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Bishop James E. Kearney (right) meets with his predecessor in Rochester, Cardinal Edward Mooney,
on Nov. 4, 1957.
Fulton J. Sheen, sixth Bishop of Rochester
After Vatican II concluded in 1965, Bishop Kearney worked to implement the council’s changes. One of those changes came about on Aug. 8, 1966, when Pope Paul VI issued a decree implementing the council’s requirement that bishops who headed dioceses should voluntarily offer their resignations to the pope upon their 75th birthdays. The pope could then accept or reject the resignations.
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen smiles at the crowd on Dec. 15, 1966, the day of his installation
as Rochester’s sixth bishop.
Bishop Kearney was 81 in 1966, so he sent his letter of resignation to the pope, who accepted it. He ceased to be bishop of Rochester when Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, auxiliary bishop of New York, was named as his successor on Oct. 26, 1966. Bishop Kearney was appointed titular bishop of Tabaicara (an ancient see in modern Algeria) in 1966 and died in Rochester on Jan. 12, 1977.
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