WEBER [minus x]

1760-2000

1870-2040

Joseph Ratzinger Benedict XVI   1927

Karol Jozef Wojtyia 1920-2005

Michel Foucault   1926-1984

Jacques Derida 1930-2004

Karl Barth 1886-1968

JRR Tolkien 1892-1973

CS Lewis 1898-1963

Thomas Merton

Dorothy Day

1. MORENO, OFM, (1785-1846) [bp. 1840; d. 1846]

BORN in Mexico in 1785 and regarded throughout his life as a patriot and ardent supporter of Mexican independence from Spain, Fr. Garcia Diego y Moreno joined and taught in the the Zacatecan College of Franciscans. This branch of the Franciscans was entrusted with replacing the Spanish friars in the California Missions with Mexican Franciscans in 1832.

He was made bishop in 1840 with his episcopal seat at Mission San Diego.  He moved his residence to Mission Santa Barbara and established a short-lived seminary at Mission Santa Inés.  Previously-available Mission funds (the Pious Fund) were confiscated by President Santa Ana, and all his efforts during his brief, six-year episcopate were hindered by grinding poverty.  In 1845, Governor Pio Pico notified him that the missions, most of which were deteriorating or ruined, would be sold to defray the expenses of war with the United States.  He died in 1846 and is buried at Mission Santa Barbara.

2. RUBIO, O.F.M (1804-75). Apostolic Administrator 1846-1850]

IT It had been the late bishop’s wish that Fray Durán and Fray José Maria González Rúbiο jointly govern the vacant jurisdiction until word arrived from the Holy Father about a successor. Durán found himself unequal to the task and gradually confided the active duties of the office to the younger Gonzalez ^{Rúbiο.  During his period as Apostolic Administrator the Mexican American War was concluded, California was ceded to the United States, gold was discovered, California was admitted to the Union,  and the Missions of San Jose, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and San Juan Bautista were returned to the Church by the American government.}

From the Rancho Period to the Gold Rush

IN the late 1840s, the ex-Mission Indians of west-central California were beginning to rebound from the demographic disaster caused by the disease-ridden mission system. Although they occupied a low rung in the Rancho Period caste system (tribal Indians were seen as a still lower class or caste), their recognized skills made them an integral part of rancho society. Little changed in the first two years of United States occupation, 1846-1847. But news of the gold discovery of early 1848 led to the world-wide migration to California in 1849-1850. By 1850 California’s population was well over 100,000. By 1852 it was over 200,000. California became a state in 1850, part of a United States that was arguing about the future of slavery, but which had no doubts about the manifest destiny of white America.

 [... THE ] new, highly racialized social structure of 1850s California can be contrasted with the earlier Mexican/Californio society. Indians in the 1840s, although they were peons and treated as inferiors and subordinates, were also accepted as a part of the community. They were members of the Catholic Church and were in relationships of reciprocity with those who ruled. The dominant socioeconomic system of the 1840s Rancho Era can be called a “padrone” system, characterized by reciprocal obligations and relationships between padrone and peon within a very unequal but unitary community. In exchange for the peon’s labor, the padrone made sure each peon and his family had the minimum essentials of life. In the Mexican California of the 1830s and 1840s, color and genetic background played a subtle role, but all members of the community recognized mutual dependence within a single class structure. Race was not the central factor in people’s very survival that it was soon to become.

 Ohlone/Costanoan Indians of the San Francisco Peninsula and their Neighbors, Yesterday and Today, Appendix D. Race, Class, and Violence in the Early American Period (By Laurence H. Shoup), pp. 299-300

 GGNRA FINAL Publication.doc

 https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/Appendices-D-E-F.pdf

3.  ALEMANY (1814-1888) [1st Bp. Monterey 1850-1853] 1st Bp. San Francisco [1853-1884]

BORN in Spain in 1814, Joseph Sadoc Alemany y Conill joined the Domincans and was sent to Rome where he studied and taught in the college that would become the Angelicum.  Sent to the United States (Tenesee) in  1841 he served as Dominican Provincial from 1847 and became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He unsuccessfully attempted to refuse appointment as Bishop of Monterey in 1850. With the division if the diocese in 1853 he served as Archbishop of San Francisco from 1853 until his death in 1884.

