Bishop John Ward has been a bishop for 45 years

The December 19 issue of The Tidings has a nice article (click on this post's title) about our Bishop John Ward, 88, and the 45th anniversary of his ordination as a bishop.

Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, of happy memory, ordained then-Msgr. John Ward on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, in 1963.

Says The Tidings, Bishop Ward "was the last man in the last class ordained by Archbishop John J. Cantwell in 1946 in St. Vibiana's Cathedral (before the archbishop's death in 1947)."

The January 2005 issue of the Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission said this about Bishop Ward:

"When Bishop John Ward was pastor [at St. Timothy near Century City], every Sunday saw a Latin Novus Ordo. Although a Latin schola was hired twice a year or so, most of the time the chant was performed by the congregation, as envisioned by the liturgy decree of Vatican II. Parishioners sang from Jubilate Deo, the small manual of simple chants issued by Paul VI and intended by him for use in every Latin-rite parish throughout the world."

As I have mentioned in the past, Bishop Ward coined the term, "right to life movement."

Ad multos annos, Your Excellency!