There had been a conflict between John Ireland, the politically powerful Roman Catholic Archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Alexis Toth, an influential Ruthenian Catholic priest of St. Mary's church in Minneapolis. Because Archbishop Ireland refused to accept Fr. Toth's credentials as a priest, Fr Toth converted his parish of St. Mary's to the Orthodox Church. Under his guidance and inspiration, tens of thousands of other Greek Catholics in North America converted to the Orthodox Church. Ireland is sometimes honored as the "Father of the Orthodox Church in America". Such Greek Catholics were received into Orthodoxy into the existing North American diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.