Walter Andrew Foery

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Styles of
Walter Foery
Reference styleThe Most Reverend
Spoken styleYour Excellency
Religious styleMonsignor
Posthumous stylenone

Walter Andrew Foery (July 6, 1890 – May 10, 1978) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Syracuse from 1937 to 1970.

Biography[edit]

Walter Foery was born in Rochester, New York, to William and Agnes (née O'Brien) Foery.[1] After attending St. Bridget's Grade School and St. Andrew's Preparatory Seminary, he studied at St. Bernard's Seminary.[2] He was ordained to the priesthood on June 10, 1916.[3] He then served as a curate (1916–1922) and afterwards pastor (1922–1932) of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Rochester.[2] He became diocesan director of Catholic Charities in 1930 and pastor of Holy Rosary Church in 1932.[2] He also served as vice-chairman of the Rochester Council of Social Agencies, and represented the National Catholic Welfare Council at the International Conference on Social Welfare in 1936.[1]

On May 26, 1937, Foery was appointed the fifth Bishop of Syracuse by Pope Pius XI.[3] He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 18 from Archbishop Edward Mooney, with Bishops Emmet M. Walsh and Francis Patrick Keough serving as co-consecrators.[3] At age 46, he was the youngest priest appointed to head the Syracuse diocese, and would become its longest-serving Ordinary to date.[4]

In 1945, Foery criticized as "unthinkable" the plan to leave out opening prayers at the San Francisco conference of the United Nations.[4] In 1959, he expressed "shock and deep regret" that the Syracuse Metropolitan Health Council had admitted Planned Parenthood.[4] He was named an Assistant at the Pontifical Throne on December 11, 1961.[2] He attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome between 1962 and 1965.[3] In 1967, he joined the other Catholic bishops in New York to call Catholics to fight with "all their power" against efforts to liberalize state abortion law.[4]

Foery retired as Bishop on August 4, 1970, after nearly thirty-three years of service.[3] On that same date, he was named Titular Bishop of Misenum, a post which he later resigned on the following December 31.[3] He died at the age of 87, and is buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in DeWitt.[4] Le Moyne College, a Jesuit college in Syracuse, houses an upperclassman dormitory -- Foery Hall—named after the former Bishop.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Most Rev. Walter Andrew Foery". Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse. Archived from the original on 2007-11-15. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  2. ^ a b c d Curtis, Georgina Pell (1961). The American Catholic Who's Who. Vol. XIV. Grosse Pointe, Michigan: Walter Romig.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Bishop Walter Andrew Foery". Catholic-Hierarchy.org.[self-published source]
  4. ^ a b c d e "BISHOP WALTER FOERY, 87, LED DIOCESE OF SYRACUSE". The New York Times. 1978-05-11.

External links[edit]

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Bishop of Syracuse
1937–1970
Succeeded by