James Thomas O'Dowd (August 4, 1907 – February 4, 1950) was a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the

Archdiocese of San Francisco The Archdiocese of San Francisco (Latin: ''Archdiœcesis Sancti Francisci''; Spanish: ''Archidiócesis de San Francisco'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the Unite ...

from 1948 to 1950.

Biography

Born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, James O'Dowd was ordained a priest on June 4, 1932. On May 22, 1948

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

appointed him as the

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of ''Cea'' and Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco. He was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop

John Joseph Mitty John Joseph Mitty (January 20, 1884 – October 15, 1961) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the third Bishop of Salt Lake City (1926–1932) and the fourth Archbishop of San Francisco (1935–1961). Ea ...

on June 29, 1948. The principal co-consecrators were Bishop

Thomas Arthur Connolly Thomas Arthur Connolly (October 5, 1899 – April 18, 1991) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fifth bishop and first archbishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle from 1950 to 1975. Connolly previously served as ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and Auxiliary Bishop

Hugh Aloysius Donohoe Hugh Aloysius Donohoe (June 28, 1905 – October 26, 1987) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Fresno in California from 1969 to 1980. Donohoe previously served as an auxiliary bishop ...

of San Francisco. On February 3, 1950, Bishop O'Dowd was a passenger in an automobile driven by the Rev. Henry Lande. The car stopped on train tracks and was struck by an oncoming freight train and dragged . Lande died at the scene and O'Dowd was taken to the

Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base Travis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command (AMC), located three miles (5 km) east of the central business district of the city of Fairfield, in Solano County, Californ ...

hospital where he died the following day at the age of 42. His legacy includes his contribution to the Bay Area's Catholic high schools.

Legacy

Bishop O'Dowd High School Bishop O'Dowd High School is a Catholic, co-educational, college preparatory school in Oakland, California, administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and named for the late auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Jam ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, whose establishment Bishop O'Dowd was in charge of planning for at the time of his sudden death, is named in his memory.

References

1907 births 1950 deaths Clergy from San Francisco Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco 20th-century American Roman Catholic titular bishops American Roman Catholic clergy of Irish descent Catholics from California {{US-RC-bishop-stub