Francis Spellman

He was against the intentional targeting of civilians, and he opposed the Vietnam War.

And so persecution that I've been told came from Dulles, through Spellman, that fell directly upon Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

So it's this anti-war message, this desire to convert the world, a special heart for sharing the gospel with the Muslim world.

He was not afraid of communists.

Casual people who, oh yeah, the guy, the guy that got up early in the morning and that American priest that got up early in the morning and visited the homeless and opposed the Vietnam War and atomic bombs.

That guy, you know? And that's what I'm excited about.

It was very clear it is a beatification that this pontificate wants the world to know about the Fulton Sheen Cardinal Spellman didn't want the world to know about.

Isn't that ironic that the church hierarchy at the time in the United States, with the light they wanted to put under a bushel basket, the first American Pope from Illinois, like Bishop Sheen, is going to let that light be seen.

Right

... with the relationship with Cardinal Spellman and everything.

Spellman, right.

Yeah.

But, yeah, uh, but, uh-

I don't think he was the only person who had, uh, difficulties with Cardinal Spellman.

No. [laughs]

Uh huh.

I love her name.

Francisco in Argentina, Sarah in Lithuania, Andrew in Bahrain, and Sakai in Okinawa, Japan, as well as Kevin in Wisconsin.

Oh, I also have to tell them the story.

Okay, so this is for Jose in Mexico and John.

There's kind of a story that after the Vatican, after the Second Vatican Council, so he would have been 71 when he was named a diocesan bishop.

And there's kind of some story that he and Cardinal Spellman of New York may have had kind of a falling out.

And so Cardinal Spellman said, maybe it's time for you to go on your way to some other assignment.

So he was transferred from an auxiliary bishop of New York, which he was then at the age of 71, he became diocesan bishop of Rochester.

Now, I don't know how many people watching or whether you or I would want to do this, but to start a new job or a new career at 71, that's asking quite a bit.

"In the 1950s, the government donated millions of dollars of powdered milk to the New York archdiocese.

Cardinal Spellman, of that archdiocese- ... handed that milk over to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to distribute it to the world's poor.

On at least one occasion, he asked that the director of the society, Bishop Fulton Sheen, pay the archdiocese for the milk.

He wanted millions of dollars.

Despite Cardinal Spellman's considerable powers of persuasion, Sheen refused, and then apparently Spellman said, "I may take six months or 10 years, but I will get even with you.

Everyone will know what you are like." And apparently he, like, froze Bishop Sheen out of parishes in New York City.

[laughs]

He was invited to preach.

Cardinal Spellman received him.

That's where he became an auxiliary bishop.

What it means to be a priest in New York, like in every diocese, is that you're dedicated to the people that God puts in your path.

Sheen refused and took it to the pope.

The pope sided with Sheen.

As a result, as they were leaving that meeting with Pius XII, Cardinal Spellman turns to Sheen and says, "Everybody's gonna know who you are and what you are.

I will destroy you," or words to that effect.