William Laurence Sullivan (November 15, 1872—October 5, 1935) was an American Unitarian clergyman, prolific author and literary critic, whose Letters to His Holiness, Pope Pius X (1910), was the last work by a U.S. author to have been placed on Vatican's list of prohibited books (Index Librorum Prohibitorum).
Early life and education
A native of East Braintree, Massachusetts, Sullivan was born only a year after his parents, Patrick and Joanna (Desmon) Sullivan, had emigrated from the Irish town of Bandon in County Cork. The family subsequently moved to Quincy, Massachusetts. His father died when William was fourteen. He chose the confirmation name "Laurence" in honor of Lawrence of Rome, deacon and martyr. Intent on becoming a priest, he studied, between 1892 and 1896, at Boston College and St. John's Seminary in the Brighton section of Boston, where he took the degree of Ph.B.
Career
Catholic priest
He joined the Paulist community at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and received degrees of S.T.B. and S.T.L. He was ordained a priest in 1899. From 1899 to 1901 Sullivan served as a Paulist mission-preacher in Tennessee but returned to Washington due to poor health. He was assigned to parish work, teaching and writing for the Catholic Word. For several years he was Professor of Sacred Scripture and Theology at St. Thomas's College. Also in 1917 he was the Dudleian lecturer at Harvard.