Many have noted how Catholics were a voice in the wilderness in opposition to the eugenics movement in America. In An Image of God, Sharon Leon details how American Catholics found that voice and honed it into a coherent and effective critique of eugenic ideology, especially, eugenic sterilisation. Her book is also a careful exploration of American Catholic beliefs concerning the power of the state, the rights of individuals and the quest for the common good. As Leon states in her introduction, by finding their voice in the public arena on the questions raised by eugenics, Catholics ‘transformed themselves from religious outsiders into an integral and increasingly accepted part of the American community’ (10). Conversely, eugenicists went from seemingly unstoppable to increasingly defensive as Catholic opposition handed them legislative setbacks and increased public scrutiny in the first four decades of the twentieth century.
Leon’s first two chapters explore the diverse array of perspectives concerning eugenics in the early years of the movement. From early on, Catholic writers described state-sanctioned sterilisation as a violation of divinely ordained and fundamental human rights. However, some Catholic intellectuals found much to like in positive eugenics, especially the emphasis on pronatalism and social welfare. Leon is especially adept at revealing the complexities of how Catholic thinkers navigated the discourse surrounding ‘race suicide’ and the ‘welfare of the race’. In an era when most were quick to label the poor as hereditarily defective, Reverend John A. Ryan’s ringing defence of the downtrodden and his call for economic justice stands out in stark contrast. For that reason, it was delightful to read Leon’s close analysis of the intricate dance between the members of the American Eugenics Society (AES) and Reverend Ryan and Reverend John Montgomery Cooper, the two Catholic members of the AES Committee on Cooperation with Clergymen (CCC). Eugenicists tried to use them as intellectual cover and religious straw men, but both Ryan and Cooper sparred with them on scientific terrain and confronted the racist assumptions of eugenic research in the 1920s.
After the Buck v. Bell decision upholding the constitutionality of compulsory sterilisation. American Catholics took even more concerted political action. The National Catholic Welfare Conference was the organisational hub for informational resources and coordinated messaging to facilitate opposing sterilisation statutes in several states. Leon’s narrative of these efforts is at its most compelling in the state legislative battles, especially in Ohio. In addition, the book reveals the behind-the-scenes attempt by Catholics to petition for a rehearing in Buck v. Bell which, had it been successful, would have been a profound victory for human rights that would still resonate today. This reviewer was left wanting more of the state-level political action led by Catholic clergy and laity, especially after the release of Casti Cannubii the papal encyclical, in 1930. Similarly, the Catholic press clearly served as watchdogs and whistle-blowers concerning compulsory sterilisation in state institutions throughout the 1930s and, while Leon briefly discusses one egregious example of sterilisation abuse at the Beloit Industrial School for Girls in Kansas in 1937, it seems likely that there are more stories like this. In the wake of Leon’s book, hopefully, historians will pick up this thread and dive into the diocesan newspapers and archives in other states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Arkansas, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
An Image of God will quickly become indispensable to anyone writing about the eugenics movement in America, in particular, for its careful parsing of shifting Catholic discourse and strategies. Leon is adept at explicating how Catholic moral theology has been used to fight for social justice. At times though, the book’s exploration of Catholic opposition to eugenic sterilisation over-emphasises the extent to which American Catholics should be lauded as defenders of reproductive rights and bodily integrity. While Leon notes the organised Catholic opposition to birth control throughout her text, this reviewer wanted a more engaged analysis of how these two coordinated opposition campaigns were connected. Without this contextualisation, Leon’s praise of Catholics ‘protecting the rights of citizens to be free from unnecessary government intrusion’ (138) rings hollow because it does not highlight the tensions and inconsistencies of the past as well as the present.
