Curley, Archbishop Michael J. (1879 – 1947)
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First archbishop of Washington, DC; tenth archbishop of Baltimore.
SIG – Vintage signature on a small strip of paper (sufficient room for matting). Accompanied by an original, vintage, news wire black and white photograph of the archbishop.
Curley was appointed 10th archbishop of Baltimore in August, 1921. His arrival was described as one of the greatest welcomes ever tendered a new citizen in Baltimore. During his tenure in Baltimore, Curley distinguished himself as an advocate for education. He established 66 schools in 18 years, placing the importance of constructing schools over churches. In 1926, he declared I defy any system of grammar school education in the United States to prove itself superior to the system that is being maintained in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Outspoken on political and social matters, Curley was a strong opponent of the foreign policy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, anticlerical governments of Mexico and Spain, American film industry, and establishment of Newman Centers at secular universities (which he felt undermined Catholic schools). In 1936, he called upon fellow bishops to conduct a study of the influences of Communism in the US. He once engaged in a public feud with The Baltimore Sun when one of its reporters compared Adolf Hitler to St. Ignatius of Loyola. Although his predecessor, the legendary James Gibbons, was a cardinal, Curley never received the same distinction.