The 1960s Los Angeles Seminary Crisis

In the 1960s, tension arose between Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, archbishop of Los Angeles (1886–1979), and the priests of the Congregation of the Mission (or Vincentian Fathers) who were teaching at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. The fact that some seminary alumni had challenged McIntyre publicly on the question of race relations led the cardinal to suspect that the faculty was not adequately addressing church policy on obedience. This was exacerbated with the disclosure of the relaxation of rules at the St. Louis seminaries—Cardinal Glennon College and Kenrick Seminary—and by the publication of Seminary in Crisis, a book by Stafford Poole, C.M. McIntyre asked how the Vincentians could run seminaries in an inconsistent fashion, to which the Vincentians replied that they would respect the wishes of the ordinary. Despite the friction, McIntyre kept the Vincentians at St. John’s.