Joseph Elmer Ritter (July 20, 1892 – June 10, 1967) was an American
prelate
A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...
of the
Roman 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 ...
. He served as archbishop of the
Archdiocese of St. Louis
The Archdiocese of St. Louis ( la, Archidiœcesis Sancti Ludovici) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the City of St. Louis and the Missouri counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Perr ...
in Missouri from 1946 until his death in 1967, and was created a
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
in 1961. He previously served as
auxiliary bishop (1933–34) and bishop (later
archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
) (1934–46) of the
Archdiocese of Indianapolis
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis ( la, Archidioecesis Indianapolitana) is a division of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. When it was originally erected as the Diocese of Vincennes on May 6, 1834, it encompassed all of ...
in Indiana. Ritter was one of the cardinals elector who participated at the
Papal Conclave,1963
The 1963 papal conclave was convoked following the death of Pope John XXIII on 3 June 1963 in the Apostolic Palace. After the cardinal electors assembled in Rome, the conclave to elect John's successor began on 19 June and ended two days later, ...
.
Ritter is noted for ending
racial discrimination
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...
in church schools in both of his archdioceses long before it became mandatory in the United States. He also ended hospital segregation in the archdiocese of St. Louis, and supported the education of African-American students.
Early life and education
Born July 20, 1892, in
New Albany, Indiana
New Albany is a city in Floyd County, Indiana, United States, situated along the Ohio River, opposite Louisville, Kentucky. The population was 37,841 as of the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Floyd County. It is bounded by I-265 t ...
, Elmer Joseph Ritter was the fourth of Nicholas (1859–1944) and Bertha (née Luette) (1865–1941) Ritter's six children.
His father owned and operated the Ritter Bakery (where the family also lived). Both of Ritter's parents were of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
descent.
As a 1946 newspaper article said "It was one of those shops, now rare, in which the whole family, the mother, father and the whole family had to help, either in the store part, which was in the front, or in the bakery which was in the rear."
Ritter said his father had a great reverence of education, saying, "Dad gave us all a chance to go to college, but only if we applied ourselves."
Ritter received his early education at the
parochial school
A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The ...
of St. Mary of the Annunciation Church in New Albany where he was called "Apple-Pie Ritter".
Religious calling
During the seventh grade, Ritter decided to enter the
priesthood. Ritter said "There was no vision, no voice from heaven. I simply wanted to be a priest."
In 1907, he enrolled at
St. Meinrad's Seminary in Saint Meinrad, Indiana, where he completed his studies in 1917.
[
]
Priesthood
Ritter was ordained to the priesthood at the St. Meinrad Seminary's Abbey Church
A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thro ...
on May 30, 1917, by Bishop Joseph Chartrand
Joseph Chartrand (May 11, 1870 – December 8, 1933) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the 6th Bishop of Indianapolis, serving from 1918 until his death in 1933.
Biography
Joseph Chartrand was born in St. Louis, Missouri, ...
. His first assignment was as a curate
A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...
at St. Patrick's Parish in Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
.[ Shortly afterwards, he was transferred to Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish, also in Indianapolis][ where he served as assistant to the bishop in 1920 and ]rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
of the cathedral in 1925 to 1933.[ In 1922, Ritter received an honorary ]doctorate of theology
Doctor of Theology ( la, Doctor Theologiae, abbreviated DTh, ThD, DTheol, or Dr. theol.) is a terminal degree in the academic discipline of theology. The ThD, like the ecclesiastical Doctor of Sacred Theology, is an advanced research degree equiva ...
from Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...
.[
]
Indianapolis years
On February 3, 1933, Ritter was appointed as auxiliary bishop of what was then the Diocese of Indianapolis and 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 Hippos
A hippo or hippopotamus is either of two species of large African mammal which live mainly in and near water:
* Hippopotamus
* Pygmy hippopotamus
Hippo or Hippos may also refer to:
Toponymy
* The ancient city of Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Al ...
by Pius XI.[ He received his episcopal ]consecration
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...
on March 28, 1933, from Bishop Chartrand, with Bishops Alphonse Smith
Alphonse Eugene Smith (February 7, 1928 – January 3, 2002) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder and third baseman. He played for twelve seasons on the Cleveland Indians (1953–57, 1964), Chicago White Sox (1958–62), Baltimor ...
and Emmanuel Ledvina serving as co-consecrators
A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop.
The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...
