Francis Joseph Spellman: May 4, 1889—December 2, 1967
Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman (May 4, 1889—December 2, 1967) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the sixth Archbishop of New York from 1939 to 1967, having previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston (1932–39). He was created a cardinal in 1946.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
Journalist Michelangelo Signorile, described Spellman as "one of the most notorious, powerful and sexually voracious homosexuals in the American Catholic Church's history".[1]
Signorile reported that Cooney's manuscript, The American Pope, initially contained interviews with several people with personal knowledge of Spellman's homosexuality, including researcher and historian C. A. Tripp. According to Signorile, the church pressured Cooney's publisher, Times Books, to reduce the four pages discussing Spellman's sexuality to a single paragraph.[2]
Signorile cites a story that in the 1940s Spellman was carrying on a relationship with a male member of the chorus in the Broadway revue One Touch of Venus.[3]
Monsignor Eugene V. Clark, Spellman's personal secretary of 15 years, denied the allegations of Spellman's homosexuality, calling them "utterly ridiculous and preposterous".<ref>New York Times. 1984, August 4. "New book on Cardinal Spellman stirs controversy." New York Times, August 4, 1984. (On August 11, 2005 as rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral in response to allegations of adultery with his secretary Laura DiFillpo, allegations that Clark denied.
Biographer of J. Edgar Hoover, Curt Gentry, says that Hoover's files had "numerous allegations that Spellman was a very active homosexual".<ref>Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover, The Man and the Secrets, notes page 347.
