Daniel Anthony Cronin (born November 14, 1927) is an American

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He served as bishop of the

Diocese of Fall River The Diocese of Fall River ( la, Dioecesis Riverormensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church spanning Barnstable County, Bristol County, Dukes County, Nantucket County, and the towns of Marion, Mattapoise ...

in Massachusetts from 1970 to 1992, and as archbishop of the

Archdiocese of Hartford The Archdiocese of Hartford is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties in the U.S. State of Connecticut. The archdiocese includes about 470,000 Catholics, more ...

in Connecticut from 1992 to 2003.

Biography

Early life

Daniel Cronin was born in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

eldest son of Daniel G. and Emily (Joyce) Cronin. He and attended St. Peter School in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and graduated from

Boston College High School , motto_translation = ''So they may know You.'' , address = 150 Morrissey Boulevard , city = Boston , state = Massachusetts , zipcode = 02125 , country ...

in 1945. He studied at St. John's Seminary in Boston from 1945 to 1949, and then furthered his studied at the

Pontifical North American College The Pontifical North American College (NAC) is a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic educational institution in Rome, Italy, that prepares seminarians to become priests in the United States and elsewhere. The NAC also provides a residence for Pri ...

in Rome.

Priesthood

Cronin was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

to the priesthood in Rome by Cardinal Clemente Micara on December 20, 1952. He then earned a

Licentiate of Sacred Theology Licentiate in Sacred Theology ( la, Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus; abbreviated STL) is the second of three ecclesiastical degrees in theology (the first being the Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology and the third being the Doctorate in Sacred Theol ...

(1953) and

Doctorate of Sacred Theology The Doctor of Sacred Theology ( la, Sacrae Theologiae Doctor, abbreviated STD), also sometimes known as Professor of Sacred Theology (, abbreviated STP), is the final theological degree in the pontifical university system of the Roman Catholic ...

(1956) from the

Pontifical Gregorian University The Pontifical Gregorian University ( it, Pontificia Università Gregoriana; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana,) is a higher education ecclesiastical school ( pontifical university) located in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as ...

. Cronin did

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

work in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

, Lynn, and Waltham, all in Massachusetts before becoming an attaché of the Apostolic Internunciature to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

in 1957. He was made an attaché of the Vatican Secretariat of State in 1961, and a papal chamberlain in 1962.

Auxiliary Bishop of Boston

On June 10, 1968, Cronin was appointed as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston and

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Egnatia by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

. He received his episcopal consecration on September 12, 1968, from Cardinal Richard Cushing, with Bishops Jeremiah Minihan and Thomas Riley serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. Cronin selected as his episcopal

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

: ''"Ad Oboediendum Fidei"'', meaning, ''"For Obedience of Faith"'' from Romans 1:5. As an auxiliary bishop, he also served as pastor of St. Raphael Church in

Medford, Massachusetts Medford is a city northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus alo ...

Bishop of Fall River

Cronin was later named the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Fall River on October 30, 1970. He succeeded Bishop James Connolly. Cronin was installed at St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in Fall River on December 16, 1970. In 1975, he publicly denounced U.S. Senator

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

( D- MA) when Kennedy declared that he would not vote to outlaw

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

, although saying that he did not personally support it.

Archbishop of Hartford

On December 10, 1991, Cronin was appointed the third archbishop of the Archdioces of Hartford by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

. He succeeded Archbishop

John Whealon John Francis Whealon (January 15, 1921 – August 2, 1991) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford in Connecticut from 1968 to 1991. Whealon previously served as an auxiliar ...

. Cronin was installed at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford on January 28, 1992. He received the

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolit ...

, a vestment worn by

metropolitan bishop In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis. Originally, the term referred to the b ...

s, from John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica on June 29, 1991.

Retirement

Upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, Cronin retired as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford on October 20, 2003.

Views

Considered theologically conservative, Cronin once stated "The dominion of human life is in the hands of God. The gift of life starts from the time of conception and ends at the time of natural death."

References

External links

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of HartfordRoman Catholic Diocese of Fall River

Episcopal succession

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cronin, Daniel Anthony 1927 births Living people Saint John's Seminary (Massachusetts) alumni Pontifical Gregorian University alumni People from Newton, Massachusetts Roman Catholic bishops of Hartford Roman Catholic bishops of Fall River 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States Boston College High School alumni American expatriates in Italy 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States American Roman Catholic archbishops