William Henry O'Connell - Legacy

Legacy

His 36-year-long tenure was the longest in the history of the Archdiocese of Boston. He was the second-to-last surviving cardinal of Pope St. Pius X behind Gennaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte, and remains at present the third-longest serving American cardinal behind James Gibbons and William Wakefield Baum. In his book, Boston Catholics - A History of the Church and Its People, Thomas O'Connor, university historian at Boston College, O'Connell's alma mater, notes that during O'Connell's tenure as head of the Archdiocese of Boston, the number of women in religious life increased from 1567 to 5459; the number of parishes increased from 194 to 322; the number of churches increased from 248 to 375; the number of diocesan priests increased from 488 to 947; the archdiocese was operating 3 Catholic hospitals. At page 208 of Boston Catholics, O'Connor writes: "It was under O'Connell's influence too, that the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Boston assumed a conceptual solidarity and impressive visibility that it had never seen before and would never see again."

One of O'Connell's grandnephews, Paul G. Kirk, served briefly as U.S. Senator in 2009.