He challenged the cardinal on racial injustice

There was standing room only on June 11, 1964, when a boyish-looking young priest named William DuBay called a press conference to criticize Los Angeles Cardinal James Francis McIntyre for ignoring housing discrimination against African Americans.

Quoting from a letter he wrote to Pope Paul VI, DuBay protested against the cardinal for "gross malfeasance in office" and asked that he be removed as archbishop of Los Angeles.

Suddenly, the young cleric became a household name on network news and the front pages of most daily newspapers.

"I was quite nervous and tense as a large group of print and television reporters took their seats," DuBay, 84, recently said in a telephone interview from his home on Whidbey Island near Seattle. "I kept reminding myself that it was the right thing to do."