4.  AMAT y Brusi C.M.(1810-1878) 2nd bp. of Monterey 1853; ] 1859 1st Bp. of renamed diocese of  Monterey-Los Angeles]

BORN in Spain in 1811, Fr. Amat joined the Vincentians and was sent to the United States in 1838 as a missionary in Louisiana. He served as a master of novices for his congregation in Missouri and Pennsylvania and in 1853, while serving as the Rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, he was appointed the Bishop of Monterey in California. The previous bishop, Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O.P., had been promoted to archbishop of the newly created Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Bishop Amat founded induced his fellow Vincentians to open St. Vincent's College which was later run by the Jesuits as Loyola Marymount University. It was the first institution of higher learning in Southern California. He welcomed the  the Daughters of Charity and the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the diocese.

He arranged for the transfer of the relics of Saint Vibiana to Monterey in 1854, and in the same year transferred the struggling seminary to Mission Santa Barbara, where he had been engaged in a rancorous dispute with the Franciscans concerning the deed to the mission.  In 1869 he blessed the cornerstone for the Cathedral of St. Vibiana in Los Angeles and left for the First Vatican Council where he eloquently urged prudence in defining the doctrine of Papal Infallibility as it was then expressed, and voted placet iuxta modum, a “conditional yes”.

BISHOP Amat had been one of 27 prelates who sent to the pope the following petition (January 15, 1870)

“Of more than 1,000 fathers in attendance at one time or another during the ecumenical council, the great majority were politically in the center or on the right. On the extreme right were the ultra-montanes, headed by Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, who it was said, “is more Catholic than Catholics.” This group was anxious to strengthen the central authority of the Church by a swift proclamation of papal infallibility. A minority of so-called liberals led by Felix Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, was hopeful that the Roman Curia would adapt itself to a more progressive policy in relation to the world around it. A middle position was taken by such prominent ecclesiastics as Archbishop Martin J. Spalding of Baltimore, who desired to see the doctrine defined but without the term “infallibility” which, he claimed, had unfavorable connotations among many non-Catholics, Bishop Amat’s position on the delicate question was much the same as Sρalding’s and was dictated by his ever present concern for the impact such a definition would have in his own diocese where a strong current of non-Catholic feeling existed even at this time.” (Weber, Century of Fulfillment, pp. 228-229)

Bishop Amat unsuccessfully sought to block the definition of papal infallibility by claiming that it was already implicit in the earlier, approved texts:

“The definition,” he concluded, “seems to follow plainly from the text adduced in the schema... This inerrancy ought necessarily to inhere in the primacy of the Roman Pontiff in order to continually preserve unity in the Church. It lays down a doctrine that all the theologians from St. Alphonsus Liguori teach in common.” (Weber, Century of Fulfillment, pp. 235-236)

DURING Bishop Amat's prelacy a reprehensible form of peonage-slavery was practiced in Los Angeles:  

In the late 1840s, the ex-Mission Indians of west-central California were beginning to rebound from the demographic disaster caused by the disease-ridden mission system. Although they occupied a low rung in the Rancho Period caste system (tribal Indians were seen as a still lower class or caste), their recognized skills made them an integral part of rancho society. Little changed in the first two years of United States occupation, 1846-1847. But news of the gold discovery of early 1848 led to the world-wide migration to California in 1849-1850. By 1850 California’s population was well over 100,000. By 1852 it was over 200,000. California became a state in 1850, part of a United States that was arguing about the future of slavery, but which had no doubts about the manifest destiny of white America.

This new, highly racialized social structure of 1850s California can be contrasted with the earlier Mexican/Californio society. Indians in the 1840s, although they were peons and treated as inferiors and subordinates, were also accepted as a part of the community. They were members of the Catholic Church and were in relationships of reciprocity with those who ruled. The dominant socioeconomic system of the 1840s Rancho Era can be called a “padrone” system, characterized by reciprocal obligations and relationships between padrone and peon within a very unequal but unitary community. In exchange for the peon’s labor, the padrone made sure each peon and his family had the minimum essentials of life. In the Mexican California of the 1830s and 1840s, color and genetic background played a subtle role, but all members of the community recognized mutual dependence within a single class structure. Race was not the central factor in people’s very survival that it was soon to become.

