Cardinal McIntyre, pray for us!
A week ago, July 16, was the 27th anniversary of the entrance into eternal life of the great James Francis Cardinal McIntyre (1886-1979), Archbishop of Los Angeles 1948-1970.
He was ordained a priest in 1921. Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York consecrated him a bishop on January 8, 1941. In March 1948 he was installed as Archbishop of Los Angeles, succeeding the late Archbishop John Joseph Cantwell. He was elevated to Cardinal in 1953.
Cardinal McIntyre was a leader of exceptional vision and foresight. As Los Angeles grew rapidly after World War II, he made sure the Archdiocese would grow with it and be able to serve the people, by finding and buying properties all over Southern California that one day would prove to be ideal sites for parishes, schools and other institutions in communities recently founded or even not yet founded.
Under Cardinal McIntyre, the Archdiocese flourished and the Church was strong. Seeds of trouble surfaced in the 1960s after Vatican II, when, among other things, some dissenters in the clergy and religious orders refused obedience to legitimate Catholic authority, including Pope Paul VI's profound and prophetic encyclical letter Humanae Vitae ("On Human Life"), July 25, 1968, which explained the beauty of married life and the evil of contraception.
Ever since those days, "liberals" have been unable to let go of the memory of Cardinal McIntyre. To this day, some of them still bring him up and revile him.
Obviously, not everything that every member of the hierarchy does can be perfect. But James Francis Cardinal McIntyre was a giant of the Faith, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will forever owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Cardinal McIntyre, pray for us!
He was ordained a priest in 1921. Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York consecrated him a bishop on January 8, 1941. In March 1948 he was installed as Archbishop of Los Angeles, succeeding the late Archbishop John Joseph Cantwell. He was elevated to Cardinal in 1953.
Cardinal McIntyre was a leader of exceptional vision and foresight. As Los Angeles grew rapidly after World War II, he made sure the Archdiocese would grow with it and be able to serve the people, by finding and buying properties all over Southern California that one day would prove to be ideal sites for parishes, schools and other institutions in communities recently founded or even not yet founded.
Under Cardinal McIntyre, the Archdiocese flourished and the Church was strong. Seeds of trouble surfaced in the 1960s after Vatican II, when, among other things, some dissenters in the clergy and religious orders refused obedience to legitimate Catholic authority, including Pope Paul VI's profound and prophetic encyclical letter Humanae Vitae ("On Human Life"), July 25, 1968, which explained the beauty of married life and the evil of contraception.
Ever since those days, "liberals" have been unable to let go of the memory of Cardinal McIntyre. To this day, some of them still bring him up and revile him.
Obviously, not everything that every member of the hierarchy does can be perfect. But James Francis Cardinal McIntyre was a giant of the Faith, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will forever owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Cardinal McIntyre, pray for us!
posted by Quintero at 10:47 PM
13 Comments:
Several years ago, Msgr. Weber wrote a wonderful two volume biography of Cardinal McIntyre. I have read it several times over. Will there be as many remarkable thinks to write about cardinal Hahoney after he is gone? I doubt it.
I remember, as a teen, going to confession to Cardinal James Francis McIntyre at St. Basil Church on Wilshire Boulevard where he lived in retirement. For all that he had achieved in the hierarchy of the Church, he remained a simple parish priest at heart. One of the most remarkable aspects of Cardinal McIntyre's life was the close friendship he enjoyed with Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement...maybe we should consider them our "patron saints" of the "right" and the "left" in the Church getting along!
Dear Anonymous 4:36 p.m.,
Thanks for mentioning Msgr. Weber's biography of Cardinal McIntyre! God bless --
Reverend and Dear Father G,
Thank you for telling us about your meeting Cardinal McIntyre in the Sacrament of Confession.
Your noting that Cardinal McIntyre was a parish priest at heart reminds me that Charles Coulombe has written that the Cardinal McIntyre used to make sick calls late at night, etc.
Bishop Vasa of Bend, Ore., says that the life of a priest is "the life of a man-for-others." Cardinal McIntyre was that. I am sure you are, too, and on behalf of our commenters and visitors I extend our thanks and prayers. God bless --
Reverend and Dear Father G,
Thank you for telling about Cardinal McIntyre and Dorothy Day being friends. Wish that would help "lefties" see that they should abandon their stereotypes about "conservatives."
Re: "Ever since those days, "liberals" have been unable to let go of the memory of Cardinal McIntyre. To this day, some of them still bring him up and revile him." The same could be said about another Catholic, the Late Senator Joseph McCarthy!
Kenneth M. Fisher
One more thing about Dorothy Day and Cardinal McIntyre:
Day kept a framed portrait of the Cardinal on her desk. It was signed "To my good friend, Dorothy Day."
The late Miss Day was far more traditional in her piety than the leftists who claim to emulate her ever acknowledge.
Dear Kenneth,
Very true. By the way, one thing about Bobby and Ethel Kennedy: When the political establishment turned its back on Joe McCarthy, Bobby and Ethel did not; they remained friends with him.
Dear Dale,
Thank you very much for this useful info.!
Yes, the lefties distort virtually everything they talk about.
Ha Ha Ha, the lefties distort everything they talk about...etc...etc....similar to Schumer inciting violence? F'ing pathetic.
Dear Everyone,
Anonymous 2:42 p.m., using obscenity, calls it "pathetic" to say the obvious: That Sen. Chuckie Schumer was inciting violence against us pro-lifers with his inflammatory and blatantly false claim that America's founders took up muskets against people like us.
But if a conservative Senator, not Schumer, had been the one saying that, and about lefties, we can be sure that the lefties would make a federal case out of it and the newspapers and TV would blare about it for days on end.
I used to be his altar boy at St Basil’s when after he retired. The Cardinal was a very spiritual man. I did not know anything about his politics but I can tell you he was a deeply spiritual person and I miss him. In fact I don’t see much of that any more in the church. All the talk of his politics seems to over look just what a deeply spiritual man he was. This is the cardinal I knew and admired. I miss him even now after all these years. What I would not give to serve his private mass again.
Dear Anonymous 9:05 p.m.,
Thank you so much for relating your happy memories of Cardinal McIntyre.
"A deeply spiritual man" he was indeed, as you and so many others testify. God bless him.
And God bless you.
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