Episcopacy
On August 16, 1940, Hurley was appointed the sixth Bishop of St. Augustine, Florida, by Pope Pius XII. It was believed by some that his appointment was made in order for him to remain in contact with the ailing Myron Charles Taylor, the American emissary to the Vatican. Others believed the appointment was a punishment; Hurley had become a critic of the wartime policy of the Vatican, believing Pope Pius XII was overly fearful about communism and not fearful enough about Nazism. He received his episcopal consecration on the following October 6 from Cardinal Luigi Maglione, with Archbishops Celso Costantini and Clemente Micara serving as co-consecrators, at the chapel of the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. Returning to the United States, he was installed as Bishop of St. Augustine on November 26 of that year.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hurley was considered the most outspoken interventionist among the American Catholic bishops. He made enemies among isolationist Catholic clergy and laity by labeling the Nazi Party "public enemy No. 1" of the United States and the Catholic Church. He declared, "The foe of all we love, both as Americans and as Catholics, is the Nazi. Communism is still our enemy but...in point of urgency if not in point of teaching, communism has now ceded its primacy to national socialism." In an editorial in his diocesan newspaper in 1943, he became the only Catholic bishop to issue a clarion call to Catholics to speak out against the extermination of the Jews taking place in the Nazi concentration camps, claiming that "the very basis of the Roman Catholic faith" compelled Catholics to challenge the "orgies of extermination" being perpetrated against the Jews.
During World War II, Hurley aligned himself with the U.S. Department of State and began to act under the direction of government officials. His efforts were largely composed of black propaganda, the use of false source attributions. In a radio address in July 1941, he expressed his belief that President Franklin D. Roosevelt alone should decide upon U.S. entry into the war, saying, "It is up to him to safeguard the interests of the nation in times of great emergency...The problem should be left to the Commander-in-Chief, who alone...is capable of bringing us safely through." These remark drew sharp criticism from Archbishop Francis Beckman, who subsequently denounced the "dictatorship pseudo-officially canonized by a brother cleric." Hurley described the Allied bombing of Rome as a "tragically mistaken decision," and predicted that "much of our national unity, much of the respect we enjoy abroad now lie, with San Lorenzo, in ruins." He also opposed the idea that the United States should ally with Germany to oppose the Soviet Union.
In 1945, in addition to his role as Bishop of St. Augustine, Hurley made a return to the papal diplomatic service and was appointed by Pius XII as regent ad interim to Yugoslavia. He thus became the first American to be raised to the equivalent rank of a nuncio. Relations between the Vatican and Yugoslavia had been deteriorating following the end of the war; the new communist government had been accused of murdering priests and the Church was charged with "obstructionist" activity. During his five years in Yugoslavia, Hurley negotiated with Marshal Josip Broz Tito and worked closely with U.S. officials. In 1946, he represented Pius XII at the show trial of Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac by Marshal Tito for "crimes against the people." However, his relationship with Pius became strained after Hurley expressed his opposition to both the Vatican's policy towards Marshal Tito and to the removal of Archbishop Stepinac from his post in Croatia.
In 1949, Hurley was relieved of his diplomatic post in Yugoslavia, and was given the personal title of Archbishop on August 14 of that year. Between 1962 to 1965, he attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council.
Hurley became ill while attending the Synod of Bishops in Rome, and returned to Florida for treatment. He later died at Mercy Medical Center in Orlando, at age 73.
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