His Eminence, John Joseph Cardinal Carberry, S.T.D.

John J. Carberry was born July 31, 1904 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of James J. and Mary E. O'Keefe Carberry. He received his early education at Boniface School and Cathedral College in Brooklyn, where he excelled in both baseball and the violin. He studied for the priesthood at the North American College in Rome, Italy. He was ordained a priest in Rome on July 28, 1929 by Francesco Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani, vicar general to the pope.

Upon returning to Brooklyn, he served as an assistant pastor in several parishes. Fr. Carberry then went to Washington, D.C., where he earned a doctorate in canon law from the Catholic University of America. From 1935 to 1940 he was secretary to the bishop and assistant chancellor in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, before returning to Brooklyn as a pastor and professor of canon law at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, New York. He was also director of radio and television for the diocese and was known as the "Radio Priest." In 1948, Fr. Carberry was named a monsignor.

On May 3, 1956, Msgr. Carberry was named Titular Bishop of Elis and Coadjutor Bishop of Lafayette, Indiana. He was consecrated in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Brooklyn, on July 25, 1956, by Bishop Raymond A. Kearney, Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn. He was installed in St. Mary Cathedral in Lafayette on August 22, 1956, and succeeded to the see on November 20, 1957.

Bishop Carberry was appointed Bishop of Columbus on January 20, 1965, and was installed in St. Joseph Cathedral on March 25, 1965. Bishop Carberry attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. Much of his episcopate was devoted to implementing the Council in the Diocese of Columbus. In 1966, he established the Clergy Advisory Council (now the Priests' Senate), and he issued regulations for liturgical changes and had the Cathedral renovated to accommodate the changes. Bishop Carberry bought the current Catholic Center building on 197 East Gay Street, Columbus and began centralizing diocesan offices there. Bishop Carberry helped found the Inter-Church Board for Metropolitan Affairs, the first organization in the United States uniting Protestants and Catholics for ecumenism and social action.

On February 14, 1968, Bishop Carberry was appointed Archbishop of St. Louis by Pope Paul VI. He was installed in St. Louis Cathedral March 25, 1968. On April 28, 1969, he was created a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI. Cardinal Carberry retired on July 31, 1979. Cardinal Carberry passed away June 17, 1998, and is entombed in the crypt of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.