William Theodore Heard

William Theodore Heard (24 February 1884 – 16 September 1973) was a Scottish cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.

Life He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the eldest son of Rev Dr William Augustus Heard (1847–1921), a housemaster of Fettes College, and his wife, Elizabeth Tamar Burt (who died when William Theodore was only four). They lived at Carrington House on Comely Bank, one of the school's boarding houses. He was educated at Fettes College, of which his father was by then headmaster, a role he held from 1887 until 1912. He then studied divinity at Balliol College, Oxford, where he also rowed. He was baptised conditionally and confirmed on 9 August 1910 by Father Stanislaus St John SJ in the Farm Street Church of The Immaculate Conception in Mayfair, central London. In 1913, he was accepted as a candidate for the priesthood by Bishop (later Archbishop) Peter Amigo of Southwark, having failed in his application to the Archdiocese of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh. He then studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy in 1915 and doctorates in both theology and canon law in 1921. He was ordained to the priesthood aged 34 years in the Lateran Basilica on 30 March 1918 by Basilio Pompili, Vicar General for Rome. He acted as…Citește mai mult