Killusty’s John James Cantwell, the first Archbishop of Los Angeles, dies on this day in 1947 after leading the diocese there for 30 years.He was a fervent critic of the burgeoning Hollywood film industry.
.png)
According to a 1943 article from the Nationalist, Cantwell was born in Loughcapple, Killusty on 5th December 1874.
Cantwell was ordained a priest on June 18, 1899 at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles. He left for America the following yearand would later lead the archdiocese of Los Angeles from 1917 until his death in 1947.
Cantwell was deeply critical of the burgeoning Hollywood film industry and ‘campaigned militantly for cleaner films.’ In 1932, alongwith Archbishop John T. McNicholas, John F. Noll, and Hugh Charles Boyle, he established the National Legion of Decency "to arouse millions of Americans to a consciousness of the dangers of salacious and immoral pictures and to take action against them."
According to an Irish Press article from July 1934, “it isin his [Cantwell’s] diocese that Hollywood lies and from him in large measure is coming the force that is likely to kill Hollywood unless it changes its ways.”
Sources:
The Nationalist, 07/04/1943, p3.
The Irish Press 14/07/1934, p8.
AP obituary, the Pawtucket Times (Rhode Island), Oct. 31,1947, page 2.
