William Wakefield Baum

William Wakefield White was born in Dallas, Texas, to Harold E. and Mary Leona (née Hayes) White.[5] His father, a Presbyterian, died when William was a young child, and he and his mother moved to Kansas City, Missouri.[6] His mother married Jerome Charles Baum, a Jewish businessman, who adopted William and gave him his last name; Jerome Baum died when William was 12.[7]

He received his early education at the parochial school of St. Peter's Church, and began to serve as an altar boy at age 10.[8] He entered St. John's Minor Seminary in 1940, and then studied philosophy at Cardinal Glennon College in St. Louis.[7] In 1947, he entered Kenrick Seminary, also in St. Louis, for his theological studies.[8]

Baum was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Edwin V. O'Hara on May 12, 1951.[1] His first assignment was as assistant pastor of St. Aloysius Church in Kansas City.[9] He taught theology and Church history at St. Theresa College from 1954 to 1956, as well as at St. Aloysius Academy and Glennon High School.[6] He then studied at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome, where he earned a Doctorate of Sacred Theology degree in 1958.[5] His thesis was entitled: "The Teaching of Cardinal Cajetan on the Sacrifice of the Mass".[6]

Returning to Kansas City, Baum resumed his teaching duties at St. Theresa College (1958–63) and served as secretary of the Diocesan Tribunal.[7] He also did pastoral work at St. Theresa's Church and St. Peter's Church, both in Kansas City.[8] In 1960, he became pastor of St. Cyril's Church in Sugar Creek.[7] He published "Considerations Toward the Theology of the Presbyterate" in 1961.[10] He was named a papal chamberlain by Pope John XXIII in April 1961, and vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in 1962.[5]

From 1962 to 1965, Baum served as a peritus, or theological expert, to Bishop Charles Helmsing at the Second Vatican Council.[8] In that capacity, he worked with the Secretariat for Christian Unity and helped draft Unitatis Redintegratio, the Council's decree on ecumenism.[7] In 1964, he was named the first executive director of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, a post which he held for five years.[10] He also served as a member of the Joint Working Group of representatives of the Catholic Church and World Council of Churches (1965–69) and of the Mixed Committee of representatives of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (1965–66).[8]

In 1967, Baum returned to Kansas City, where he served as chancellor of the diocese and pastor of St. James Church.[9] He was named a domestic prelate in 1968.[5]

Under Pope John Paul II, in 1980 he was named to the Roman Curia as Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, succeeding the French Cardinal Gabriel-Marie Garrone. The Italian Cardinal Pio Laghi succeeded him in that position. In 1990 he became the Church's Major Penitentiary, succeeding the Italian Cardinal Luigi Dadaglio, exchanging the responsibility of overseeing the Catholic Church's educational policy and structure, parochial schools, Catholic colleges and universities, Newman Centers, and seminaries worldwide, for that of supervising one of the three final appellate tribunals of the Church (the other two are the Roman Rota, which among other matters deals with marriage cases, and the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, which is the church's supreme court- which mainly resolves technicalities or procedural disagreements- for all cases the Pope does not hear). Cardinal Baum's position as Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary involved mostly dealing with the regulation of indulgences and matters of conscience (the internal forum)- especially the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He was succeeded as Major Penitentiary by Cardinal Luigi De Magistris, who in turn was replaced by another American, James Francis Stafford, who had been Archbishop of Denver.

Baum was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. Along with Benedict (then Cardinal Ratzinger) and Cardinal Jaime Sin, Baum was one of three remaining cardinals elevated by Paul VI to retain voting rights in that conclave. Cardinal Baum was the senior Cardinal Priest to participate in the 2005 papal conclave.[12]

Somewhat frail in his later years, Baum also suffered from deteriorating eyesight. His resignation as Penitentiary was accepted the day after his 75th birthday in 2001, but he remained active in Rome to the extent that his health permitted, and attended the meeting of American cardinals called to deal with the sex abuse scandal in 2003. He lived in Washington, D.C. until his death.[13]

With the election of Ratzinger as pope on April 19, 2005, followed by the death of Jaime Sin on June 21, 2005, Baum became the last cardinal elevated by Pope Paul VI to maintain voting rights in a papal conclave. Upon Baum reaching the age of 80 on November 21, 2006, all cardinals who may vote in a conclave had been elevated by Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.

On March 8, 2011, Baum became the longest-serving American cardinal, surpassing the record established by James Gibbons of Baltimore in 1921.

Cardinal Baum died at the age of 88 on July 23, 2015 in a home in Washington, D.C., run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, where he had spent his last years. He was buried in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC.