In terms of significant power in the Church, in government, and in international affairs, the most significant bishop to this point in the history of our country was Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York. Kennedy’s marriage to Aristotle Onassis, who was divorced. In 1968 Cardinal Cushing came under harsh criticism in some quarters for refusing to condemn the widowed Mrs. bishops who preferred Richard Nixon, and may be most remembered for the televised funeral Mass and Arlington Cemetery rites of President Kennedy three days after his assassination. Cushing married John and Jacqueline Kennedy, supported John in his run for the presidency in 1960 against the wishes of most U.S. Kennedy, patriarch of the Massachusetts Kennedy clan. In the 1960’s many Catholics could be excused if they thought the highest ranking American churchman was Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston. Bishop Burke has a small footnote in the history of Vatican II he was the first bishop to die at the Council, during the first week, no less. According to Buffalo folk lore, when bishops were polled by the pope’s representatives prior to Vatican II for the topics they wished to see discussed, my bishop replied that the Council should mandate red altar coverings, so as to easily spot the tiny white crumbs from the broken communion host. I never laid eyes on my own diocesan bishop, Joseph Burke, who skipped my parish confirmation and paid a visiting missionary bishop $5/a head for the privilege. When I was old enough to start noticing such things, a few American bishops crossed my consciousness.

The American Pope by John Cooney