.[ As an auxiliary bishop, he also served as ]vicar general
A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...
of the diocese from 1933 to 1934.[ At age 40, Ritter was one of the youngest Catholic bishops in the United States.][
Following the death of Bishop Chartrand, Ritter was appointed the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Indianapolis on March 24, 1934.][ In 1938, he directed an end to ]racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
in all Catholic schools in the diocese. His decision, made 16 years before ''Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
'', was met with opposition by the Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
, whose members protested outside of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral, and even by his fellow members of the clergy. Ritter also reorganized the diocesan Catholic Charities
The Catholic Church operates numerous charitable organizations.
Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel, while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spi ...
, introduced the Catholic Youth Organization, and completed the construction of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral. He reduced the diocese's debt by $3 million, .[ Ritter also reorganized the Catholic Charities in the diocese.
In 1941, Ritter opened St. John's Parish in ]Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...
, the first Black Catholic parish in the city. The Diocese of Indianapolis was elevated to the status of an archdiocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
by 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 ...
on October 21, 1944, and Ritter was installed as its first archbishop on December 19, 1944.
St. Louis years
Ritter was appointed the fourth archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis
The Archdiocese of St. Louis ( la, Archidiœcesis Sancti Ludovici) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the City of St. Louis and the Missouri counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Perr ...
by Pius XII on July 20, 1946, succeeding the late Cardinal John J. Glennon.[
St. Louis grew quickly during the ]post-World War II
The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of a new era started in late 1945 (when World War II ended) for all countries involved, defined by the decline of all colonial empires and simultaneous rise of two superpowers; the Soviet Union (US ...
economic boom. Ritter opened an average of three parishes per year in St. Louis city and county. An able administrator, without the authority to tax or compel, Ritter nevertheless raised more than $125,000,000 () to build sixty new parishes, sixteen high schools, and the Cardinal Glennon Memorial Hospital for Children in St. Louis during his tenure there.
Desegregation efforts
As one of his first acts as archbishop, Ritter announced that Webster College would accept black students, endorsing the Sisters of Loretto
The Sisters of Loretto or the Loretto Community is a Catholic religious institute that strives "to bring the healing Spirit of God into our world." Founded in the United States in 1812 and based in the rural community of Nerinx, Kentucky, the ...
's wish to enroll black women in their Webster College (which Ritter's predecessor, Archbishop Glennon, had ruled impossible).He also allowed the senior class of St. Joseph's High School, then the city's only black Catholic high school, to graduate for the first time at the Cathedral alongside white Catholic high school students.
Desegregated diocesan schools and hospitals
On August 9, 1947, Ritter announced an end to racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
in all five St. Louis diocesan high schools before the fall term.[ He declared, "The cross on top of our schools must mean something," and expressed his belief in "the equality of every soul before Almighty God".] Ritter sent a memo to all parish school superintendents, saying they must begin to "accept all children into parish schools without regard to race". In one stroke, Ritter had desegregated the Catholic St. Louis area schools, seven years before the 1954 US Supreme Court's Brown vs Board of Education decision. The parochial schools represented one-quarter of all St. Louis area students.
In response to Ritter's desegregation order, a group of over 700 white Catholics from 49 St. Louis area parishes, calling themselves the "Catholic Parents Association of Saint Louis and Saint Louis County", threatened to sue him. The association claimed that his order violated Missouri state law. Association Co-Chair William T. Rone said "We do not want Negro children alongside our children in the schools." Ritter refused to meet with the association leaders, his spokesman saying, "He is the father of the whole flock and must care for all, regardless of race."Ritter then issued a pastoral letter
A pastoral letter, often simply called a pastoral, is an open letter addressed by a bishop to the clergy or laity of a diocese or to both, containing general admonition, instruction or consolation, or directions for behaviour in particular circumst ...
in which he warned of possible excommunication
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
for "interfering with ecclesiastical office authority by having recourse to authority outside of the church".
While the association rejected any civil action, it did send a letter of protest to the apostolic delegate
An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international o ...
to the United States, Amleto Giovanni Cicognani
Amleto Giovanni Cicognani (24 February 1883 – 17 December 1973) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Vatican Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969, and Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1972 until his death. C ...
.[ Cicognani responded to the letter by saying "I am confident that everyone will readily comply with what has been so clearly proposed by the ecclesiastical authority of the Archdiocese".]Ritter also desegregated all Catholic hospitals in the St. Louis archdiocese.
