Catholic Welfare Research Articles

The Natural Law and Interreligious Social Advocacy: The Civil Rights Movement-Era Case of William J. Kenealy, SJ

Before the Second Vatican Council, the efficacy of dialogue between Catholics and non-Catholics was often disputable. Nevertheless, the practical reality of American religious pluralism necessitated Catholic engagement with non-Catholics around pressing social issues. This reality was especially evident in the Civil Rights Movement, during which pro-equality Catholics considered how to politically effectuate the legal recognition of racial equality. Through a case study of former Boston College Law School Dean William J. Kenealy, this article proposes that pro-equality Catholics turned to the Natural Law as a foundation for interreligious social advocacy during the Civil Rights Movement. After exploring Kenealy’s formative intellectual influences, this article identifies the philosophical and historical features of the Natural Law that made it appear particularly ripe for promoting interreligious consensus around racial equality. In concluding, this article suggests that the resonances between Kenealy’s work and the National Catholic Welfare Conference’s 1958 pastoral letter on racial equality reflect the Natural Law’s prominent role in American Catholic thinking about civil rights at mid-century.

Donum Vitae: An Association External to the Church? A Rebuttal from a Personal and Theological Perspective - Discussed: Religion, Law, and Democracy: Selected Writings. By Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde. Edited by Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. 480. $65.00 (cloth); Oxford Scholarship Online by subscription (digital). ISBN: 9780198818632. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198818632.001.0001.

AbstractIn 1995, the German legislature introduced the rule that a woman who terminates her pregnancy in the first trimester, which is illegal, would not be punished if she had previously undergone a legally prescribed counseling session. The counseling session, while oriented toward the protection of unborn life, is also open-ended, respectful of the decision-making right and duty of the pregnant woman. At the request of the pope, the German bishops instructed the existing counseling centers of the Catholic welfare organizations not to issue any written certificates of such counseling, as such certificates could ultimately be used to evade punishment. In order to continue to be able to offer counseling, Catholics, among them Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, founded the association Donum Vitae (Gift of Life), which continues to issue certificates when requested. For the German bishops, the association, founded by Catholics for Catholics and non-Catholics alike, is external to the church. But what precisely is Donum Vitae? What does it stand for? Why are assessments of the association divided until this day? The essay examines these questions theologically and legally.

About This Issue

About This Issue Thomas Rzeznik, Co-editor History not only tells us what has happened, it often reminds us of what might have been. In that spirit, this issue opens with an article by Douglas J. Slawson (National University) that recounts the relations between Black Catholics and the National Catholic Welfare Conference in the post-World War I era. It reveals how Black Catholics' call for racial equality within the church found some receptive ears, but how gains proved elusive for a variety of reasons. In another story of possibility, Paul Monson (Sacred Heart Seminary) turns our attention to the history of ecumenical engagement in Hollywood in the post-Vatican II era. In particular, he looks at how Catholic and Protestant critics differed in their reception of two noteworthy films, Fred Zimmerman's A Man for All Seasons (1967) and Michael Anderson's The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), revealing how religious communities in the United States had not yet come to a consensus on what an ecumenical outlook entailed. Moving from films of the past to films of the present, we are pleased to offer a special review section focused on recent documentaries exploring American Catholic lives. As part of their analysis, we asked our reviewers to consider how these films presented their subject to a popular audience. We are grateful to Daniel Moran (Rutgers University) for his review of Flannery: The Storied Life of the Writer from Georgia; Tim Dulle, Jr. (Fordham University) for his review of Rebel Hearts; Daniel Cosacchi (Marywood University) for his review of The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous; Angela Alaimo O'Donnell (Fordham University) for her review of Catholicism: The Pivotal Players: Fulton J. Sheen, the Communicator and Flannery O'Connor, the Storyteller; Ross Enoch (Marist College) for his joint review of Enduring Faith and Walking the Good Red Road; and Elsie Miranda (Association of Theological Schools) for her review of Building a Bridge. The issue concludes with a cover essay by Sister Roseanne McDougall, SHCJ and Emily Siegel on the history of the Society of the Holy Jesus in the United States. Founded 175 years ago in England by Cornelia Connelly, a native of Philadelphia, the order began its ministry on U.S. shores in 1862, responding with apostolic zeal to the needs of the church and society, especially in the field of education. [End Page i] Copyright © 2021 American Catholic Historical Society

