James Stafford

Francis Stafford was the owner of a furniture store, opened by his grandfather in 1902.

James Francis Stafford (born July 26, 1932) is an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

James Stafford was born on July 26, 1932, in Baltimore, Maryland, the only child of Francis Emmett and Mary Dorothy (née Stanton) Stafford.

James Stafford was raised in Irvington, a Baltimore neighborhood, and graduated from Loyola High School in Towson, Maryland, in 1950.

Stafford then entered Loyola College Maryland in Baltimore, planning a career in medicine.

However, in 1952, the death of a close friend in a car crash caused Stafford to rethink his future and to enter St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore.

Stafford attended St. Mary's Seminary for two years.

Archbishop Francis Keough then sent him to Rome to the Pontifical North American College, where he attended the Pontifical Gregorian University.

While in Rome, Stafford was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Baltimore by Bishop Martin O'Connor on December 15, 1957.

He earned a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University in 1958.

After his return to Baltimore, Stafford was assigned as an assistant pastor at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, remaining there until 1962.

He then entered the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he earned a Master of Social Work degree in 1964 with a thesis on the foster care of children.

From 1964 to 1966, Stafford served as assistant director of the archdiocesan Catholic Charities and assistant pastor of St. Ann Parish in Baltimore.

He was named in 1966 as director of the archdiocesan branch of Catholic Charities by Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, serving in that position for ten years.

In 1970, Pope Paul VI named Stafford as a chaplain of his holiness.

He was elected president of the presbyteral senate for the archdiocese the following year.

Stafford also helped reorganize the central services of the archdiocese and create its collegial structures.

On January 11, 1976, Paul VI appointed Stafford as an auxiliary bishop of Baltimore and titular bishop of Respecta.

He was consecrated on February 29, 1976, by Archbishop William Borders, with Shehan and Bishop Thomas Murphy serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore.

Stafford selected as his episcopal motto: In principium erat Verbum, which is Latin for: "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:15).

As an auxiliary bishop, Stafford served as vicar general of the archdiocese from 1976 to 1981.

From 1978 to 1984, he led the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Commission on Marriage and Family Life.

He also served as administrator of Sts.

Philip and James Parish in Baltimore (1980–1981).

Stafford attended the Fifth Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Vatican City from September to October 1980.

On November 17, 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed Stafford as the second bishop of the Diocese of Memphis.

He was installed on January 17, 1982.

During his tenure, Stafford revised the structure of the pastoral office, improved the fiscal conditions of the diocese, and concentrated on the evangelization of African Americans.

In August 1983, one of the men wrote to Stafford complaining about White.

In addition to his duties in Memphis, Stafford was chairman of the USCCB Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (1984–1991) and co-president of the Dialogue between Roman Catholics and Lutherans (1984–1997).

Following the death of Archbishop James Casey, John Paul II appointed Stafford as the third archbishop of the Archdiocese of Denver on June 3, 1986.

He was installed at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Colorado, on July 30, 1986.

In 1990, the Vincentian Fathers announced the closing in 1994 of St. Thomas Seminary in Denver due to falling enrollment.

Stafford decided to buy the seminary property and plan a brand new institution, St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.

A response letter from the archdiocese said that White was to "...receive an evaluation from competent personnel to determine whether there are any recurring difficulties.” White continued to work in parish ministry until 1993; he was laicized in 2004.

Stafford previously served as president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity (1996–2003), archbishop of the Archdiocese of Denver (1986–1996), bishop of the Diocese of Memphis (1982–1986), and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore (1976–1982).

Stafford was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

The new facility opened in 1999 under Stafford's replacement, Archbishop Charles Chaput.

He served as major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary from 2003 to 2009.

In a July 28, 2005 article in the Denver Post. five men described being fondled as boys during the 1960s by Reverend Harold Robert White.