Joseph Ritter
Roman Catholic cardinal from the United States (1892–1967)
Joseph Elmer Ritter (July 20, 1892 – June 10, 1967) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of St. Louis from 1946 until his death in 1967. He was created a cardinal in 1961. He previously served as auxiliary bishop (1933–1934), bishop and later Archbishop of Indianapolis (1934–1946). Ritter was one of the cardinals elector who participated at the papal conclave in 1963.
Ritter is noted for ending racial discrimination in church schools in both of his archdioceses long before it became mandatory in the United States. He also ended hospital segregation in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and supported the education of African-American students.
Early life and education
Elmer Ritter was born on July 20, 1892, in New Albany, Indiana. He was the fourth of six children of Nicholas Ritter (1859–1944) and Bertha (née Luette) (1865–1941).
“Joseph Ritter” enters the record as roman Catholic cardinal from the United States (1892–1967). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Joseph, Ritter and Roman can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1706916. VIAF identifies the subject as 100793089. The Library of Congress control number is no2009146565. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1892, 1967, 1946 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joseph Ritter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.