Fundraising
Ritter also developed what is now known as the Annual Catholic Appeal, which remains a primary source of financial support for many archdiocesan educational and charitable activities.[
]
Ecumenism
On August 24, 1964, at Kiel Auditorium
Kiel Auditorium was an indoor arena located in St. Louis, Missouri. It was the home of the St. Louis University basketball team and hosted the NBA's St. Louis Hawks, from 1955 to 1968.
The site was home to Charles H. Turpin's Booker T. W ...
in St. Louis, Ritter celebrated the world's first authorized Mass in English.[
Ritter also forbade Catholics to see the 1954 film '']The French Line
''The French Line'' is a 1953 American musical film starring Jane Russell made by RKO Radio Pictures, directed by Lloyd Bacon and produced by Edmund Grainger, with Howard Hughes as executive producer. The screenplay was by Mary Loos and Richard ...
'' under danger of serious sin. The film featured actor Jane Russell
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films.
Russell moved from th ...
dancing in a scanty outfit in what was then considered a sexually-suggestive scene. He declared that Catholic students must get written permission from the archdiocese to attend secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
or non-Catholic college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
s. Ritter was one of the first bishops to create a diocesan mission, specifically in La Paz, Bolivia
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bol ...
. Until that time, most Catholic missions had been run by religious institute
A religious institute is a type of institute of consecrated life in the Catholic Church whose members take religious vows and lead a life in community with fellow members. Religious institutes are one of the two types of institutes of consecrate ...
s or societies of apostolic life. Parishioners in St. Louis regularly contributed more money to these foreign missions than any archdiocese of its size. Ritter served as president of the National Catholic Educational Association
The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) is a private, professional educational membership association of over 150,000 educators in Catholic schools, universities, and religious education programs. It is the largest such organization ...
from 1955 to 1956, and was named an assistant at the pontifical throne
The Bishops-Assistant at the Pontifical Throne were ecclesiastical titles in the Roman Catholic Church. It designated prelates belonging to the Papal Chapel, who stood near the throne of the Pope at solemn functions. They ranked immediately belo ...
on October 5, 1956.[
]
Cardinal
Ritter was created cardinal priest
A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Col ...
of '' SS. Redentore e S. Alfonso in Via Merulana'' by Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...
in the consistory
Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to:
*A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church
*Consistory ...
of January 16, 1961.[ Between 1962 and 1965, he participated in all four sessions of the ]Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...
in Rome.[ Ritter was viewed as a ]liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
.[TIME Magazine]
The Unlikely Cardinal
August 21, 1964 He also protested against the Roman Curia's oppressive actions and Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani
Alfredo Ottaviani (29 October 1890 – 3 August 1979) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII named him cardinal in 1953. He served as secretary of the Holy Office in the Roman Curia from 1959 to 1966 when that dicaste ...
's draft on the sources of revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities.
Background
Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...
at the Council.[TIME Magazine]
The Cardinal's Setback
November 23, 1962
Death, funeral and burial
Ritter died on June 10, 1967, at DePaul Hospital in St. Louis after suffering two heart attacks
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
earlier in the week.[TIME Magazin]
Milestones
/ref> His body lay in state at the Cathedral.
Funeral
Ritter's requiem mass was celebrated on June 15, 1967, at St. Louis cathedral. At his request, it was a "Low Funeral Mass". Cardinal-designate John Patrick Cody, archbishop of Chicago, formerly an auxiliary bishop under the late cardinal in St. Louis, was the main celebrant. Cardinals Richard Cushing
Richard James Cushing (August 24, 1895 – November 2, 1970) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Boston from 1944 to 1970 and was made a cardinal in 1958. Cushing's main role was as fundraiser and builder ...
, James Francis McIntyre, Lawrence Shehan
Lawrence Joseph Shehan (March 18, 1898 – August 26, 1984) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Baltimore from 1961 to 1974 and was made a cardinal in 1965. Shehan was an advocate for civil rights an ...
, and Francis Spellman attended, together with cardinals-designate John Krol
John Joseph Krol (October 26, 1910 – March 3, 1996) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1961 to 1988, having previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland (1953†...
and Patrick O'Boyle. Ten archbishops, forty-eight bishops, and four abbots were also in attendance. Some fifty Protestant, Jewish, and Orthodox Christina leaders were present, representing the Episcopal Church, Missouri-Synod Lutheran, United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4 ...
, Greek Orthodox, Baptist, Disciples of Christ
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...
, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Salvation Army. In his sermon, Kansas City Bishop Charles Helmsing
Charles Herman Helmsing (March 23, 1908 – December 20, 1993) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph in Missouri (1962–1977).
