Name Clarence Issenmann Posthumous style none | Religious style Monsignor Spoken style Your Excellency Died July 27, 1982 | |
Education University of Fribourg, Regis University | ||
Reference style The Most Reverend | ||
Clarence George Issenmann (May 30, 1907 – July 27, 1982) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Cleveland from 1966 to 1974.
Biography
Clarence Issenmann was born in Hamilton, Ohio, as the only child of Innocent J. (a grocer) and Amelia L. (née Stricker) Issenmann. He worked as delivery boy and meat cutter for his father as young man, and attended St. Ann's School, Hamilton Catholic High School, St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, and then returned to Ohio to study at St. Gregory's and Mt. St. Mary of the West seminaries in Cincinnati.
Issenmann was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John McNicholas on June 29, 1932, and then continued his studies at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, from where he obtained his licentiate in philosophy, and at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, earning a doctorate in theology. Upon his return to the United States, he earned his doctorate in journalism from Regis University in Denver, Colorado, and became editor of the archdiocesan newspaper of Cincinnati, the Catholic Telegraph Register, in 1938. He did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, of which he was chancellor and vicar general as well, and was raised to the rank of Monsignor in 1943.
On March 24, 1954, Issenmann was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cincinnati and Titular Bishop of Phytea by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 25 from Archbishop Karl Alter, with Archbishop Urban Vehr and Bishop George Rehring serving as co-consecrators. Issenmann was later named the sixth Bishop of Columbus on December 5, 1957.
During his tenure in Columbus, he established the Diocesan Development Fund so as to supply for the expansion of the diocese, which added eight parishes and six high schools under Bishop Issenmann. He also found a new building to house diocesan offices, and offered a televised Mass every week. Attending the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, he also served as the assistant episcopal chairman of lay organizations for the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the predecessor of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Pope Paul VI appointed Issenmann Coadjutor Bishop of Cleveland and Titular Bishop of Filaca on October 7, 1964. Departing from Columbus on February 1, 1965, he was formally installed in his new post the next day, on February 2, at St. John's Cathedral. Issenmann succeeded the late Edward Hoban as the seventh Bishop of Cleveland on September 22, 1966. He resigned as Bishop on June 5, 1974, after seven years of service, yet continued to live in Cleveland.
Issenmann later died at the age of 75, and was buried at the Resurrection Chapel in St. John's Cathedral.