Charles F. Buddy

Charles Francis Buddy (October 4, 1887 – March 6, 1966) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the new Diocese of San Diego in California from 1936 until his death in 1966.

Buddy built what is today the University of San Diego, including a women's college, a men's college, a law school, a theological seminary, a basilica for the chapel, and offices for the diocese.

Biography

Early life Charles Buddy was born on October 4, 1887, in St. Joseph, Missouri, one of seven children of Charles Allen and Annie (née Farrell) Buddy. His father was a wholesale fruit merchant. He received his early education at the "Little Convent", a parochial school for boys in his native city. At age 10, he enrolled at the Christian Brothers College, also in St. Joseph. He earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1911 and a licentiate in theology in 1913. After his return to Missouri in 1915, the diocese assigned Buddy as a curate at St. Joseph's Cathedral Parish in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1930, Buddy founded St. Vincent's Cafeteria and Shelter for the homeless, which the government took over in 1934 as a transient relief bureau.

Buddy was close friends with Bishop William O'Brien, director of the Catholic Church Extension Society in Chicago, Illinois. The Extension helped finance the construction of churches in the diocese and provided financial support to its priests. A strong opponent of communism, which he claimed wants to "destroy both church and state", Buddy once said, "These 'isms' have tried the patience of our poor and underprivileged who are being tempted by false prophets and insincere leaders." He attended the first session of the Second Vatican Council in Rome in 1962.

Death Buddy died on March 6, 1966, at age 78 in Banning, California, on a confirmation trip to parishes in the San Gorgonio Pass.