{{Short description|American prelate}} {{Infobox Christian leader | honorific-prefix = His Excellency, The Most Reverend | name = Karl Joseph Alter | honorific-suffix = | archbishop_of = Archbishop of Cincinnati<br>titular archbishop of Minora. | image = KarlAlter.jpg | caption = | province = | diocese = | see = Archdiocese of Cincinnati | enthroned = June 14, 1950 | ended = July 19, 1969 | predecessor = John T. McNicholas | successor = Paul Francis Leibold | ordination = June 4, 1910 | consecration = June 17, 1931 | other_post = Bishop of Toledo (1931 – 1950) | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1885|8|18}} | birth_place = Toledo, Ohio, USA | death_date = {{death date and age|1977|8|23|1885|8|18}} | death_place = Cincinnati, Ohio, USA | buried = | nationality = | religion = Roman Catholic Church | residence = | parents = | spouse = | children = | occupation = | profession = | alma_mater = | signature = | consecrated_by = John T. McNicholas | ordained_by = John Patrick Farrelly }} '''Karl Joseph Alter''' (August 18, 1885 – August 23, 1977) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Toledo in Ohio (1931–1950) and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in Ohio (1950–1969).
==Biography==
=== Early life === Karl Alter was born on August 18, 1885, in Toledo, Ohio, to John P. and Elizabeth (née Kuttner) Alter.<ref name="curtis">{{cite book|last=Curtis|first=Georgina Pell|title=The American Catholic Who's Who|volume=XIV|year=1961|publisher=Walter Romig|location=Grosse Pointe, Michigan}}</ref> His father was a cigar manufacturer and liquor dealer. Karl Alter attended St. John's High School in Delphos, Ohio, and was a member of the first graduating class of St. John's College in Toledo in 1905.<ref name="blade">{{cite news|date=1977-08-23|work=Toledo Blade|title=Archbishop Karl Alter}}</ref> He made his theological studies at St. Mary's Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio.<ref name="curtis" />
=== Priesthood === On June 4, 1910, Alter was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop John Farrelly for the Diocese of Toledo.<ref name="hierarchy">{{cite news|work=Catholic-Hierarchy.org|title=Archbishop Karl Joseph Alter|url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/balter.html}}</ref> He then served as administrator of St. Mary's Parish in Leipsic, Ohio, until 1912, when he became a curate at St. John's Parish in Lima, Ohio.<ref name="curtis" /> In 1914, Alter was appointed the first diocesan director of Catholic Charities, coordinating various charitable organizations in the diocese into one agency.<ref name="curtis" /> During this period, Alter also served as vice-president of the Toledo Social Service Foundation, a trustee of the Toledo Red Cross and of the Toledo Society for the Blind, and a member of the children's division of the state department of public welfare.<ref name="blade" />
Alter served as a lecturer in sociology at St. John's College and at Mary Manse College in Toledo from 1914 to 1930.<ref name="curtis" /> He earned a Master's degree from St. John's in 1923 and a doctorate in 1929.<ref name="blade" /> In 1929, Alter was named director of the School of Social Service at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.<ref name="curtis" /> While in Washington, he also served as chairman of the speakers' committee for the ''Catholic Hour'' radio program.<ref name="curtis" />
=== Bishop of Toledo === On April 17, 1931, Alter was appointed the third bishop of the Diocese of Toledo by Pope Pius XI.<ref name="hierarchy" /> He received his episcopal consecration on June 17, 1931, from Archbishop John T. McNicholas, with Bishops Augustus Schwertner and Joseph H. Albers serving as co-consecrators.<ref name="hierarchy" /> He was the first priest from the Diocese of Toledo to become its bishop.<ref name="blade" /> He founded the ''Catholic Chronicle'' in 1934.
In 1938, Alter condemned religious persecution in Germany and unrest in Palestine.<ref name="blade" /> Along with fellow American bishops, Alter publicly criticized the Moscow Agreement of 1943, fearful that the Soviet Union would not fulfill its promises on religious and personal freedoms.<ref>TIME Magazine. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930084520/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851844,00.html Moscow: Catholic View] November 22, 1943</ref> In 1944, he drafted a proposal for a joint declaration on world peace by Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant leaders.<ref name="blade" />
Following World War II, Alter offered a 10-point program for economic security; among his points were such contemporary ideas as wage equalization on the basis of cost of living, representation of laborers on a firm's board of trustees, profit-sharing, and special consideration for persons living on fixed incomes.<ref name="blade" /> During Alter's tenure as bishop, the construction of Rosary Cathedral in Toledo was completed and an addition to Central Catholic High School in Toledo was built.<ref name="blade" /> He established DeSales College in Toledo in 1942 and donated a {{convert|12|acre|m2|adj=on}} parcel of land in East Toledo for the construction of St. Charles Hospital.
===Archbishop of Cincinnati=== Following the death of Archbishop McNicholas, Alter was appointed by Pope Pius XII as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati on June 14, 1950.<ref name="hierarchy" /> During his administration, he established 98 churches, 94 elementary schools, 14 high schools, 79 rectories, and 55 convents.<ref name="blade" /> He also instituted a priests' senate and an archdiocesan school board composed of lay members, and encouraged the formation of parish councils. He undertook a restoration of Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral.<ref name="blade" />
Within the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC), Alter served two terms as vice- chairman (1950–52, 1956–58), two terms as chairman (1952–1955, 1958–1962), and one term as secretary (1962–1966).<ref name="curtis" /> As chairman of the NCWC, he issued a protest against religious and racial discrimination in June 1960. Between 1962 and 1965, Alter attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome, having previously served on the Central Preparatory Commission. At the council, he sat on the Commissions for Bishops and for the Government of Dioceses. He discontinued first grades in Cincinnati parochial schools in 1964 because of high costs and overcrowded classrooms.<ref name="time1964">TIME Magazine. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110524064512/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940387-1,00.html Schools Under Strain] March 20, 1964</ref> However, Alter did not believe that this would greatly interfere with children's religious education.<ref name="time1964" />
=== Retirement and legacy === Pope Paul VI accepted Alter's resignation as archbishop of Cincinnati on July 19, 1969, and appointed him as titular archbishop of ''Minora.'' Alter held that post until December 31, 1970.
Karl Alter died on August 23, 1977, in Cincinnati at age 92. Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio, is named in his honor, as was the former Alter Elementary School in Rossford, Ohio.
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{succession box | title=Bishop of Toledo | before=Samuel Alphonsius Stritch | after=George John Rehring | years=1931–1950}} {{succession box | title=Archbishop of Cincinnati | before=John Timothy McNicholas | after=Paul Francis Leibold | years=1950–1969}} {{s-end}} {{Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati}} {{Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo}}
{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= Ohio}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alter, Karl Joseph}} Category:1885 births Category:1977 deaths Category:People from Toledo, Ohio Category:Roman Catholic bishops of Toledo, Ohio Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Pius XI Category:20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States Category:Roman Catholic archbishops of Cincinnati Category:Participants in the Second Vatican Council Category:Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Category:National Catholic School of Social Service faculty Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic bishops