James Aloysius Hickey

Early life James Hickey was born on October 11, 1920, in Midland, Michigan, to James and Agnes (née Ryan) Hickey; he had an older sister, Marie. James Hickey was a dentist who, during the Great Depression, treated patients who could not pay for their dental care. At age 13, James Hickey entered St. Joseph Minor Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He then attended The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Priesthood Hickey was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Saginaw by Bishop William Murphy on June 15, 1946. He received his episcopal consecration on April 14, 1957, from Archbishop John Dearden, with Bishops Woznicki and Stephen Leven serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of St. Mary. Hickey served as chair of priestly formation within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from 1968 to 1969. Commenting on the visitation, Hickey said, "It wasn't easy, you know." He was Grand Prior of the Middle Atlantic USA Lieutenancy of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre from 1993 to 2005. Cardinal John Paul II created Hickey as cardinal priest of the Church of Santa Maria Madre del Redentore a Tor Bella Monaca in Rome during the consistory of June 28, 1988. At that point, Hickey was one of thirteen Americans in the College of Cardinals. That same year, Hickey was invited to lead a retreat for the pope and his household. Within the USCCB, Hickey served as chairman of the Committee on Doctrine (1979 to 1981), of the Committee on Human Values (1984 to 1987), and of the Committee on the Pontifical North American College (1989 to 1991 and 1994 to 1997). In conjunction with Mother Teresa, Hickey also founded a Washington convent of the Missionaries of Charity for the care of the homeless and terminally ill. He once declared, "We serve the homeless not because they are Catholic, but because we are Catholic. If we don't care for the sick, educate the young, care for the homeless, then we cannot call ourselves the church of Jesus Christ."Hickey resigned as archbishop of Washington on November 21, 2000, after twenty years of service. ==Views==

In addition to his social activism, Hickey was known for his orthodox views regarding Catholic doctrine. Capital punishment In early 2000, Hickey appealed to Maryland Governor Parris Glendening to commute the death sentence of Eugene Colvin-El. His sentence was commuted by Glendening to life imprisonment in June 2000. Contraception and abortion Hickey halted archdiocesan funding for a crisis pregnancy center in College Park, Maryland, after it declined to stop dispensing contraceptives. In 1981, Hickey told the US House Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs: "Our position is to oppose military aid and intervention from all outside powers." 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."Peterson died in April 1987. Labor While Archbishop of Washington, Hickey ordered all large scale building projects in the archdiocese to be union jobs. LBGTQ ministries Hickey ordered New Ways Ministry, an unauthorized ministry for LGBTQ Catholics, to stop any operations on archdiocesan property in the early 1980s. He also forced Georgetown University to stop DignityUSA, a national LGBTQ ministry organization, from celebrating mass on campus in 1987. ==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, Hickey 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.'" == Sex abuse cover-up ==

According to a 2020 Vatican report, Hickey failed to act on credible accusations of sexual abuse against then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and continued to offer his support and endorsement to McCarrick. : "He (McCarrick) welcomed prominent prelates to the new Diocese, including Archbishop Laghi,124 Archbishop James A. Hickey,125 Sebastiano Cardinal Baggio,126 and Joseph Cardinal Bernardin ...While the Nunciature has been aware of these accusations, the Nuncio has affirmed that they have been investigated and not substantiated, and is basically convinced that they are not really credible. Nevertheless, this Dicastery would note that, in his letter of April 4, 1994, while Cardinal James Hickey mentions that [McCarrick] should be presumed innocent, he wrote: “All this does not completely eliminate the possibility of some wrongdoing; my counsel is to proceed very slowly and cautiously” ==References==