Lawrence Shehan

On November 17, 1945, Shehan was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore-Washington and titular bishop of Lydda by Pope Pius XII.[6] He received his episcopal consecration on the following December 12 from Archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, with Bishops Peter Leo Ireton and John Michael McNamara serving as co-consecrators.[6] He was named pastor of SS. Philip and James Church in Baltimore in 1946.[2] In 1947, when the Archdiocese of Washington was separated from Baltimore, Shehan was assigned to remain in Baltimore.[4] He served as vicar general of the archdiocese from 1948 to 1953.[4]

Shehan was appointed the first Bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Bridgeport in Connecticut on August 25, 1953.[6] His installation took place on December 2 of that year.[6] During his tenure in Bridgeport, he established eighteen new parishes, built twenty-four new churches, and founded three high schools.[8] He also formed a Catholic Youth Organization, promoted vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and began parish ministry for the increasing number of Hispanic, Portuguese, and Brazilian immigrants.[8] In October 1960, he convoked the first synod of Bridgeport to complete the initial organization of the diocese and to establish a uniform code of practice and discipline for the clergy.[8] A non-profit youth center in Bridgeport, CT is named after him (The Cardinal Shehan Center).

On October 1, 2019, a report by former Connecticut state Judge Robert Holzberg accused Shehan and other former bishops of the diocese of transferring priests accused of sexual abuse rather than reporting them.[9]

On July 10, 1961, Shehan returned to Baltimore as its Coadjutor Archbishop (with right of succession) and Titular Archbishop of Nicopolis ad Nestum. He succeeded Francis Patrick Keough as Archbishop of Baltimore on December 8 of that same year. In this position, he led the nation's first diocese and held precedence, except for Cardinals created earlier and without the honorary title of primacy, over the Church in America. After the Supreme Court ruled to remove prayer from public schools in 1962, Shehan warned that "secularization threatens to become a sort of state religion established by court decree".[10] He was also a strong advocate of civil rights, banning segregation in all of Baltimore's Catholic institutions and walking in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.[11] He also maintained relations with Judaism and Eastern Orthodoxy.[11] Cardinal Shehan worked with his friend Harry Lee Doll, Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and President of the Maryland Council of Churches on both civil rights and ecumenical issues. Along with the President of St. Mary's Seminary and University, Cardinal Shehan and Bishop Doll in 1968 founded Baltimore's Ecumenical Institute, in the city's Roland Park neighborhood.[12]

Shehan attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, and Pope Paul VI rather surprisingly[13] created him Cardinal-Priest of S. Clemente in the consistory of February 22, 1965. Along with Cardinal Jaime de Barros Câmara, he assisted Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens in delivering one of the closing messages of the Council on December 8, 1965.[14] Within the Roman Curia, Shehan held membership in the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity.[11]

He was in conflict with Fr. Gommar DePauw, a Baltimore priest and founder of a Traditionalist Catholic Movement.[15]

Considered a liberal in his positions, Shehan supported Fr. Charles Curran[16] and open housing, and condemned the Vietnam War.[17]

He celebrated an aboriginal Mass at the 1973 Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne.[18]