| Styles of Gerald O'Hara |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | The Most Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Monsignor |
| Posthumous style | not applicable |
Gerald Patrick Aloysius O'Hara (May 4, 1895—July 16, 1963) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Savannah (1935-59), Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland (1951-54), and Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain (1954-63).
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Gerald O'Hara was born in the Green Ridge section of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Patrick James and Margaret (née Carney) O'Hara.[1] His father was a dentist.[2] He attended Our Mother of Sorrows School and St. Joseph's College High School, both in Philadelphia.[1] From 1911 to 1918, he studied at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook.[1] He then furthered his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Roman Seminary, from where he obtained a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1921.[1]
O'Hara was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Basilio Pompilj on April 3, 1920.[3] He earned a doctorate in canon and civil law from the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum S. Apollinare in 1924.[1] He spent several years studying abroad, traveling through Europe and the Middle East.[4] Following his return to Pennsylvania in 1926, O'Hara became private secretary to Cardinal Dennis Joseph Dougherty, the Archbishop of Philadelphia.[5] He also served as a judge on the archdiocesan matrimonial court.[5]
On April 26, 1929, O'Hara was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia and Titular Bishop of Heliopolis in Phoenicia by Pope Pius XI.[3] He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 21 from Cardinal Dougherty, with Bishops John Bernard MacGinley and Thomas Charles O'Reilly serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul.[3] In addition to his episcopal duties, he served as pastor of the Church of the Nativity and vicar general of the archdiocese.[5] He was also president of the American Catholic Historical Association from 1934 to 1936.[1]
On November 26, 1935, O'Hara was appointed the ninth Bishop of Savannah, Georgia, succeeding the retiring Bishop Michael Joseph Keyes.[3] During his tenure, he erected the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, which was dedicated by Cardinal Dougherty in January 1939.[6] The cathedral was built on the former site of Ku Klux Klan gatherings, and O'Hara even invited Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans to the dedication.[7] He once stormed at the office of a Savannah newspaper after the paper claimed that Saint Patrick once granted women the privilege to woo during Leap Year.[8] Known as a liberal who was a leader in church efforts to improve race relations,[9] he launched a seven-point social and racial program in the 1930s, calling for aid to African American children and heightened awareness of rural issues.[5]
In addition to his role as diocesan bishop, O'Hara was named regent of the Apostolic Nunciature to Romania, in Bucharest, on February 19, 1947.[3] His vicar general and chancellor assumed the active administration of the diocese.[6] During his time there, he became an outspoken opponent of the Communist regime.[5] However, in 1950, the Romanian government accused him of espionage and expelled them from the country.[10] Specifically, he was charged with supplying military, political, and economic information to Western legations; he denied the accusations, calling them "lies from first to last."[11] Returning to the United States, he accused the Romanians of terrorism, insisting, "Our interest was solely the welfare of 3,000,000 Catholic people in Romania."[2] On July 12, 1950, O'Hara was given the personal title of Archbishop by Pope Pius XII.[3] Shortly afterwards, he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland on November 27, 1951.[3] In 1953 Paul Blanshard, author of American Freedom and Catholic Power, unsuccessfully petitioned the U.S. Department of State to revoke O'Hara's citizenship because Blanshard believed that, as an American-born bishop with an American diocese working in Ireland, he was violating the McCarran Act by serving as an agent of a foreign power.[12]
On June 8, 1954, O'Hara was named Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain.[3] As Apostolic Delegate, his jurisdiction also included Malta, Gibraltar, and Bermuda.[11] Drained by his dual duties as papal diplomat and diocesan bishop, he resigned as Bishop of Savannah on November 12, 1959; he was named Titular Archbishop of Pessinus by Pope John XXIII on the same date.[3] In 1960 he became the first papal representative to visit the Houses of Parliament in more than 400 years.[5] O'Hara later died from a heart attack at his residence in Wimbledon section of London, aged 68.[9] His Requiem Mass was celebrated by Archbishop John Carmel Heenan at Westminster Cathedral.[5] His body was then flown back to Philadelphia, where he is buried in the crypt of the Cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul.[6]
| Preceded by Michael Joseph Keyes |
Bishop of Savannah 1935—1959 |
Succeeded by Thomas Joseph McDonough |
| Preceded by Ettore Felici |
Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland 1951—1954 |
Succeeded by Albert Levame |
| Preceded by William Godfrey |
Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain 1954—1963 |
Succeeded by Igino Eugenio Cardinale |