He served for some time as assistant chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York, and was assigned as a curate at Cold Spring in 1929. He was pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Croton Falls from 1934 to 1940. At that time, he was the youngest pastor in the Archdiocese. In 1935, he declared that the statements and activities of Father Charles Coughlin in the "arena of politics" constituted "direct violations of existing canon law."
