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American Catholic cardinal

Richard James Cushing (August 24, 1895 – November 2, 1970) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Boston from 1944 to 1970 and was made a cardinal in 1958. Cushing's main role was as fundraiser and builder of new churches, schools, and institutions. Unlike his predecessor, he was on good terms with practically the entire Boston elite, as he softened the traditional confrontation between the Catholic Irish and the Protestant upper class. He built useful relationships with Jews, Protestants, and institutions outside the usual Catholic community. He helped presidential candidate John F. Kennedy deflect fears of papal interference in American government if a Catholic became president. Cushing's high energy level allowed him to meet with many people all day, often giving lengthy speeches at night. He was not efficient at business affairs, and when expenses built up he counted on his fundraising skills instead of cost cutting. Cushing, says Nasaw, was "fun loving, informal, and outgoing. He looked rather like a tough, handsome, Irish cop and behaved more like a ward politician than a high church cleric." His major weakness in retrospect was overexpansion, adding new institutions that could not be sustained in the long run and had to be cut back by his successors.

Cushing was born in City Point, South Boston on August 24, 1895. The third of five children, he was the son of Patrick and Mary (née Dahill) Cushing. His parents were both Irish immigrants; his father was originally from Glanworth, County Cork, and his mother from Touraneena, County Waterford. His father, who came to the United States in 1880, worked as a blacksmith and earned $18 per week in the trolley repair pits of the Boston Elevated Railway. Cushing received his early education at Perry Public Grammar School in South Boston, since there was then no parochial school for boys in Gate of Heaven Parish. Cushing dropped out of high school in his freshman year because of his compulsive truancy. His first assignment was as a curate at St. Patrick's Church in Roxbury, where he remained for two months. He was afterwards transferred to St. Benedict's Church in Somerville. In 1922, he appeared unannounced at the residence of Cardinal O'Connell to request an assignment as a missionary. in Newton Centre. Following the death of Cardinal O'Connell in April 1944, he served as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese. Cushing, a member of the Third Order of St. Francis and the national protector of the Third Order in America, made a side trip to see Assisi, the birthplace of Saint Francis, while leading the National Pilgrimage to Lourdes and Rome. Prior to embarking on the trip, he joked that the closest he had ever been to Rome was South Boston's Castle Island. During this trip, he was awarded the Legion of Honour that day by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. After the death of Pius XII, Cushing published a moving tribute to him. In 1959, Cushing published a biography of the late Pope Pius XII (1939–1958), depicting the late pope as "Pope of Peace". His work contributed to making the Roman Catholic Church acceptable to the general population at the time of then Senator John F. Kennedy's run for the White House. Part of this work included reaching out to the non Catholics of Boston after "the muscular style of involved Catholicism that Cardinal O'Connell brought to bear on issues of his day religious, social, and political in Boston and Massachusetts". Cushing was honored by B’nai B’rith as "Man of the Year" in 1956 for "a lifetime of distinguished service to the cause of human brotherhood under God and in further recognition of great leadership in the fields of education and community relations." He was a close correspondent with Robert E. Segal, longtime executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Boston, who played a key role in Jewish Catholic relations in Boston. As well as this, Cushing maintained close contacts with Abram L. Sachar of Brandeis University. From the very start of Cushing's tenure as Archbishop of Boston, there was a major change in the relationship between official Bostonian Catholicism and Judaism, where there had previously been much mutual suspicion, Cushing sought closer relations. Cushing was created Cardinal Priest of Santa Susanna by the decision of Pope John XXIII in the consistory of December 15, 1958. His Good Friday sermon in 1961 was given at The Pentagon and was titled "Power Divine and Human." Speaking in the midst of the Cold War, he preached about of how just as God has great power but often shows restraint, so too should nations, particularly when their military might is concerned. He was one of the cardinal electors in the 1963 papal conclave, which elected Pope Paul VI. A close friend of the Kennedy family, he officiated at the marriage of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in 1953, at which he also read a special prayer from Pope Pius XII, and baptized many of the Kennedy children. Cushing gave the prayer invocation at Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. The Cardinal also celebrated President Kennedy's funeral Mass in 1963 at St. Matthew's Cathedral, Washington, D. C., following Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas. The day before the funeral, he gave a televised eulogy for the President. Cushing later defended Jacqueline Kennedy after her marriage to Aristotle Onassis in 1968. He received a large amount of hate mail and was contradicted by the Vatican. After the first meeting between Church and Freemasonry which had been held on 11 April 1969 at the convent of the Divine Master in Ariccia, he was the protagonist of a series of public handshakes between high prelates of the Roman Catholic Church and the heads of Freemasonry. The Boston Globe reported on June 5, 2002 that Church documents released the prior day show the Boston Archdiocese had knowledge of sexual misconduct by several priests who were allowed to remain in active ministry despite complaints. The documents show Cardinal Richard Cushing, who led the Boston archdiocese for 25 years until 1971, approved the moving of at least two priests into new parishes during the 1960s despite allegations of sexual misconduct.

