Background
John Wright was born on July 18, 1909, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the oldest of six children of John Wright, a clerk in a paper factory, and Harriet L. Cokely.
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John Wright was born on July 18, 1909, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the oldest of six children of John Wright, a clerk in a paper factory, and Harriet L. Cokely.
After graduation from Boston Latin School, the city's public high school for its most gifted students, he enrolled in Boston College, a Catholic, Jesuit-run institution, from which he graduated with a B. A. in 1931.
He began his academic career as a journalism major but decided against journalism as a profession when he found himself incapable of interviewing the mother of a girl who had recently committed suicide. He entered St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachussets, to study to become a Catholic priest. After receiving an S. T. L. degree in 1932, he was admitted to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, where he received an S. T. D. degree in 1939. Cardinal Wright would eventually receive more than twenty honorary degrees from colleges and universities in Canada and the United States. Meanwhile, on December 8, 1935, he was ordained a priest. After finishing his studies in Rome, he was appointed a professor of philosophy at St. John's Seminary in Boston, where he remained on the faculty until 1944. In 1942 his doctoral thesis was published as National Patriotism in Papal Teaching, which emphasized the war as paradox for the Christian.
In 1943 he was named secretary to the archbishop of Boston, William Cardinal O'Connell; he retained this position when O'Connell was succeeded by Archbishop (eventually Cardinal) Richard J. Cushing. Wright became a monsignor and a papal chamberlain in 1944 and was named a domestic prelate in 1946. A year later, on June 30, 1947, he was named an auxiliary bishop of Boston. Between 1950 and 1959 he served as the first bishop of the newly created see of Worcester, Massachussets, supervising some quarter million Catholics. In 1959 he was named the bishop of Pittsburgh, shepherd to some 850, 000 Catholics, a position he retained until 1969. During this period he published Words in Pain (1961) and The Christian and the Law (1962). He also contributed to Dialogue for Reunion (1962). These writings reveal Wright's struggle to unite God and human needs.
In 1960, the Catholic Mind devoted an entire issue to consideration of Cardinal Wright's thought. Elevated to cardinal in 1969, Cardinal Wright entered office at a moment of spreading ecclesiastical skepticism. This was especially true among European priests. Expanding his intellectual horizons to include the study of liberal Dutch theologians, Cardinal Wright argued for renewed dedication by priests to the principles of faith that had prompted them to join the priesthood in the first place. He called for the reassignment of skeptical priests to hardship posts in the third world as a means of renewing their Christian commitment. Taking an increasingly strong stand regarding priests who questioned their vows, he pointed out that "there is nothing that cures subjectivism like the impact of other people's problems. " He added that skepticism and doubt were "not so severe that hard work won't cure" them. In keeping with these ideas, he called upon priests to renew their vows of celibacy and ecclesiastical obedience once per year. Considering the spirit of the age, his positions did not come at an opportune moment. Expressed only a few years after the Vatican II Council had instituted many liberal reforms, they did not find a friendly audience in Europe.
Dissenting priests reacted strongly against Cardinal Wright's call for a yearly renewal of vows, likening the idea to the loyalty oaths of the McCarthy era in the United States. Indeed, Cardinal Wright's positions were not received particularly well in the United States either. His call to 1, 200 priests to attend a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City in 1970 in order to renew their promises of celibacy and obedience drew only thirty-five responses. The episode was a clear embarrassment to the Vatican. Nonetheless, Cardinal Wright persisted with his conservative campaign.
Suffering from cataracts and polymyositis, a neuromuscular disorder affecting his legs, he was confined to a wheelchair by 1978. He died on August 10, 1979, at the Youville Rehabilitation and Chronic Disease Hospital in Cambridge, Massachussets. He was buried in a family plot in Brookline, Massachussets.
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John Wright was an intellectual who was liberal on social issues, but conservative in theology. He espoused civil rights and condemned the Vietnam War, but opposed ordination of women and birth control. He believed that annual Synods of Bishops would be useless and burdenful, and that seven years was the appropriate age for children to receive the Sacrament of Penance, as it might be thus able to correct sinful behavior at an early age. He also believed that Pope John Paul I would be "a witty Pontiff who delights in combining love of literature with love of the words of God. "
