Philip J. Furlong (September 8, 1892 – April 13, 1989) was a

Catholic 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 ...

bishop, serving as Auxiliary Bishop of the United States Military Vicariate from 1956 to 1971.

Biography

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on September 8, 1892, Furlong attended Cathedral College and St. Joseph's Seminary in

Yonkers, NY Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enum ...

and was ordained a priest of the

Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York ( la, Archidiœcesis Neo-Eboracensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroug ...

on May 18, 1918. After receiving a doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University, in 1920 Furlong became a professor of history at Cathedral College and eventually dean and president from 1938 to 1941. At its completion in 1941 Furlong became the first principal of

Cardinal Hayes High School Cardinal Hayes High School is an American Catholic high school for boys in the Concourse Village neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City, New York. The school serves the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It is a member of the Catholic H ...

in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

until 1945 and served as secretary of education for the New York archdiocese. In 1950, he was named pastor of St. Thomas More in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, a post he held until retiring in 1969. Furlong was active in many educational and historical societies. Catholic elementary school students across the United States learned American history from his eight-volume textbook series, ''The Furlong History Series,'' written in the 1920s through 1940s. He was a national chaplain for the Girl Scouts from 1946 to 1955. Furlong was national Catholic chaplain of the Civil Air Patrol and a member of the Naval Aviation Cadet Selection Board from 1942 to 1945. He was also chaplain, with the rank of major, for the 8th Regiment of the New York National Guard from 1943 to 1948. With this experience, on December 3, 1955, Furlong was appointed Auxiliary Bishop to the US Military Vicariate, a responsibility at the time of the archbishop of New York. Cardinal

Francis Spellman Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary ...

, Archbishop of New York, consecrated Furlong bishop on January 25, 1956. At the death of Cardinal Spellman on December 2, 1967, Furlong served as administrator of the military vicariate until the appointment of Archbishop (later Cardinal)

Terence Cooke Terence James Cooke (March 1, 1921 – October 6, 1983) was an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of New York from 1968 until his death, quietly battling leukemia throughout his tenure. He was named a cardin ...

as new military vicar on April 4, 1968. Furlong retired from the Vicariate in 1971 at 78 and died April 13, 1989, in the rectory of St. Thomas More as Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus, at 96, the oldest Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

References

''New York Times'' obituary April 15, 1989

External links

Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA
official website

GCatholic.org. Retrieved 2010-08-20. {{DEFAULTSORT:Furlong, Philip Joseph Participants in the Second Vatican Council American chaplains United States Army chaplains American textbook writers American male non-fiction writers Saint Joseph's Seminary (Dunwoodie) alumni Fordham University alumni Writers from New York City 1892 births 1989 deaths

Chaplains A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States 20th-century American male writers

Biography

See also

References

External links