Cushing, Richard James, Cardinal, 1895-1970

Richard James Cushing was born on August 24, 1895 in South Boston, Massachusetts to Patrick and Mary (Dahill) Cushing. His parents were both Irish immigrants. Cushing was educated at Perry Public Grammar School in South Boston, dropping out in his freshman year. Cushing subsequently enrolled at Boston College High School, as his cousin, the Archdiocese of New York, paid for his tuition. He graduated in 1913 and entered Boston College, where he studied for two years. In 1915, Cushing began his studies for the priesthood at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. He was ordained in 1921 by Cardinal William Henry O’Connell at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Cushing’s first assignment was as curate at St. Patrick Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, before he moved on to St. Benedict Church in Somerville, Massachusetts, serving in the same role.

In 1922, Cushing was assigned to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which raised funds for and promoted Catholic missionary work. Cushing became director of the society in 1928, and continued in this role until 1944. In 1939, Cardinal O’Connell, Archbishop of Boston, elevated Cushing to the role of Auxiliary Archbishop of Boston. When O’Connell died in 1944, Pope Pius XII named Cushing the sixth bishop and third Archbishop of Boston. In 1958, Pope John XXIII elevated Cushing to the cardinalate. Cushing was one of the cardinal electors in the papal conclave of 1963, which elected Pope Paul VI.

As Archbishop of Boston, Cushing was committed to bettering relations between the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish communities of Boston. He maintained a close friendship with the Kennedy family, officiating the marriage of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in 1953, and delivering the prayer invocation at Kennedy’s presidential inauguration in 1961. Following Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Cushing delivered his funeral mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, DC. Cushing retired as Archbishop of Boston in 1970 due to failing health. He died on November 2, 1970 in Brighton, Massachusetts.