Patrick Joseph Hayes

Patrick Joseph Hayes (November 20, 1867 – September 4, 1938) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1919 until his death. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1924.

Early life and education Patrick Hayes was born in the Five Points section of Manhattan to Daniel Hayes and Mary Gleason. In his own words, Hayes "was born very humble and, I may say, of poor people." A younger brother, John, was born in 1870. Hayes' mother died in June 1872, and his father later remarried around 1876; a half-sister, Anastasia, was also born that year. He received his episcopal consecration on the following October 28 from Cardinal Farley, with Bishops Henry Gabriels and Thomas Cusack serving as co-consecrators, at St. Patrick's Cathedral. He founded the archdiocesan Catholic Charities in 1920, and subsequently became known as "the Cardinal of Charities." He had the first convention of the American Birth Control League raided, and later called its members "prophets of decadence". He welcomed the election of Éamon de Valera as President of the Irish Republic and contributed $1,000 to Sinn Féin.

The cardinal opposed Prohibition, backed legislation to limit indecency on the stage, and endorsed unemployment relief during the Great Depression. Commenting on the Depression in 1931, he stated, "The American people are experiencing a return to religion following a period of carelessness and cynicism marked by the prosperity of the land...Now they are returning when they find they are in need of something greater than the material in facing adversity and stress."

After the Rev. Charles Coughlin praised the former Mayor Jimmy Walker in New York, Hayes, who had earlier denounced Walker for his perceived lack of morality, ruled that no ecclesiastical visitor might address a religious gathering without the cardinal's permission.

On June 24, 1924, he offered the invocation at the opening of the 1924 Democratic National Convention. He used his Tammany Hall connections to line up Democratic support in Congress for legislation protecting Catholic schools in the Philippines in 1932. During the Spanish Civil War, Hayes was outspoken in his support for the fascist-nationalist forces of General Franco, "claiming that 'Loyalists are controlled by radicals and communists'."

Hayes had a summer house in the Catskill Mountains, near St. Joseph's camp, maintained by the Amityville Dominican nuns; he once encountered a group of Klansmen there.

Cardinal Hayes High School in The Bronx is named after him.

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