Knocking on America's door. Basque Foreign Politics in the US during the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War (1936-1945)

Este artículo analiza la denominada estrategia atlantista y cómo fue puesta en práctica por el Gobierno Vasco en el exilio a través de dos grandes etapas: por un lado, las actividades de la delegación del Gobierno Vasco en Nueva York durante la Guerra Civil española, atendiendo a su origen, composición, actuación y relación con instituciones norteamericanas como la National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC), el Departamento de Estado y sus diferentes agencias. Y, por otro, se estudian las labores de lobbying vascas durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Un periodo clave, pues, como se verá en las siguientes páginas, durante aquellos años se produjo una colaboración efectiva entre las instituciones vascas y las agencias estadounidenses de la Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), la Office of Coordinator of Information (COI), la Office of Strategic Services (OSS) y el Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The Oregon School Case: Its Forgotten Benefactors

In November 1922, the state of Oregon passed the Compulsory Education Law, which required all children aged eight to sixteen to attend public school. This law was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in June 1925. After the ruling, the National Catholic Welfare Conference took sole gratitude in the successful repeal of the law. Yet, the Conference forgot that without the help of the Knights of Columbus and Hill Military Academy the case might not have been filed for lack of funds. The Knights offered to finance the Archdiocese of Oregon City's legal fight before the NCWC had secured the necessary funds. The Knights/financing of the suit was crucial, making them vital benefactors in the case.

The Activities of the Polish Section “War Relief Services-National Catholic Welfare Conference” in Great Britain from 10.12.1943 to 31.07.1946

WRS-NCWC Polish Projects activities in Great Britain started at the very moment of the arrival 30 November 1943 of the Rev. A. Wycislo, Delegate of WRS-NCEC, nominated by Executive Committee as Field Director, Polish Projects. Very Bishop J.F. Gawlina immediately created in London an NCWC Polish Projects in Great Britain Committee. Rev. Canon R. Gogolinski-Elston was nominated Secretary of this Central Committee. The common aims of NCWC activities all over the world were directing aims of NCWC Polish Projects in Great Britain Central Committees. The especial aim to have care about the Polish Soldier, his spiritual and moral welfare, and to ensure his cultural and educationall development in a truly Catholic and Polish atmosphere. Rev. Gogolinski-Elston was ordered to start work immediately and already on the 10th of December 1943 the Polish Hearth in Blackpool was taken over, as the first NCWC Centre for Poles in Gt. Britain. On the 12th of December 1943 NCWC Rest and Recreational Centre for Polish University Students was opened in Edinburgh, 15th December an NCWC Polish Air Force Canteen in Blackpool was opend, 24th of December 1943 an NCWC Rest and Recreational Centre for Polish Convalescent Airmen in Blackoop and NCWC Rest and Recreational Centre in Special Secret Duty Detachment in “X” (military secret) were created. Polish Projects in Gt. Britain will be an excellent testimonial to American Catholics with their Bishops, to War Relief Services-National Catholic Welfare Conference, organization with its so effective Executive and Field Director.

Protection Against Good Intentions: The Catholic Role in the Campaign to Ban Proxy Adoption, 1956–1961

Abstract:The debate over the practice of proxy adoption sheds light on changing notions of proper intercountry adoption practices and standards of family planning as they developed in the mid-twentieth century. The practice of proxy adoption was born out of a loophole in U.S. immigration legislation, initially used by Americans to adopt European orphans after World War II. After the Korean War, the practice was again utilized to bring Korean children in even greater numbers to the United States. Through proxy adoption, adoptive parents bypassed the standard checkpoints of the adoption process as established by U.S. social welfare agencies. Although initially hailed as a humane practice, proxy adoption was ultimately banned in 1961 after a successful antiproxy adoption campaign waged by a coalition of social welfare workers, Catholic leaders, and U.S. senators. The role of Catholic agencies in this debate is essential, yet remains largely unexplored. This article sheds light on this significant and underresearched history of the Catholic institutions involved in the proxy adoption debate.The Catholic agencies, namely the National Catholic Welfare Conference and the Catholic Committee for Refugees, stood apart from both the government social welfare establishment and other humanitarian actors. Their actions must instead be understood through the context of their own institutional history of domestic social welfare programs and overseas humanitarian work, dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article analyzes their relationship with the U.S. social welfare establishment, as well as joint advocacy efforts to reform intercountry adoption practices.