In 1959, Cushing published his only book, a biography of the late Pope Pius XII (1939–58). It is an almost hagiographic biography, written shortly after the death of the Pontiff. Cushing depicted him as the "Pope of Peace" who, armed only with the spiritual weapons of his office, triumphed over insidious attacks that seemed about to destroy the center of Christendom.

At the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), Cushing played a vital role in drafting Nostra aetate, the document that officially absolved the Jews of deicide charge. His emotional comments during debates over the drafts were echoed in the final version:We must cast the Declaration on the Jews in a much more positive form, one not so timid, but much more loving For the sake of our common heritage we, the children of Abraham according to the spirit, must foster a special reverence and love for the children of Abraham according to the flesh. As children of Adam, they are our kin, as children of Abraham they are Christ's blood relatives. 2. So far as the guilt of Jews in the death of our Savior is concerned, the rejection of the Messiah by His own, is according to Scripture, a mystery—a mystery given us for our instruction, not for our self exaltation We cannot sit in judgement on the onetime leaders of Israel—God alone is their judge. Much less can we burden later generations of Jews with any burden of guilt for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, for the death of the Savior of the world, except that universal guilt in which we all have a part In clear and unmistakable language, we must deny, therefore, that the Jews are guilty of our Savior's death. We must condemn especially those who seek to justify, as Christian deeds, discrimination, hatred and even persecution of Jews 3. I ask myself, Venerable Brothers, whether we should not humbly acknowledge before the whole world that, toward their Jewish brethren, Christians have all too often not shown themselves as true Christians, as faithful followers of Christ. How many [Jews] have suffered in our own time? How many died because Christians were indifferent and kept silent? If in recent years, not many Christian voices were raised against those injustices, at least let ours now be heard in humility. He was deeply committed to implementing the Council's reforms and promoting renewal in the Church. In an unprecedented gesture of ecumenism, he encouraged Catholics to attend Billy Graham's crusades. Cushing strongly condemned Communism, particularly the regime of Josip Broz Tito in Yugoslavia. Due to advanced illnesses Cushing's resignation as Boston's archbishop was accepted on September 8, 1970. Upon his resignation, Senator Ted Kennedy stated: "For three quarters of a century [Cushing's] life has been a light in a world that cries out for illumination. He will never have to account for his stewardship, for if his goodness is not known to God, no one's ever will be."

Less than two months after his resignation, on November 2, 1970 (the feast of All Souls Day), Cushing died peacefully in his sleep of cancer at the Cardinal's Residence in Brighton, Massachusetts, aged 75. He was surrounded by his brother and sisters and his successor, Archbishop Humberto Medeiros. Cushing was buried in Hanover, Massachusetts at the Portiuncula Chapel on the grounds of the Cardinal Cushing Centers.

Cushing was a member of the NAACP. Cushing founded the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle in 1958 to "serve the needs of the poorest of the poor in South America". Cushing wrote the foreword for the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition of the Bible, and gave his imprimatur to the Oxford Annotated Bible.

In 1947, founded St. Coletta by the Sea (now the Cardinal Cushing Centers in his honor) with sponsorship from the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi. The organization, now Cardinal Cushing Centers continues to support developmentally disabled individuals ages 6 through the life continuum with campuses in Hanover, Massachusetts and Braintree, Massachusetts and community homes throughout the South Shore of Massachusetts. The now closed Cardinal Cushing College, a women's college in Brookline, Massachusetts, was named after him. In 1950, Richard Cardinal Cushing founded the Bon Secours Hospital, now Holy Family Hospital and Medical Center, in Methuen, Massachusetts. Through his guidance and leadership, the hospital has become one of the top Catholic hospitals in the state of Massachusetts
Emmanuel College's Cardinal Cushing Library Building is named in his honor. The building houses the campus' library, a lecture hall, and various classrooms. Boston College has two buildings named in his honor: Cushing Hall, a freshman dormitory on the Newton Campus as well as another Cushing Hall, the home of the Connell School of Nursing. St. John's Seminary (Massachusetts) has their third theology classroom named after the Cardinal: The Richard Cardinal Cushing Classroom. The main student center of Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire is named the Cardinal. The Cushing houses, among many other significant groups and offices, the Meelia Center for Community Service, a service outreach organization in the greater Manchester area. In 1961 in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) he left funds for the construction of two schools: The Marista and another that at the beginning was the Cardinal Cushing Institute and then in 1969 the Colegio Cardinal Cushing administered by the religious of Jesus Mary. He was part of the US campaign in the region Santa Cruz, which included propaganda, repression and the use of the Christian faith against the indio peasants. Cushing held a Eucharistic congress on August 9, 1961, and inaugurated the Christ the Redeemer statue.