John Krol

On July 11, 1953, Krol was appointed auxiliary bishop of Cleveland and titular bishop of Cardi by Pope Pius XII.[7] He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 2 from Archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, with Archbishop Edward Francis Hoban and Bishop Floyd Lawrence Begin serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.[7] In addition to his episcopal duties, he was named vicar general of the Diocese of Cleveland in 1954.[8]

Following the death of Cardinal John Francis O'Hara, Krol was appointed the sixth Archbishop of Philadelphia by Pope John XXIII on February 11, 1961.[7] His installation took place at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul on March 22 of that year.[9] He was the first Polish American to become an archbishop, and, at age 50, was the youngest Catholic archbishop in the country at the time.[3] In his first sermon as archbishop, Krol spoke of the need for civic dedication and virtue, saying, "I am conscious, too, of our beloved country, the bold idealism that inspired it, the courage that gave it birth. May God grant that our prayers, the moral integrity of our lives, the clarity of our teaching, and the sincerity of our patriotism help increase the spiritual resources without which no nation can survive."[9]

Krol attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965.[8] During the Council, he served as one of six permanent undersecretaries, with responsibility for keeping a record of votes and distributing, collecting and tabulating ballots.[1] He also served as a member of the central coordinating committee.[1] Like Pope Paul VI, he was more liberal in social principles but sternly conservative in those of doctrine and church government. He condemned arms races and abortion, but supported clerical celibacy and disarmament.[10]

He was created Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria della Mercede e Sant'Adriano a Villa Albani by Paul VI on June 26, 1967, during the same consistory that elevated Archbishop Karol Wojtyła of Kraków, Poland. Both were cardinal electors in the conclaves of August and October 1978. Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II in the latter conclave, and Krol served as one of his closest advisors.

After the first meeting between Church and Freemasonry which had been held on 11 April 1969 at the convent of the Divine Master in Ariccia, he was the protagonist of a series of public handshakes between high prelates of the Roman Catholic Church and the heads of Freemasonry.[11]

During the 1960s and 1970s, Krol governed the Archdiocese of Philadelphia through an era where the population shifted to the suburbs. Krol campaigned for the canonization of Katharine Drexel, and was present at the canonization of his Czech-born predecessor in Philadelphia, Bishop John Neumann. He made a celebrated pilgrimage to Poland in 1972,[12] and served as President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops from 1971 to 1974. On April 5, 1970, he led prayer services at the White House for President Richard Nixon and the Johnson and Bush families; in addition to Nixon the former President Lyndon B. Johnson and the future Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush were in attendance.[13] In 1985, Krol baptized Polish United Workers' Party defector Romuald Spasowski.

In 1973, he called the Supreme Court's decisions overturning state laws banning abortion "an unspeakable tragedy for this nation" that "sets in motion developments which are terrifying to contemplate." In 1974, Krol testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the Human Life Amendment proposed by New York Senator James L. Buckley. While mostly in favor, Krol argued that the amendment should drop the exception for when the mother's life was in danger, so that should abortion be banned under all circumstances.[21][22] Krol in his statement said of Roe v. Wade:

Every week, since the Supreme Court's decisions of January 22, 1973, there have been as many deaths from abortion as there were deaths at Nagasaki as a result of the atomic bomb. Every nine days there are as many deaths from abortion as there were American deaths in the 10 years of the Vietnam war."[23]

He opposed looser regulations governing marriages between Catholics and non-Catholics.

He referred to the Catholic Church's condemnation of contraception, reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI in 1968, as "divine law."

In 1979, his Congressional testimony backing talks on limiting strategic arms foreshadowed an appeal in a pastoral letter by American bishops for nuclear disarmament in 1983. At the high tide of the nuclear freeze movement in 1982, Cardinal Krol told 15,000 demonstrators at a Philadelphia rally that it was time for governments "to dismantle existing nuclear weapons." He later acknowledged that his belief in gradual and reciprocal disarmament, with strong safeguards against cheating, was probably not shared by all the demonstrators.

After the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, he soon joined those alarmed by the pressures for change that the Council produced. He opposed many of the small accommodations or options in church discipline that gained favor after Vatican II, including looser regulations governing marriages between Catholics and non-Catholics, the reception of Communion in the hand, and attending Mass on Saturday evening instead of Sunday.

In 1984, Cardinal Krol appeared with President Ronald Reagan at a campaign rally at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa shrine in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, praising Mr. Reagan for trying to win tax credits for parents of children in religious schools. In the same year, the Cardinal delivered an invocation at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas.