Francis James Harrison
Francis James Harrison was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of Syracuse in New York State from 1977 to 1987.
Biography
Early life
One of six children, Francis Harrison was born in Syracuse, New York, to Francis and Mary Harrison. He graduated in 1929 from St. Lucy Academy in Syracuse, where he was elected class president and later named valedictorian. Harrison then attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he played varsity baseball, Deciding to become a priest, he entered St. Bernard's Seminary in Rochester, New York, in 1931.Priesthood
Harrison was ordained to the priesthood on June 4, 1937, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Rochester for the Diocese of Syracuse by Cardinal Edward Aloysius Mooney. After his ordination, the diocese assigned Harrison as a curate at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Utica, New York, St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Binghamton, New York, and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Syracuse. He also served as assistant director of Utica Catholic Charities. The diocese appointed Harrison as the founding pastor of St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Syracuse; then transferred him to St. Patrick Parish in Binghamton and later St. James Parish in Syracuse.Auxiliary Bishop of Syracuse
On March 1, 1971, Harrison was appointed auxiliary bishop of Syracuse and titular bishop of Aquae in Numidia by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on April 22, 1971, from Bishop David Frederick Cunningham, with Bishops Stanislaus Joseph Brzana and Joseph Lloyd Hogan serving as co-consecrators.Bishop of Syracuse
Following Cunningham's resignation, Paul VI named Harrison as the seventh bishop of Syracuse on November 9, 1976. Harrison was installed at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on February 6, 1977. He was the first Syracuse native to head the diocese.Harrison practiced a collegial manner of governing, and worked to include laity and especially women in the diocesan affairs. He launched diocesan programs for African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and the disabled. He once played golf with the comedian Bob Hope, who later recorded a radio ad for the diocese's first HOPE Appeal, an annual fundraiser Harrison started in 1978.
In 1980, Harrison called for the United States to cease its military aid to El Salvador following the rape and murder of four American missionaries by the national guard of that nation. He declared, "As Christians and as Americans, we cannot condone our resources and our tax dollars being used to help any foreign government repress its own people so brutally." He later expressed his opposition to American military aid for the Contra rebels who found against the Government of Nicaragua during the 1980s.