificate of JXXIII as a solid sign that the Holy Spirit can take the votes of cardinals and turn them into gold.

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