Biography
Early life
Helmsing w ...
, another auxiliary bishop who had served under Ritter, spoke of Ritter's liturgical leadership, particularly "his concern for a liturgy of the Word that would truly inform and enlighten the people of God."
Burial and re-interment
Ritter was buried in the priest's lot at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. He had said he did not want to be buried in the cathedral.On November 2, 1994, Archbishop Justin Rigali
Justin Francis Rigali (born April 19, 1935) is an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the eighth Archbishop of Philadelphia, having previously served as Archbishop of St. Louis from 1994 to 2003, and was elevated to the ca ...
of St. Louis had Ritter's remains removed from Calvary Cemetery and re-interred in the crypt of the new cathedral, now the cathedral basilica of St. Louis.
Legacy
*Ritter is commemorated by a mosaic tile depiction in the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis
The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, also known as the Saint Louis Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Completed in 1914, it is the mother church of the A ...
showing him reaching out toward a group of people from other faiths on one side, and also an integrated group of school children on the other.
*Ritter was a friend of Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles M ...
and Cardinal Ottaviani.
*In a gesture of ecumenism
Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
, Ritter granted his approval to the mixed marriage of a Catholic and an Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
in 1964. He also authorized the first English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
in the United States.
*Ritter, intensely dedicated to racial equality, even withheld communion from Catholics who practiced discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
.
*Ritter was "dismayed" and "indignant" after the rector of Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...
, Monsignor
Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...
William McDonald, refused to allow certain liberal theologians
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...
to speak at the university.
*His birthplace and childhood home in New Albany, Indiana
New Albany is a city in Floyd County, Indiana, United States, situated along the Ohio River, opposite Louisville, Kentucky. The population was 37,841 as of the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Floyd County. It is bounded by I-265 t ...
, was to be turned into a museum about Ritter's life (he remains the only Indiana-born Cardinal in the Catholic Church's history, and up until October 2016, when Pope Francis named Indianapolis's incumbent Archbishop, Joseph William Tobin
Joseph William Tobin, CSsR, (born May 3, 1952) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A member of the Redemptorist order, he has been the archbishop of Archdiocese of Newark in New Jersey, since 2017. He previously served as the ...
, to the cardinalate ffective in November 2016 Indianapolis- or any other Indiana diocese- was not a cardinalatial see) in three stages. The Cardinal Ritter Birthplace Foundation is promoting this project. The museum will occupy the Ritter family's bakery—its storefront was part of the 1874 Queen Anne-style home.
*A one-hour documentary of Ritter's life was filmed.
*Cardinal Ritter High School
Cardinal Ritter High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school on West 30th Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis. It was founded in 1964 and serves the west side of the Indianapoli ...
in Indianapolis is named in his honor.
*Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School
Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School is a private school, private, Roman Catholic high school in St. Louis, Missouri. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Louis.
Background
Cardinal Ritter Prep opened on September 6, 1979 ...
in St. Louis is named in his honor.
Honors
* Ritter received an honorary Doctorate of Theology from Pope Pius XI in 1922.
* In 1961, Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...
named Ritter an honorary “Founder of Saint Louis University" "in honor of his leadership and influence in the cause of education".
* Ritter was unanimously chosen 1965 "Ecumenical Man of the Year" by the Metropolitan St. Louis Church Federation. Ritter declined the award, saying "Grateful for the honor, I am united with you in efforts for Christian unity. But it is my practice to decline citations in line with what is obviously my duty".
* Ritter was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Eden Theological Seminary
Eden Theological Seminary is a seminary of the United Church of Christ in Webster Groves, Missouri, near St. Louis, Missouri.
The seminary was established in 1850 by German pastors in what was then the American frontier. The pastors soon formed ...
, St. Louis, Missouri, 1965.
See also
*Cardinal electors in Papal conclave, 1963 The cardinal electors in the 1963 papal conclave numbered 82, of whom 80 participated. This papal conclave met from 19 to 21 June 1963. This list is arranged by region and within each alphabetically.
Cardinal József Mindszenty refused to leave ...
References
External links
Archdiocese of Saint Louis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Joseph
Roman Catholic bishops of Indianapolis
1892 births
1967 deaths
20th-century American cardinals
American people of German descent
Roman Catholic archbishops of Indianapolis
Roman Catholic archbishops of St. Louis
Participants in the Second Vatican Council
People from New Albany, Indiana
People from Indianapolis
Burials at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis (St. Louis)
Cardinals created by Pope John XXIII
African-American Roman Catholicism