MCINTYRE, JAMES FRANCIS ALOYSIUS

Archbishop of Los Angeles, cardinal; b. New York City, June 25, 1886; d. Los Angeles, July 16, 1979. The son of James and Mary (Pelley) McIntyre. After the death of his mother in 1896, James Francis A1oysius was reared by a cousin, Mrs. Robert F. Donley. He spent several years in the employ of H. L. Horton and Company, an investment house on the New York Stock Exchange; and meanwhile, took night courses at New York City College and Columbia. Following the death of his father in 1915, he entered the preparatory seminary for the Archdiocese of New York, and the next year enrolled in Saint Joseph's Seminary at Dunwoodie where he was ordained a priest by Patrick Cardinal Hayes on May 21, 1921.

Father McIntyre served as assistant to the pastor of Saint Gabriel's Church until September of 1923, when he was named vice chancellor and liaison officer between Cardinal Hayes and the curial staff. In 1934, he became chancellor and was designated a private chamberlain by Pope Pius XI. Two years later, on Nov. 12, 1936, he was promoted to the Domestic Prelacy. In 1939, Archbishop Francis J. Spellman appointed Monsignor McIntyre a member of the board of consultors for the archdiocese of New York.

On Nov. 16, 1940, Pope Pius XII appointed McIntyre to the titular see of Cyrene and auxiliary bishop of New York. He was consecrated by Archbishop Spellman in Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Jan. 9, 1941. Bishop McIntyre was made vicar general of the archdiocese on Jan. 17, 1945, and, 18 months later, on July 20, 1946, the Holy Father advanced the prelate to the titular see of Paltus as coadjutor archbishop of New York.

Archbishop. On Feb. 7, 1948, Archbishop McIntyre was transferred to Los Angeles as the eighth occupant of the jurisdiction originally established in 1840 under the title Ambas Californias. Shortly after his installation at Los Angeles, Archbishop McIntyre set about to reorganize the archdiocesan curia, to erect a new chancery, and to refurbish Saint Vibiana's Cathedral—all of which he deemed necessary for the efficient management of a jurisdiction encompassing an area of 9,508 square miles with a rapidly increasing Catholic population.

The new archbishop established secretariats and commissions for vocations, communications, archives, cemeteries and liturgy. He founded the Archbishop's Fund for Charity in 1951, to support otherwise unprovided-for welfare activities. In 1956, McIntyre formally sponsored the foundation of the Lay-Mission Helpers Association, the pioneer organization of its kind in the nation.

Among the prelate's most cherished works was the total revamping of the seminary program and his program for Catholic education. In addition to a new preparatory school in 1954, and expanded facilities at Saint John's Seminary in 1956, the archbishop built a college seminary. In the first 15 years of his tenure, Catholic schools were tripled from 141 to 347, an average of one a month. In addition to widening the scope and influence of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD), McIntyre's influence was a compelling force in two favorable decisions by the electorate to repeal the burdensome state taxation of parochial schools.

Cardinal. Pope Pius XII elevated Archbishop McIntyre to the cardinalate on Jan. 12, 1953, assigned to the titular pastorate of Saint Anastasia in Rome. Growing out of the new position were additional duties such as his delegation as papal legate to the All-Nigerian Marian Congress at Lagos, on the West Coast of Africa, in December of 1954.

At the conclusion of the second archdiocesan synod, held on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12, 1960, Cardinal McIntyre was presented with the Golden Rose of Tepeyac by the canons of Mexico's National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in recognition of his zealous work among the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of California's southland.

In addition to serving a significant role in the central preparatory commission for Vatican Council II, the cardinal attended all the sessions of the council and was active in its deliberation. He made six oral interventions. In the first session, he raised the question of infants dying without baptism, a topic, he noted, that was not treated in any of the schemas. In later interventions he spoke in favor of the original schema on divine revelation, argued for the continued use of Latin, opposed changes in the Mass, and spoke against giving juridical status to episcopal conferences. Nonetheless, a national survey published by America in 1966, revealed that the archdiocese of Los Angeles was far ahead of other American jurisdictions in heeding the suggestions and spirit of Vatican Council II.

After his retirement in 1970, Cardinal McIntyre spent the final years of his life serving as a parish priest at Saint Basil's in midtown Los Angeles. His papers are in the Archival Center of the archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Bibliography: "McIntyre, James Francis Aloysius," Archival Center, Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For an account of Cardinal McIntyre's interventions at Vatican II, see v. a. yzermans, American Participation in the Second Vatican Council (New York 1969).

[f. j. weber]