The Priest Who Put Europe Back Together: The Life of Father Fabian Flynn, CP by Sean Brennan

Reviewed by: The Priest Who Put Europe Back Together: The Life of Father Fabian Flynn, CP by Sean Brennan Todd Scribner The Priest Who Put Europe Back Together: The Life of Father Fabian Flynn, CP. By Sean Brennan. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018. 312 pp. $34.95. The title of Sean Brennan's recently published book on Father Fabian Flynn, CP is a bold one and, as such, overpromises. The numerous individuals, organizations, and government programs that helped piece Europe back together in the two decades following World War II were all in their own way indispensable efforts at putting Europe back together again. Nevertheless, some were more important than others and Flynn certainly fell on the more important side of the ledger. It is the story of a life worth telling and is done in a way that effectively allows the reader to understand this important and generally overlooked personality. A Passionist priest ordained in 1931, Father Fabian Flynn had promised himself to a monastic life, although he spent most of his prime years in the battlefields of Europe or in humanitarian work following the war, most notably in response to crises that emerged in countries including Austria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. His success outside of the monastery—primarily in his employment at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)—and his happiness in this work might make a reader wonder whether or not his commitment to a monastic vocation was ever a wise decision. Regardless, his time away from the monastery proved to be a source of continual tension between himself and his religious superiors; his work in the field a source of great contentment. Some of the professional opportunities that Flynn held in Europe were a consequence of sheer persistence on this part. He repeatedly fell ill as a young man and probably had no business being sent to the battlefield. Nonetheless, his continual pestering of military leadership to deploy him into the field eventually bore fruit and he spent several years ministering to soldiers on the battlefield, all the while experiencing the dangers of combat firsthand. His bravery on the field brought with it recognition, including at one point a purple heart. [End Page 96] Other opportunities emerged due more to chance than through an act of will. As the longtime Catholic chaplain to the Blue Spaders, which happened to be deployed near Nuremberg at the end of the war, Flynn was named as a military chaplain at the International Military Tribunal. There he encountered a range of German military personnel who were put to trial for their war crimes and had the opportunity to befriend their friends and family. All these efforts were important, but it was his demonstrated success and commitment to the relief work of CRS, which played a significant role in providing relief to displaced populations and the broader populations of Europe. Brennan's account of this period of Fr. Flynn's life is particularly captivating, as it effectively draws together the actions of one individual in the context of a much larger organizational, political, and social context. One of the most rewarding aspects of the book is the way in which Brennan effectively interweaves the personal narrative of Flynn with the broader historical context that informed his work in Europe. Anyone interested in World War II, in post-war Europe, or in more recent Catholic history would benefit by making a point to read it. At the very least, every Catholic university library should have a copy of this book on their shelves. As elucidating a book as it is, there are some factual flaws that should have been caught at some point in the publication process. In a section detailing the founding of Catholic Relief Services, for example, Brennan correctly notes that it was established in 1943 under the authority of its parent organization, the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC). This institution, founded in 1917 as the National Catholic War Council, functioned as the national "headquarters" for the U.S. Catholic bishops. He proceeds to note that "in 1922, the organization was renamed the National Catholic Welfare Conference, keeping the same initials, and it maintains the name to the present...

