Episcopacy
On February 28, 1927, his forty-first birthday, Toolen was appointed the sixth Bishop of Mobile, Alabama, by Pope Pius XI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 4 from Archbishop Michael Joseph Curley, with Bishops Michael Joseph Keyes, S.M., and Richard Oliver Gerow serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Baltimore. Toolen arrived in the Diocese of Mobile, which then comprised the entire state of Alabama and the northwestern part of Florida, on the following May 18.
In connection with the centennial celebration of the diocese, he erected Allen Memorial Hospital in honor of his predecessor, Bishop Edward Patrick Allen, in December 1929. In 1941, Toolen prohibited Catholic parents who sent their children to public schools from receiving the sacraments. He explained, "The Catholic system of education has been the greatest boon this country has ever known. We are prepared to take care of our children from the first grade to the university...Catholic parents must send their children to the Catholic school. Parents who do not obey are rebellious and should be treated as such."
He was named an Assistant at the Pontifical Throne in October 1949. On May 27, 1954, the Diocese of Mobile was renamed the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham and Toolen was given the personal title of "Archbishop". Between 1962 and 1965, he attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council.
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