16th Archdiocese

Last week His Holiness Pope Pius XI turned from the contemplation of troubled Spain to accord honor in the New World to a city once piously named El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles. There he created a new archbishopric, first to be organized in the U. S. in 43 years. From the Province of San Francisco (established in 1853) the Supreme Pontiff detached Bishop Philip George Scher and 98,000 Catholics of the diocese of Monterey-Fresno. From the Province of Santa Fe (established 1850) he de tached Bishop Daniel James Gercke and 89,000 Catholics of the diocese of Tucson. These, together with San Diego (now a separate diocese to which a bishop has not yet been named), he placed under the supervision of brawny, 61-year-old John Joseph Cantwell, for 18 years Bishop of Los Angeles and San Diego and now Arch bishop of Los Angeles.

Thus a major U. S. playground was belatedly recognized as a major province of the Church. Southern California is historically dear to Rome. In 1769, Franciscan Father Junipero Serra with 75 Spanish soldiers and a gang of Mexican muleteers journeyed 900 mi. overland from Lower California to the Pacific, which they reached at the sandspit of San Diego. On Aug. 2, they forded a shallow river among sunburnt hills, discovered a village of unpromising heathens, named it for the feast day of Our Lady of the Angels and pushed on. Few years later the glory of God was attested by Franciscan missions in these towns and for 1,000 miles along the Pacific Coast. The mission of San Gabriel Arcangel out side Los Angeles grew the first wine grapes and oranges ever seen in California.

Vastly different from these labors have been those of Los Angeles' new Arch bishop. Last week's promotion signalized the phenomenal increase of Catholic population in the Los Angeles area since Churchman Cantwell was installed as Bishop in 1917. It also rewarded him for distinguished moral service to his Church. Having his diocesan offices in Los Angeles' busy Petroleum Securities Building where he rubbed elbows with bankers, brokers and cinemagnates, Archbishop Cantwell used to try to persuade the latter to keep salaciousness out of their films, finally decided that the only way to move them was "to hit them in the pocketbook. Talking morality to them does no good." At a convention of Catholic bishops in Washington he proposed the Legion of Decency to boycott indecent movies. The Legion was formed, with Cincinnati's Archbishop McNicholas (see p. 33) at its head, and Bishop Cantwell became well hated by the motion picture industry. Since then new film profits have turned this hate to love.

Gentlest of speakers, Archbishop Cantwell still has the brogue of Southern Ireland, where he was born in 1874 and ordained in 1899. His present Cathedral is musty St. Vibiana's in the grubbiest part of Los Angeles. Before his elevation last week he had planned a magnificent new Cathedral in the swanky Wilshire section, but he changed his mind, decided to use the new Cathedral money for a seminary. His private quarters are on fashionable Fremont Place, where his sister keeps his house and a dog keeps him company.

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