Friday, June 6, 2008

James Cardinal McIntyre

He was archbishop of Los Angeles from 1948 to 1978. This was not an easy job, considering that he had to deal with VCII and its consequences.

Pretty much everybody knows about the Cardinal's struggle with the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Just google it if you don't. There's plenty of stuff on the web. To look at the struggle against its historical background, you might want to read Perfectae Caritatis, the decree on the adaption and renewal of religious life, issued in 1965. Here you can easily see, how on the one hand the sisters with some justification could feel encouraged to implement changes and how on the other hand they went too far.

I don't really feel like commenting on the behavior of the sisters. Instead - before I let you see the photos - I'll leave you with a quote from Cardinal McIntyre's adress to the council fathers in 1962:
    "The schema on the Liturgy proposes confusion and complication. If it is adopted, it would be an immediate scandal for our people. The continuity of the Mass must be kept. The tradition of the sacred ceremonies must be preserved..."






3 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of the many wonderful things that you do is to keep alive the often courageous actions of those in the past who were prescient enough to foresee dangers and who often were maligned and then forgotten because of it.
This is another wonderful example of your keeping before our eyes the persons and the actions of great men who suffered through such an awful time.
God bless you!
Memoria justi manet in aeternum!

leo said...

Thank you for your kind words!

Liz said...

Suddenly, I'm so interested in this good cardinal from a piece that Church Militant put out. he seems such a good and holy cardinal and I think my dad lived in LA during part of the time he was the cardinal there. May his reward be great in heaven.