Ohlone/Costanoan Indians of the San Francisco Peninsula and their Neighbors, Yesterday and Today

Appendix D. Race, Class, and Violence in the Early American Period (By Laurence H. Shoup), pp. 299-300

GGNRA FINAL Publication.doc

https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/Appendices-D-E-F.pdf

5.  MORA i Borrell (1827-1905) Bp. Of Monterey-L.A. 1878-1896

BORN in Spain (Vich, Catalonia) in 1827, Francisco Mora y Borrell accompanied Bishop Amat to America in 1854, spent two years in seminary at St. Mary's Perryville, MO,  and was ordained for the Diocese of Monterey in 1856 at Mission Santa Barbara.  He served at the mission churches of San Carlos Boromeo in Monterey, San Juan Bautista, San Luis Obispo, and the village of Pajaro.

He was transferred to Los Angeles in 1863 to serve as rector of the Church of Our Lady of the Angels for 15 years. He became vicar general of the diocese in July 1866. In 1873 he was made coadjutor to Bishop Amat, and on the latter's death in 1878 became the third Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles, serving for eighteen years until his resignation in1896.  He would be the last native Spanish-speaking bishop of Los Angeles for more than a century.

In 1895 he established The Catholic Tidings, the first Catholic newspaper in Los Angeles. However, by 1890, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith became frustrated with the lack of parochial schools in the diocese; Mora argued that most parishes were too poor to afford a school. As a result, the Congregation temporarily removed financial control of the diocese from Mora, who attributed these harsh, if temporary, restrictions to the influence of California's English-speaking bishops.

After sustaining injuries in a carriage accident, he was given a coadjutor bishop, George Thomas Montgomery, who was consecrated in April 1894. Mora resigned his office on March 13, 1896 and returned to Barcelona, Spain, where he died on August 3, 1905. In 1962 his remains were moved to Los Angeles and buried at the cathedral.

6.  MONTGOMERY (1847-1907) Bp Mont-LA 1896-1902

BORN in Kentucky in 1847, he was ordained in 1879 and served as chancellor of the Archdiocese of San Francisco from 1884.  An ardent supporter of the temperance movement, Bishop Montgomery became the first American-born Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles (1896-1902).  After six years as Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles, Riordan was invited back to San Francisco to become coadjutor to Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco, in which capacity he served from 1902 until his death in 1907.  The movement northward had intentionally created a vacancy that could be filled by his successor, Bishop Conaty.

7. CONATY (1847-1915) [Bp. L.A.1903-1915]

BORN in Ireland in 1847, Thomas Conaty came at the age of two with his family to Massachusetts.  Ordained in 1862 for the Diocese of Springfield, he became Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles in 1903 under unusual circumstances.  Conaty had been named rector of the Catholic University of America in 1897, and Cardinal James Gibbons believed this position should entail elevation to the episcopacy in 1901 Msgr. Bishop Conaty became a bishop; but he had disagreements with the University Board of Trustees that led to the non-renewal of his term in 1903.  “.As there were no ecclesiastical jurisdictions then vacant, Patrick W. Riordan, the Archbishop of San Francisco, long desirous of episcopal assistance, suggested that Bishop George Thomas Montgomery of Monterey-Los Angeles be named his coadjutor, thereby creating an opening in Southern California”  (Weber, Century of Fulfillment, p. 349).

During his twelve years as Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles Bishop Conaty actively supported the expansion of Catholic education and health care, and encouraged numerous communities of sisters to come to the diocese.  He was an ardent supporter of the restoration of the derelict and decaying California missions.

8.  CANTWELL (December 1, 1874 – October 30, 1947) [1918-1947]

BORN in Limerick, Ireland, in 1874, John Cantwell was ordained in 1899, and sent immediately to Berkeley, California as part of the Irish “mission” to the United States. He became secretary to Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco in 1904, Vacar General in 1915.

As Msgr. Frank Weber has observed, “it became increasingly evident that few clerics were interested in adopting the orphaned Monterey-Los Angeles”. After two nominees successfully declined appointment to Los Angeles, Cantwell became bishop of the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles in 1917 in the midst of World War I (1914-1918).  In 1922 Monterey-Fresno became a separate diocese; and in 1936 Los Angeles became a metropolitan see, detached from the diocese of San Diego.

He established a minor seminary in 1918 and St. John's Seminary in 1938.  He took seriously the pastoral significance of the influx of immigrants in the aftermath of the Cristero war (1926-29), requiring his priests and seminarians to learn Spanish.  He was a strong supporter of civil rights and an outspoken critic of immorality depicted in cinema and onstage; his efforts fueled the creation of the Catholic Legion of Decency in 1934, which rated movies according to their [im-]moral content.  He was active in the international relief efforts undertaken after World War II, and dies in 1947.

