John Joseph Cantwell

The Most Reverend John Joseph Cantwell
Archbishop of Los Angeles, California
John Joseph Cantwell in 1922
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Archdiocese	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Province	Los Angeles
Metropolis	Los Angeles
See	Los Angeles-San Diego
Elected	11 July 1936
In office	30 October 1947
Successor	Cardinal James Francis McIntyre
Other post(s)	Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles, California(1917-1922). Bishop of Los Angeles-San Diego, California.(1922-1936)
Orders
Ordination	18 June 1899
Consecration	05 December 1917 by Archbishop Edward Joseph Hanna
Rank	Archbishop-Priest
Personal details
Birth name	John Joseph Cantwell
Born	(1874-12-01)1 December 1874 Limerick, Ireland
Died	30 October 1947(1947-10-30) (aged 72) Los Angeles, United States
Buried	Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels 34°03′28″N 118°14′42″E / 34.0577°N 118.2450°E / 34.0577; 118.2450
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Alma mater	Jesuit Crescent College, Limerick St. Patrick's College, Thurles

Styles of John Joseph Cantwell
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Monsignor
Posthumous style	none

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John Joseph Cantwell (December 1, 1874 – October 30, 1947) was the first archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Biography[]

John Joseph Cantwell was born in Limerick, Ireland. He was educated at the Jesuit Crescent College, Limerick and St. Patrick's College, Thurles. He was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco on June 18, 1899, and was initially assigned as curate of Berkeley's St Joseph The Worker parish. Father Cantwell established the Newman Club at the University of California, Berkeley, served as first chaplain. In 1906, San Francisco Archbishop Patrick W. Riordan appointed Cantwell his secretary, and he moved from Berkeley to the Archbishop Residence at 1000 Fulton Street.^{[citation needed]}

In August 1908 Riordan sent Cantwell (by now his Archdiocesan vicar general) to Rome, to inquire of Pope Pius X as to Riordan's successor. In 1912, Fathers Cantwell and Michael D. Connolly accompanied Bishop Edward J. Hanna from Rochester, New York to San Francisco where after Riordan's death December 27, 1914, Cantwell served as Vicar General to Archbishop Hanna (1915–17).^{[citation needed]} Pope Benedict XV appointed John J. Cantwell Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles in September 1917, two years after the death of Bishop Thomas Conaty, and Cantwell was formally ordained that December.^{[citation needed]}

Two divisions of the Monterey-Los Angeles diocese occurred during Archbishop Cantwell's 30-year term. In June 1922 it was split by Pope Pius XI to form the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno and the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego. The latter diocese was split in July 1936 to create the Diocese of San Diego and the present-day Archdiocese of Los Angeles, with Pope Pius XI elevating Cantwell to Archbishop of Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}

Archbishop Cantwell founded a minor and major seminary, 16 hospitals and clinics, 205 parishes, 34 high schools, and 43 parochial schools. During his tenure the number of Catholics in the area grew from 178,000 to 601,000. In 1933, he established the Catholic Motion Picture Actors Guild of America, which evolved into the National Legion of Decency.^[1]

Actors Spencer Tracy, Bing Crosby, Irene Dunne, Pat O'Brien (actor), June Marlowe, James Cagney, Loretta Young, Frank McHugh, and other Catholics in the motion picture industry were friendly with Cantwell. His funeral in 1947 at the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana was attended by Catholic prelates from across the country including Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York and members of the motion picture and aircraft industries.^{[citation needed]}

Archbishop Cantwell was noted for being particularly sensitive to the needs of non-English speaking Catholics in the archdiocese, and he created 50 Hispanic parishes and missions. He was a major supporter of the Cristero movement, particularly in the early 1930s after their defeat in armed conflict with the secularist Mexican government.^[2] Many exiled Mexican clerics were given refuge in the Los Angeles diocese during that era.^[3] Cantwell's remains are located in the mausoleum of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture[]

• Archbishop Cantwell appears as a character in James Ellroy's novel Perfidia (2014), as Fascist sympathizer and close friend of Dudley Smith.

References[]

External links[]

• Bishop Cantwell biography on the Archdiocese of LA website
• "John Joseph Cantwell". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2015-07-25.