James Thomas O'Dowd (August 4, 1907 – February 4, 1950) was an American prelate of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in the United States. He served as an

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in California from 1948 to 1950.

Biography

Early life

James O'Dowd was born on August 4, 1907, in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco on June 4, 1932 by Archbishop John Joseph Mitty. He attended

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily a ...

in Washington, D.C., where he received a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree.

Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco

On May 22, 1948

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

appointed O'Dowd 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 at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco by Mitty on June 29, 1948. The principal co-consecrators were Bishop Thomas Arthur Connolly of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

and Auxiliary Bishop Hugh Aloysius Donohoe of San Francisco. While auxiliary bishop, he also served as pastor at the

Mission Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to: * Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores * Dolores (given name), including list of people and fictional characters with the name Dolores may also refer to: Film * '' ...

in San Francisco.

Death and legacy

On February 3, 1950, O'Dowd was a passenger in an automobile driven by Reverend Henry Lande. After stopping on train tracks, their car was struck by a freight train and dragged . Lande died at the scene; O'Dowd was transported to the Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base hospital. He died the following day of his injuries at age 42. O'Dowd was interred at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California.

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 after the late auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, ...

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

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