James Aloysius Griffin

James Aloysius Griffin (February 27, 1883 – August 5, 1948) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois from 1924 until his death in 1948.

Biography

Early life James Griffin was born on February 27, 1883, in Chicago, Illinois to Thomas and Catherine (née Woulfe) Griffin. He attended St. Gabriel High School and St. Ignatius College, both in Chicago. He then went to Rome to study at the College of Propaganda, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1906 and a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1910.

Priesthood Griffin was ordained to the priesthood in Rome for the Archdiocese of Chicago by Patriarch Giuseppe Ceppetelli on July 4, 1909. On his return to Chicago in 1910, Griffin was assigned as a curate at St. James' Parish in Chicago. In 1915, he was transferred to St. Brendan's Parish in Chicago.

According to author Peter R. D'Agostino, Griffin was an admirer of dictator Benito Mussolini and his Fascist regime in Italy. In a 1931 address to a Knights of Columbus group in Chicago, he praised Mussolini and delivered a roman salute, a trademark of the Fascist state.

Griffin dedicated the new Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield in 1928. During his tenure as bishop, Griffin erected 51 new churches, schools, convents and charitable institutions; the total cost spent in his first ten years was close to $6.5 million. He established Marquette Catholic High School in Alton, Illinois, and Springfield Junior College in Springfield.

In 1939, Griffin joined Bishop John Gannon and Monsignor Michael Joseph Ready in a visit to Mexico to confer with Archbishop Luis Martínez, the archbishop of Mexico City. Since seminaries were illegal in Mexico at that time, Martinez was hoping to established a seminary for Mexican priests in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Following the appointment of Dr. George D. Stoddard as president of the University of Illinois in 1945, Griffin condemned Stoddard's assertion in his book The Meaning of Intelligence that, "Man-made concepts, such as devils, witches, taboos, hellfire, original sin...and divine revelation...have distorted the intellectual processes of millions of persons." Griffin said, "We want to know what we're paying for...Thousands of [Dr. Stoddard's] future students believe in the objective validity of [original sin and hell]...He will evidently try to dispossess his charges of their feeble-mindedness."

Death James Griffin died in Springfield on August 5, 1948, at age 65. He is buried in one of five crypts of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.