James Francis Stafford was born in Baltimore on 26 July 1932 and ordained a priest in Rome on 15 December 1957. He directed Baltimore's Associated Catholic Charities for a decade (1966–76) before appointment as auxiliary bishop of Baltimore in January 1976 (consecrated 29 February by Archbishop Borders), then Bishop of Memphis in November 1982 (per the Holy See biography; Wikipedia gives 1981) and Archbishop of Denver in 1986. In Denver he hosted the first World Youth Day held in the United States (1993), planned the new St John Vianney Seminary, and co-presided over the US Catholic–Lutheran dialogue.
On 20 August 1996 John Paul II made him President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity — the office behind the Paris (1997), Rome (2000), and Toronto (2002) World Youth Days — and on 4 October 2003, Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary, serving until June 2009. John Paul II created him a cardinal on 21 February 1998, with the deaconry of Gesù Buon Pastore alla Montagnola (Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Montorio from 2008). His 2008 remarks at the Catholic University of America called President-elect Obama's agenda “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic.” His motto is In principium erat verbum — “in the beginning was the Word.”
Consequential Quotes
If 1968 was the year of America's 'suicide attempt,' 2008 is the year of America's exhaustion. For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden.
Major Works & Initiatives
Denver's World Youth Day
Hosted the first WYD in the United States.
Major Penitentiary
Headed the Church's tribunal of mercy.
President for the Laity
Ran three World Youth Days for John Paul II.
Controversies
The Harold White case
A July 2005 Denver Post article reported that in August 1983 a man wrote to then-Bishop Stafford complaining of abuse by Rev. Harold Robert White in the 1960s; the response said White was to “receive an evaluation… to determine whether there are any recurring difficulties.” White remained in parish ministry until 1993 and was laicized in 2004; a 1998 jury had awarded his victims $30 million in awards connected to the case in another diocese.