Whealon previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland in Ohio from 1961 to 1966 and as bishop of the Diocese of Erie in Pennsylvania from 1966 to 1968.
John Whealon was born in Barberton, Ohio, to John Joseph and Mary Christina (née Zanders) Whealon.[1] He received his early education at St. Augustine School in Barberton from 1927 to 1934, and attended St. Charles College in Catonsville, Maryland, from 1934 to 1940.[1] Returning to Ohio, Whealon studied theology at St. Mary's Seminary in Cleveland from 1940 to 1945.[1]
Upon his return to Ohio, Whealon served as a curate at St. Dominic Parish in Shaker Heights and professor of Sacred Scripture at St. Mary's Seminary from 1946 to 1948.[1] He furthered his studies at the Pontifical Biblical InstituteinRome from 1948 to 1950.[1] He returned to Ohio and was named a curate at St. Aloysius Parish in Cleveland in 1950.[1]
Following the resignation of Archbishop John Mark Gannon, Whealon was named the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Erie by Pope Paul VI on December 9, 1966.[2]
On December 28, 1968, Whealon was appointed archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford by Paul VI following the resignation of Archbishop Henry O'Brien.[2] During his 23-year-long administration, Whealon established a program to train married men to be ordained as deacons, advocated the promotion of women within the structure of the Church, and developed a team ministry in which clerical and lay people administer a parish together.[3] In 1986, he appointed Sister Helen M. Feeney to be first woman chancellor of the archdiocese and only the fifth woman chancellor in the country.[4] Whealon also founded the radio station WJMJ in Hartford. He was active on ecumenical issues, and was chair of the Committee on Ecumenism of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and head of ChrisConn, the Christian conference of Connecticut.[3]
John Whealon died unexpectedly during a surgical procedure at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford on August 2, 1991. The archdiocese's annual fundraising golf tournament is named in his honor. Additionally, a Waterbury, Connecticut, council of the Knights of Columbus bears his name - the Archbishop John F. Whealon Council 10865.
In 2012, a Connecticut man sued the archdiocese, claiming that he had been sexually abused when an altar boy in the 1970's by Ivan Ferguson, an archdiocesan priest. The plaintiff accused Whealon of covering up Ferguson's criminal acts and allowing his transfers to other assignments. [5] In 2017 another man sued the archdiocese for negligence, claiming that Daniel McSheffery, an archdiocesan priest at St. George Parish in Guilford, Connecticut, sexually abused him over 250 times, starting at age nine. The plaintiff claimed that Whealon knew that McSheffery was a danger to children.[6]
Whealon left the Democratic Party in 1988 because of his opposition to abortion rights for women, declaring in his column in the weekly Catholic Transcript that he was "unable in conscience to remain a registered Democrat" because of the party's support of legal and government-financed abortions.[3] In 1974, he said that Catholic healthcare professionals who participated in abortions faced excommunication.[3] Whealon resigned from a local television station's program advisory committee because the station refused to cancel an episode of the comedy series Maude that dealt with abortion.[3]
Whealon described a State of Connecticut-sponsored advertising campaign that encouraged sexually active adults to use condoms to prevents HIV/AIDS as "a commendable effort but a serious mistake to present condoms as the answer to the threat."[3]
