William
Wakefield Baum (November
21, 1926 – July 23, 2015) was an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau (1970–1973)
and Archbishop
of Washington (1973–1980) before serving in the Roman Curia as Prefect of
the Congregation for Catholic Education (1980–1990) and Major Penitentiary (1990–2001). He
was elevated to the College of Cardinals in
1976. At the time of his 1980 appointment as Prefect of the Congregation for
Catholic Education, he was the highest-ranking American ever in the Church.
Cardinal Baum was the longest-serving American cardinal in history. William
Wakefield White was born in Dallas, Texas, to Harold E. and Mary Leona (née
Hayes) White. His father, a Presbyterian, died when William was a young child, and he and
his mother moved to Kansas City, Missouri. His mother married Jerome Charles Baum, a Jewish businessman,
who adopted William and gave him his last name; Jerome Baum died when William
was 12. He received his early education at the parochial school of St. Peter's Church,
and began to serve as an altar boy at age 10. He entered St. John's Minor
Seminary in 1940, and then studied philosophy at Cardinal Glennon College in St. Louis. In 1947, he
entered Kenrick Seminary, also in
St. Louis, for his theological studies. Baum was ordained to the priesthood by
Archbishop Edwin V. O'Hara on
May 12, 1951. His first assignment was as assistant pastor of St. Aloysius Church in Kansas City. He taught
theology and Church history at St. Theresa College from 1954 to 1956, as well as at St.
Aloysius Academy and Glennon High School. He then studied at the Pontifical
University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome,
where he earned a Doctorate of Sacred
Theology degree in 1958. His thesis was entitled: "The
Teaching of Cardinal Cajetan on
the Sacrifice of the Mass". Returning
to Kansas City, Baum resumed his teaching duties at St. Theresa College
(1958–63) and served as secretary of the Diocesan Tribunal. He also did pastoral
work at St.
Theresa's Church and St. Peter's Church, both in Kansas City. In
1960, he became pastor of St. Cyril's Church in Sugar Creek. He
published "Considerations Toward the Theology of the Presbyterate" in 1961. He was named a papal chamberlain by Pope John XXIII in April 1961, and vice-chancellor of
the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in 1962 From 1962 to 1965, Baum served as a peritus, or theological expert, to Bishop Charles Helmsing at
the Second Vatican Council. In
that capacity, he worked with the Secretariat for Christian Unity and helped draft Unitatis Redintegratio,
the Council's decree on ecumenism. In 1964, he was named the first
executive director of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for
the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops, a post which he held for five years.
He also served as a member of the Joint Working Group of representatives of the Catholic
Church and World Council of Churches (1965–69)
and of the Mixed Committee of representatives of the Catholic Church and
the Lutheran World Federation (1965–66).
In 1967, Baum returned to Kansas City, where he served as chancellor of the
diocese and pastor of St. James
Church. He was named a domestic prelate in 1968. On February 18, 1970, Baum was
appointed the third Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following April 6 from Cardinal John Carberry, with Bishops Charles Helmsing and Joseph Sullivan serving
as co-consecrators. He selected as his episcopal motto: "Ministry
of Reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18). He served as an American
delegate to the World Synod of Bishops at the Vatican in 1971, and was chairman
of the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (1972–75). In
1973, three years after his consecration as bishop, Paul VI elevated him
to Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and in the consistory of 1976 Baum was named Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Via
Flaminia. He participated in the two conclaves of 1978. Under Pope John Paul II, in 1980 he was named to the Roman Curia as Prefect of the Congregation
for Catholic Education, succeeding the French Cardinal Gabriel-Marie Garrone. The
Italian Cardinal Pio Laghi succeeded him in that
position. In 1990 he became the Church's Major Penitentiary,
succeeding the Italian Cardinal Luigi Dadaglio, exchanging the responsibility of overseeing
the Catholic Church's educational policy and structure, parochial schools, Catholic colleges and universities, Newman Centers, and seminaries worldwide, for that of supervising one of the
three final appellate tribunals of the Church (the other two are the Roman Rota, which among other matters deals with marriage
cases, and the Supreme
Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, which is the church's supreme
court, which mainly resolves technicalities or procedural disagreements, for
all cases the Pope does not hear). Cardinal Baum's position as Major
Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary involved mostly dealing with the
regulation of indulgences and matters of conscience
(the internal forum) especially the forgiveness of sins in
the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. He was succeeded as Major Penitentiary by
Cardinal Luigi De Magistris,
who in turn was replaced by another American, James Francis Stafford,
who had been Archbishop of Denver. Baum was one of the cardinal
electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that
elected Pope Benedict XVI. Along
with Benedict (then Cardinal Ratzinger) and Cardinal Jaime Sin, Baum was one of three remaining cardinals elevated
by Paul VI to retain voting rights in that conclave. Cardinal Baum was the
senior Cardinal Priest to
participate in the 2005 papal conclave.