RITTER, JOSEPH

Cardinal; b. New Albany, Indiana, July 20, 1892; d. St. Louis, June 10, 1967. Ritter attended St. Meinrad Seminary and was ordained to the priesthood at the Abbey Church on May 30, 1917. He served as rector of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Indianapolis until he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of the diocese on March 28, 1933. He succeeded to the diocese on March 24, 1934, and became first archbishop of Indianapolis on Dec. 19, 1944. He was appointed archbishop of St. Louis to succeed the late Cardinal John Joseph Glennon on July 20, 1946. In the consistory of Jan. 16, 1961, he was created cardinal priest of the Church of the Holy Redeemer and St. Alphonsus.

During the first year of his tenure as archbishop of St. Louis, Ritter instructed his pastors to end segregation in Catholic schools for the opening of the 1947 school term. He turned aside the objection of dissenting Catholics who threatened to obtain a court injunction against integration with the warning that they risked automatic excommunication under canon law for impeding an ordinary in the exercise of his pastoral office. He supported and encouraged organizations of the laity and the lay retreat movement and became a leading spokesman for liturgical renewal, twice hosting the National Liturgical Conference meeting at St. Louis (1948 and 1964).

Appointed to the Central Preparatory Commission for the Second Vatican Council, Ritter attended every session of the council and was elected vice president of the Commission for the Clergy. In the aftermath of the council, Ritter was appointed by Pope Paul VI to the Consilium on Sacred Liturgy to help prepare the norms for implementation of the Council's liturgical directives. He spent the final years of his life working to make Vatican II a living reality in his archdiocese, laboring for the establishment of human and civil rights and providing vigorous ecumenical leadership.

[j. w. baker]