The Catholic Roots of U.S. Foreign Assistance: From Good Neighbors to Allies for Progress

The United States Catholic Church has played an underappreciated role in U.S. foreign policy, especially in Latin America. U.S. Catholics entered the global stage during World War I by serving in the military and organizing the National Catholic War Council (later the National Catholic Welfare Conference [NCWC]) to facilitate dissemination of aid to American soldiers and European refugees. This effort was encouraged by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and supplemented by other domestic efforts. This article traces the development of U.S. Catholic international assistance and argues that it provided the foundation for a much more expansive civil-Catholic collaboration that evolved during the John F. Kennedy Administration. Neither the Catholic Church nor the U.S. government controlled the mutually reinforcing relationship. Instead, it grew as each looked to the other to extend foreign aid, especially during the era of the Cold War when opposing the spread of communism was a defining goal of both church and state.

The National Catholic Welfare Conference's Efforts to Assist Non-Aryan Christians Threatened by the Nuremberg Laws, 1935–1940

The National Catholic Welfare Conference's Efforts to Assist Non-Aryan Christians Threatened by the Nuremberg Laws, 1935–1940

La delegación del Gobierno Vasco en Nueva York durante la Guerra Civil (1936-1939): las labores de lobbying la NCWC y el Departamento de Estado

En este artículo se analizan las relaciones políticas que estableció la delegación del Gobierno vasco en Nueva York con diferentes agencias norteamericanas durante la Guerra Civil española, entre ellas la National Catholic Welfare Conference y el Departamento de Estado. Este estudio se aborda desde la óptica de la Historia Política y aporta fuentes novedosas procedentes de archivos norteamericanos (National Archives and Records Administration, American Catholic University Archive, Rockefeller Foundation Archive) y estatales (Centro del Patrimonio Documental de Euskadi-Irargi, Archivo Histórico del Nacionalismo Vasco y Archivo General de la Administración); gracias a ellas se profundiza en el estudio de la acción exterior vasca durante esta etapa. Finalmente, se esbozan unas breves conclusiones sobre la efectividad de las iniciativas vascas para presionar a los organismos estadounidenses mencionados y mostrarles su perspectiva, la republicana, sobre la Guerra Civil española.

Fighting for Hemispheric Solidarity: The National Catholic Welfare Conference and the Quest to Secure Mexican American Employment Rights During World War II

During World War II representatives of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC) pursued an end to employment discrimination as part of its larger effort to instill a moral economy. The NCWC, acting as the representative body of U.S. Catholic bishops, served as the public voice of U.S. Catholics and an agent of the Church's public interests. By protecting the employment and economic rights of racial minorities, Catholic leaders believed that they could ameliorate racial inequality and bring about a new economic order. Prominent Catholics served as administrators in several wartime agencies, including the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC), a federal agency that worked to address racial inequality in light of the wartime crisis. President Roosevelt's appointment of Monsignor Francis Haas (1889–1953) as FEPC chairman in 1943, offered a link to the work of the NCWC and provided an opportunity for Mexican American leaders such as Carlos E. Castaneda and Alonso Perales to make use of their identities as Catholics and Mexican Americans to advance wartime projects. Together, clergy and Mexican American lay leaders formed a cooperative network to end employment discrimination and advance civil rights.

About this Issue

About this Issue Nicholas Rademacher, Associate Editor This issue of American Catholic Studies includes essays that nicely complement one another—a pair of pairs. Two articles address the scholarship on women religious and two address Catholic responses to poverty in the developing world and at home. The articles by Joseph G. Mannard (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and Deirdre Raftery (University College Dublin) focus on discrete dimensions of the scholarship on women religious in the United States. Mannard examines the proliferation of communities of women religious in antebellum America. He speaks of a “convent revolution” to argue that the three decades between 1830 and 1860 can be viewed as the starting point of the growth and influence of women religious in the United States. Raftery’s article turns readers’ attention to the future of scholarship on the history of women religious. The coming “third wave” of scholarship in this field will include advanced technological methods, equipping historians with new tools and, one anticipates, fresh insights into the lives of women religious. Edward T. Brett’s (La Roche College) article on Oscar Romero and Mary Elizabeth Brown’s (Marymount Manhattan College) cover essay on archival resources pertinent to U.S. Catholic immigrant aid societies both address matters of pressing contemporary concern, namely American Catholic attitudes toward poverty in the developing world and the U.S. Catholic reception of people fleeing poverty, violence, and political oppression. Brett investigates the contrasting views of Romero held by traditional, conservative elites and those who were influenced by Vatican II’s people of God ecclesiology and the preferential option for the poor. Brown provides an overview of archival collections available at the Center for Migration Studies in New York City, including papers of the Italian Saint Raphael Society, the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC), and the American Committee for Italian Migration (ACIM). Scholars can use these important collections to track the various responses of U.S. Catholics to immigration. Taken together, the articles in this issue provide readers with fresh insights into and methodological resources for the study of subjects that remain pressing contemporary concerns. [End Page i] Copyright © 2017 American Catholic Historical Society