9.  MCINTYRE (1886 – 1979)  Bp.1948-1970

JAMES McIntyre was born in New York City (mid-Manhattan) in 1886, and was believed by many to have expertise in finance.  Ordained in 1921, he was made Auxiliary Bishop of New York in 1941 and Archbishop of Los Angeles in 1948.  He is particularly remembered for his vigorous support of Catholic education and his controversial and tumultuous interactions with the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who had come to California in 1868 at the invitation of Bishop Amat.

The sisters had “engaged in encounter groups according to the principles of the Human Potential Movement” at their Motherhouse in Montecito in 1966-67. A list of proposed reforms included optional secular dress, optional common prayer and daily mass, smaller classes and a greater variety of works from which each sister could choose for herself. These were not acceptable to Cardinal McIntyre, and in 1970 around 315 of 380 sisters elected to follow their president, Sister Anita Caspary, by requesting and receiving dispensation from their religious vows.  The Cardinal retired in 1970, serving as assistant parish priest at St. Basil's, and died in 1979.

Cardinal McIntyre attended all six sessions of the Second Vatican Council, where he stressed the importance of retaining the Latin language in theology and liturgy and vigorously opposed the introduction of the vernacular at mass.  On October 23, 1962 he emphasized the importance of Latin in the expression of dogma and the relationship between liturgy and dogma.

McIntyre_at_Vatican_II_on_active_participation_in_liturgy

On November 25, 1962, he addressed the Council Fathers again, describing the liturgical practices of the United States and arguing against any use of the vernacular at mass other than for the readings and homily.  He stated that the concept of “active participation” was over-emphasized and misunderstood, and that “contemplation of the mystery of the Eucharist”, rather than attentiveness to translations of the mass texts, was essential, since the latter could become a distraction.

9.2_John_McQuaid_of_Dublin_on_private_Devotion_during_mass

His interpretation of “active participation” had been expressed even more explicitly on October 24 by John McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin, who pointed out that “active participation” as it had first been emphasized by Pope Pius IX in Mediator Dei, did not refer to recitation of or mediation on vernacular translations of the mass propers, but rather to acts of private devotion during mass.

10. MANNING 1909-89[1970 to 1985]

Born in Ireland in 1909 Timothy Manning emigrated to California in 1923 to attend St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  He served as secretary to Archbishop Cantwell, and as Auxiliary bishop (1946) and Chancellor on the appointment of Archbishop McIntyre.  Appointed Bishop of Fresno in 1967, he succeeded Cardinal McIntyre as Archbishop of Los Angeles in 1970.

One of the most powerful and intimidating members of Cardinal Manning's Chancery was Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes, chancellor and financial lynchpin for all archdiocesan projects, who died at 66 in 1985.  His complicated reputation was tarnished by multiple posthumous accusations of abuse during the clergy abuse crisis that unfolded under Cardinal Manning's successor.

11. MAHONY 1936 [1985 to 2011] -

CARDINAL Roger Mahony was born in 1936 in Hollywood, California.  He attended St. John's Seminary in Camarillo as a seminarian for the diocese of Monterey-Fresno.  Ordained to the priesthod in 1962, he became Auxilliary Bishop of Fresno in 1975 and Bishop of Stockton in 1980; and in 1985 he succeeded Cardnial Manning to become the first Archbishop of Los Angeles to have been born in that city.

One of his most notable achievements was the dedication in 2002 of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.  As cardinal-elector he took part in both the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI and the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.

12.  GÓMEZ Velasco (b.1951) Bp. 2011 -

Born in 1951 in Monterey, Mexico, Archbishop Gomez became a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature in 1978.  He engaged in pastoral work in Spain and Mexico from 1980, and in 1987 was in residence in San Antonio, Texas.  He became a US citizen in 1995.  In 2001 he became Auxiliary Bishop of Denver under Bushop Chaput.  He became Archbishop of San Antonio, Texas, in 2005, and was named coadjutor to Cardinal Mahony in 2010, whom he succeeded as Archbishop of Los Angeles in 2011.

Archbishop Gomez is widely-known as a respected leader of hispanic priests, an advocate of immigration reform, and a supporter of cultural diversity.  In 2019 he became President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. A moral theologian, Archbishop Gomez has published articles on Catholic bioethics.

1460-1630

1560-1730

1660-1850

1760-1950