Blessed Terence Cooke

Terence James Cardinal Cooke (March 1, 1921 – October 6, 1983) was a senior-ranking American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1968 until his death, quietly battling leukemia throughout his tenure. He was named a cardinal in 1969. Cooke previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 1965 to 1967. Nine years after his death, Cardinal Cooke was designated a Servant of God, the first step in the process that may lead to beatification and then canonization as a saint. The youngest of three children, Terence Cooke was born in New York City to Michael and Margaret (née Gannon) Cooke. His parents were both from County Galway, Ireland, and named their son after Terence MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork who died on a hunger strike during the Irish War of Independence. Michael Cooke worked as a chauffeur and construction worker. At age five, Terence and his family moved from Morningside Heights, Manhattan, to the northeast Bronx. Following his mother's death in 1930, his aunt Mary Gannon helped raise him and his siblings. After expressing an early interest in the priesthood, in 1934 Cooke entered Manhattan's Cathedral College, the minor seminary of the Archdiocese of New York. In 1940, he entered St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, New York. Cooke was ordained a priest by Archbishop Francis Spellman on December 1, 1945. Cooke then served as chaplain for St. Agatha's Home for Children in Nanuet, New York, until 1947, when he moved to Washington, D.C., to pursue graduate studies at The Catholic University of America. He obtained a Master of Social Work degree in 1949. When he returned to New York, Cooke was assigned to serve as a curate at St. Athanasius Parish in the Bronx, while working with the Catholic Youth Organization. In 1954 he was appointed executive director of the Youth Division of Catholic Charities and procurator of St. Joseph's Seminary.