A Survey Study of Volunteer’s Satisfaction and Communication Adaptability:with Case of Catholic Social Welfare Organizations in Seoul

A Survey Study of Volunteer’s Satisfaction and Communication Adaptability:with Case of Catholic Social Welfare Organizations in Seoul

Nie tylko wizyta u Stalina. Ksiądz Stanisław Orlemanski i jego bracia

Not Simply a Visit With Stalin — Rev. Stanislaus Orlemanski and His Brothers For the past 71 years the life of Rev. Stanislaus Orlemanski has been described by a series of catchphrases, the summary of which reads — a Polish–American Communist who invited himself to Moscow, an overconfident country bumpkin who thought he could outsmart Stalin, a priest who departed without the permission of his diocesenal superior. Reverend Stanislaus was not the most radical of the three Orlemanski brothers, who were priests, rather it was Casimir, who was deeply engaged in the Pittsburgh union movement and is well known to students of the US Labor movement. Reverend Stanislaus was known to the Polish–American community — the leading conservative paper — Dziennik Związkowy , published his articles criticizing the description of Poles and Italians in the Catholic Encyclopedia. In the ensuing years, Orlemanski’s articles appeared in both Polish and English language press. The decision that Stanislaus Orlemanski was to travel to Moscow was made some six months prior to his departure, during the Moscow Conference of October 1943. This decision is multiplaned and relates not only to the 1944 US Presidential election, but also to a future Polish government as well as Stalin’s desire to impress both Anglicans and Roman Catholics with his openness to religion. Clearly FDR and his closest advisors saw the benefits of this proposal as did the Soviet government. Efforts to include clergy in the „Wasilewska” government also involved Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ and Fr. Wilhelm Kubsz. Mid–January 1944 correspondence of Ambassador Harriman with Washington relates that the People’s Commissar of the USSR had proposed that Krzycki, Lange and Orlemanski all serve as members of a future Polish government. Stalin’s late January 1944 letter to Roosevelt requesting issuance of passports to Orlemanski and Lange served as a camouflage for FDR; while his response to Stalin attempts to distance himself from the project. A passport was issued, as were permits for travel from the US Western Defense Command and the Alaska Defense Command, as well as others valid for travel through Egypt, Iraq and Persia (Iran) confirming the deep involvement of the US and British Government in this project. Correspondence from the US National Catholic Welfare Conference to the Papal Nuncio in Washington sent prior to the departure of Orlemanski and contains specific references to his probable position in the future government. The well–publicized suspension of Reverend Orlemanski was simply pro forma and lasted but several days. Drafts of his apology are located in NCWC files. Finally, the invitation to participate in the 50th anniversary celebrations of a strongly anti–communist Cardinal of the Curia, confirm at the least, that the Vatican was aware that Orlemanski was not an agent. What is now left to discover is the text of the Stalin document transmitted for Orlemanski by Father Marie Leopold Braun A. A., from Moscow to the Vatican and the Roman Curia’s full analysis of this document. That must await the declassification of the Pope Pius XII records held by the Vatican. What is clear is that the Rev. Stanislaus Orlemanski, although a leftist, was not a radical anomaly but rather an intensely pro–Polish US citizen who saw the sole enemy as Germany and supported any organization that fought against the enemy.

