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Vatican – Cardinal Francis Spellman
1967 Silver Medal 38mm (26.46 grams) 0.783 oz. ASW
A SOLDIER OF THE LORD FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN 1889 1967, Francis facing 1/5 right.
HUMANITARIAN SCHOLAR THEOLOGIAN SEQUERE DEUM CCMS SS-1, Hat atop shield, tassles on either side, banner below, double-crossed sword downward.
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 Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston from 1932 through 1939. He was created a cardinal in 1946.
Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in the consistory of February 18, 1946; his titular church was the same one held by Pius before his election to the papacy.
According to historian William V. Shannon, “Spellman was deeply reactionary in his theology and secular politics.” anti-Communist, Spellman once said that “a true American can neither be a Communist nor a Communist condoner” that “the first loyalty of every American is vigilantly to weed out and counteract Communism and convert American Communists to Americanism”. defended Senator Joseph McCarthy’s 1953 investigations of Communist subversives in the federal government, stating at an April 1954 breakfast attended by the Senator that McCarthy had “told us about the Communists and about Communist methods” and that he was “not only against communism—but … against the methods of the Communists”. 1949, when gravediggers at Calvary Cemetery in Queens went on strike for a pay raise, the Cardinal accused them of being Communists and recruited seminarians of the Archdiocese from St. Joseph’s Seminary as strikebreakers. described the actions of the gravediggers, who belonged to the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union of America, as “an unjustified and immoral strike against the innocent dead and their bereaved families, against their religion and human decency”. strike was supported by such figures as the religious activist (now Servant of God) Dorothy Day and Ernest Hemingway, who wrote a scathing letter to Spellman. Spellman denounced the efforts of Congressman Graham Arthur Barden to provide federal funding only to public schools as “a craven crusade of religious prejudice against Catholic children”, calling Barden himself an “apostle of bigotry”. Cardinal engaged later in a heated public dispute with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1949 when she expressed her opposition to providing federal funding to parochial schools in her column, My Day. response, Spellman accused her of anti-Catholicism and called her column a ” discrimination unworthy of an American mother”. eventually met with her at her Hyde Park home to quell the dispute.
Spellman frequently criticized films he perceived to be immoral or indecent. He described Two-Faced Woman as “an occasion of sin … dangerous to public morals”, Miracle (which led to Joseph Burstyn, Inc v. Wilson) as a “vile and harmful picture … a despicable affront to every Christian”, Baby Doll as “revolting” and “morally repellent”. condemnation of Forever Amber caused producer William Perlberg to publicly refuse to “bowdlerize the film to placate the Roman Catholic Church”. He was instrumental in getting William Brennan appointed to the Supreme Court in 1956, but would later regret the decision. Justice William O. Douglas once said, “I came to know several Americans who I felt had greatly dishonored our American ideal. One was Cardinal Spellman.” Spellman participated in the 1958 papal conclave, which elected Pope John XXIII. He was considered dismissive of Pope John and is reported to have said, “He’s no Pope. He should be selling bananas.” 1959, he served as papal delegate to the Eucharistic Congress in Guatemala; during his journey, he stopped in Nicaragua and, contrary to the Pope’s orders, publicly appeared with dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. According to Catholic journalist Raymond Arroyo’s foreword written for a 2008 edition of Fulton Sheen’s autobiography, Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, “It is widely believed that Cardinal Spellman drove Sheen off the air.” Besides being pressured to leave television, Sheen also “found himself unwelcome in the churches of New York City. Spellman cancelled Sheen’s annual Good Friday sermons at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and discouraged clergy from befriending the Bishop.”
Although John F. Kennedy was a Catholic, Spellman supported Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, due to Kennedy’s opposition to federal aid for parochial schools and to appointing a U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. support for Nixon ended a long partnership with Kennedy’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. aide David Powers recalled that in 1960, Kennedy asked him “Why is Spellman against me?”, to which he replied, “Spellman is the most powerful Catholic in the country. When you become president, you will be.” had previously presided over the weddings of Robert, Jean, Eunice and Ted Kennedy.
Historian Pat McNamara views Spellman’s outreach to the city’s growing Puerto Rican community as years ahead of its time. He sent priests overseas to study Spanish, and by 1960 a quarter of all the archdiocese’s parishes had an outreach to Spanish-speaking Catholics. his years as a cardinal Spellman built 15 churches, 94 schools, 22 rectories, 60 convents, and 34 other institutions. 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. All of these schools are still currently open.
 Saint Peter (r. AD 30; died between AD 64 and 68) also known as Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon), Cephas, or Peter the Apostle, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, and one of the first leaders of the early Church.
According to Christian tradition, Peter was crucified in Rome under Emperor Nero. He is traditionally counted as the first bishop of Rome-or pope-and also by Eastern Christian tradition as the first patriarch of Antioch. The ancient Christian churches all venerate Peter as a major saint and as the founder of the Church of Antioch and the Diocese of Rome, but differ in their attitudes regarding the authority of his successors. According to Catholic teaching, in Matthew 16 (Matthew 16:18) Jesus promised Peter a special position in the Church.
In the Acts of the Apostles, New Testament authorship is foreseen from Peter the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews and John the writer of the book of Revelation: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The Gospel of Mark was traditionally thought to show the influence of Peter’s preaching and eyewitness memories. Several other books bearing his name-the Acts of Peter, Gospel of Peter, Preaching of Peter, Apocalypse of Peter, and Judgment of Peter-are considered by Christian denominations as apocryphal, and are thus not included in their Bible canons.
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