James Aloysius Griffin

[3] He received his episcopal consecration on February 25, 1924, from Archbishop George Mundelein, with Bishops Samuel Stritch and Edward Hoban serving as co-consecrators.

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.

[6] 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.

[8] 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.

"[9] 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.