“It is the Mass that Matters Most”: Monsignor George G. Higgins and the Place of the Liturgy in Social Action

Monsignor George G. Higgins is widely regarded as the single most influential clergyman in the American labor movement in the second half of the twentieth century. Through his leadership of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, his teaching at The Catholic University of America, and especially his syndicated newspaper column, “Yardstick,” Higgins explicated Catholic social teaching and proposed its lessons as a blueprint for the reform of economic and labor policy. Very little attention, however, has been paid to Higgins’s undying interest in the liturgical movement and in the liturgy’s crucial importance for any true social reform. Throughout his priestly life, Higgins exhorted Catholic laity, and union members in particular, through his homilies, speeches, and newspaper columns, to appreciate how liturgy and social action were two sides of the same coin. Using the extensive archival resources of The Catholic University of America, this article traces the influences that inspired Higgins to wed liturgical and social reform, recovers how he wrote and spoke about the importance of the liturgy in obtaining the ends of social action, and briefly suggests reasons why the brief marriage of these two movements failed to endure.

Archbishop Edward Hanna of San Francisco: An Archetype for Twentieth Century American Catholicism

The ebb and flow of American Catholic life between 1850 and 1950, as characterized by the immigrant church, the battles over Americanism and theological Modernism, and the subsequent foundation of the National Catholic Welfare Council is found in the priestly and episcopal career of Edward Hanna. A Rochester, New York priest, Hanna’s career closely followed the ups and downs of the American Catholic Church he served. As a priest he ministered to Italian immigrants while simultaneously teaching dogmatics at St. Bernard’s Seminary. Hanna’s Modernist-leaning essays initially cost him the coadjutor position in San Francisco, but he eventually went to the City by the Bay, becoming local ordinary in 1915. Truly an archbishop of the people, Hanna served the city, the state of California in civic affairs, and the church in the United States as administrative chairman of the National Catholic Welfare Council, guiding this nascent body that typified the ascent of American Catholicism in numerous issues, both domestically and internationally. Archbishop Edward Hanna truly was an archetype of the American Church from the era of the Civil War to the post-World War II period.

“The mental grandchildren of Monsignor John A. Ryan”: George G. Higgins, John F. Cronin, S.S., and the Role of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in Post-War American Politics

In the 1930s Monsignor John A. Ryan strove to wed Catholic social reform and American liberalism through his interpretation of papal encyclicals, appropriation of Progressive thought, and positive evaluation of New Deal economic policies. In the postwar period, two of Ryan’s students extended his engagement with liberal reform through their own work for the U.S. bishops. From 1945 to 1966, Monsignor George G. Higgins and Father John F. Cronin, S.S., collaborated in using the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference as a national platform from which they could bring the principles of Catholic social theory to bear on national debates. By examining their individual and collective work regarding labor and economics, their approaches to communism, and their advocacy of racial integration and civil rights, this article argues that Cronin and Higgins were “mental grandchildren of Monsignor John A. Ryan,” adapting the principles Ryan had gleaned from the social encyclicals and applying them to the pressing concerns of their own time.

The crisis as a constrained opportunity? Catholic organisations and territorial welfare in the Basque Country and Emilia-Romagna

Interactions between politics and religion are frequently reduced to ethical and civilisational issues which are politicised and given prominence in the media. Focusing instead on the role of religious – here Catholic – actors in the local experience of social economy and welfare provision in times of economic crisis helps instead to highlight the discrete interactions between politics and religion. In particular, the strong involvement of religious actors, beyond their traditional charity-oriented activity, also concerns more solidarity-oriented socioeconomic experiences as well as political advocacy. These articulations generate new forms of politicisation with respect to both social movements and policymakers. In this article I address these issues comparatively in a Spanish region (the Basque Autonomous Community) and an Italian region (Emilia-Romagna).

Rev. John J. Burke, the National Catholic Welfare Conference, and the American Occupation of Haiti (1915–34)

In 1915, the United States landed marines in Haiti, a Catholic nation tied by concordat with the Vatican. In 1921, Paulist priest John J. Burke, general secretary of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, began lobbying the federal government on behalf of the Church in Haiti. From 1925 through 1931, he served as official representative of the Vatican and Haitian hierarchy to that government regarding the occupation. The author recounts Burke’s efforts for the Church in Haiti that culminated in the American government’s decision to withdraw from the island nation.