Albert Lewis Fletcher

infobox bishopstyles
name=Albert Fletcher
dipstyle=The Most Reverend
offstyle=Your Excellency
relstyle=Monsignor
deathstyle=none |

Albert Lewis Fletcher (October 28, 1896—December 6, 1979) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Little Rock from 1946 to 1972.

Biography

Albert Fletcher was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied at Little Rock College and St. John Home Missions Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 4, 1920, and then taught chemistry and biology at Little Rock College, of which he became president in 1923. After obtaining a Master of Science degree from the University of Chicago, he became a professor of theology and canon law at St. John Seminary.

On December 11, 1939, Fletcher was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Little Rock and Titular Bishop of "Samos" by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on April 25, 1940 from Archbishop Amleto Cicognani, with Bishops Jules Jeanmard and William O'Brien serving as co-consecrators. He was the first native Arkansan to become a Catholic bishop, and his was the first consecration to be held in that state.

Fletcher was later named Bishop of Little Rock on December 7, 1946. He was a staunch advocate of desegregation, supporting the Supreme Court's ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954, and reprimanding Governor Orval Faubus for attempting to prevent desegregation at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. In a 1960 publication entitled "An Elementary Catholic Catechism on the Morality of Segregation and Racial Discrimination," he described segregation as "immoral...unjust and uncharitable," and stated that it could even constitute mortal sin "when the act of racial prejudice committed is a serious infraction of the law of justice or charity" [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826308,00.html "Segregation Is Immoral"] April 25, 1960] .

From 1962 to 1965, Fletcher attended the Second Vatican Council in Rome. Although he inaugurated the liturgical use of the vernacular in his diocese as early as 1964, he did not follow the Council’s advice on creating permanent deacons, and closed St. John Seminary after some of its faculty publicly questioned the Church’s stance on birth control and papal infallibility. The anti-Communist Fletcher was also opposed to calling for an end to the Vietnam War and to giving amnesty for those who resisted the war and avoided the draft. After twenty-five years of service, he retired as Little Rock’s ordinary on July 4, 1972.

Bishop Fletcher died in Little Rock, at the age of 83.

References

External links

* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bfletcher.html Catholic-Hierarchy]
* [http://www.dolr.org/bishop/fletcher.php Diocese of Little Rock]