J. Carroll McCormick

Joseph Carroll McCormick (February 15, 1907 – November 2, 1996) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown (1960-1966) and bishop of Diocese of Scranton (1966-1983).

McCormick was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook and the Pontifical Roman Seminary in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood by his uncle,^[1] Cardinal Dennis Joseph Dougherty, on July 10, 1932.^[2] He served as vice-chancellor, and later chancellor (1936-1944), of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He became pastor of St. Stephen's Church in 1944.

On June 24, 1940, while serving as Chancellor, he offered the benediction at the closing of the second session of the 1940 Republican National Convention.^[3]

On January 11, 1947, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia and Titular Bishop of Ruspae by Pope Pius XII.^[2] He received his episcopal consecration on the following April 23 from Cardinal Dougherty, with Bishops Hugh L. Lamb and Eugene J. McGuinness serving as co-consecrators.^[2]

He was named Bishop of Altoona-Johnstown on June 25, 1960, and attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. He became Bishop of Scranton on March 4, 1966, and retired almost 17 years later on February 15, 1983.^[2]

He later died at age 89.

In a grand jury report published in August 2018 on sexual abuse in six dioceses in Pennsylvania, McCormick is mentioned as a bishop who, familiar with cases of rape and sexual abuse by priests, was involved in covering up these cases, instructed culprits to submit themselves for psychiatric study and helped them to continue their ministry in different parishes.^[4] Because of this, McCormick Hall at the University of Scranton was renamed MacKillop Hall, after Mary MacKillop, a nun-turned-saint who was briefly excommunicated for exposing a child-molesting priest in 1870.^[5] The J. Carroll McCormick Campus Ministry Center at King's College in nearby Wilkes-Barre was also renamed,^[6] as well as the Hafey-McCormick Science Building at Misericordia University.

References