James Aloysius Hickey

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James Aloysius Hickey bigraphy, stories - Catholic cardinal

James Aloysius Hickey : biography

October 11, 1920 – October 24, 2004

James Aloysius Hickey (October 11, 1920 – October 24, 2004) was an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Washington, D.C. from 1980 to 2000, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1988.

Death

Hickey died at the Jeanne Jugan Home of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Washington, D.C., at age 84. Following a funeral Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, he was buried in St. Francis Chapel at St. Matthew’s Cathedral. When asked by The Washington Post in 1989 what he would like people to say about him after his death, the Cardinal replied, "First, I’d like them to say that he was always loyal to his Church. Second, that he was a friend to Catholic education. And third, if they don’t want to say the first two, at least I hope they would chisel on the stone, ‘He served the poor.’"

Views

In addition to his social activism, Hickey was known for his orthodox views regarding Church doctrine.

Gay ministries

He ordered New Ways Ministry, a ministry for gay and lesbian Catholics, to cease operations in the Washington archdiocese in the early 1980s, and forced Georgetown University to stop Dignity, another organization for gays and lesbians, from celebrating Masses on the campus in 1987.

Liturgical abuses

He also complained about liturgical abuses at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, even sending auxiliary bishop William E. Lori to investigate the Jesuit-run parish. November 13, 2002

Contraception and abortion

He halted archdiocesan funding for a crisis pregnancy center in College Park, MD after it declined to stop dispensing contraceptives.

Dissident clergy

As chancellor of the Catholic University of America, Hickey handled the ouster of Charles Curran from the university’s faculty in 1987. In 1989, he excommunicated the schismatic African American priest, George Augustus Stallings, after the latter abandoned to the Church to form his own congregation.

HIV/AIDS

Hickey and Rev. Michael Peterson, a gay psychiatrist dying from AIDS on whom the Cardinal had relied for advice in treating pedophile priests, wrote a joint letter in 1987 to the American bishops acknowledging Peterson’s diagnosis; Hickey wrote, "Father Peterson’s illness reminds us in a personal way of the terrible human tragedy of AIDS in our midst. His suffering challenges us to reach out with renewed conviction and compassion to those with AIDS and their families and friends."

Capital punishment

In early 2000, following on the Pope’s calls for Catholics to oppose capital punishment, Hickey appealed to Maryland Governor Parris Glendening to commute the death sentence of Eugene Colvin-El. He resigned as Archbishop on November 21, 2000, after twenty years of service.

Quotes

  • "In the years remaining for me, I shall strive to be a caring pastor, a faithful teacher, a loving father and brother and a true servant of the people of God in the District of Columbia and the five counties of Maryland. I am truly honored, very humbled and deeply grateful that our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has chosen me to serve as a cardinal of the church." (Said upon his conferment as Cardinal in 1988.)

Early life and ministry

James Hickey was born in Midland, Michigan, to James and Agnes (née Ryan) Hickey; he had an older sister, Marie. His father was a dentist who, during the Great Depression, treated patients who could not pay for their dental care. At age 13, he entered St. Joseph Minor Seminary in Grand Rapids. He graduated as valedictorian from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit in 1942, also providing pastoral care to migrant workers during his studies. He then attended the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Hickey was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop William Murphy on June 15, 1946.

He then served as an associate pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Saginaw until 1947, whence he went to Rome to further his studies. He earned a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University in 1950, and a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in 1951. Upon returning to the United States, he served as secretary to Bishop Stephen Stanislaus Woznicki from 1951 to 1966. He was also the founding rector of St. Paul Seminary, which was later closed in 1970. From 1962 to 1965, he attended the Second Vatican Council as a peritus for Bishop Woznicki. He was raised to the rank of Domestic Prelate of His Holiness on October 31, 1963.