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The Laity and the Ecumenical Spirit, 1889–1893

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

In the late 1880's new sounds reverberated throughout the Catholic Church in America. Rapid urban growth and the rising tides of immigration required new perspectives on religion in the social order: science and historical criticism involved philosophy and theology, and rumblings of internal as well as external controversy were heard in the Church. The layman was achieving status in business and politics and, as he became more vocal on civic and cultural issues, he played a larger role in representing Catholicism before the American people. Self-critical voices sounded forth in the Catholic press, and churchmen were calling upon the laity. When the conjunction of several major centennial celebrations occurred in 1889, laymen leaped into the breach and started a trend in Catholic thought and action that has much to say to our generation, especially in the light of the Second Vatican Council.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1964

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References

1 Abell, Aaron I., American Catholicism and Social Action: A Search for Social Justice, 1865–1950 (New York, 1960), pp. 99101Google Scholar. The origins of the Congress are discussed in Sister Francis, M. Adele, , O.S.F., “Lay Activity and the Catholic Congresses of 1889 and 1893,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, LXXIV (03, 1963), 3 ff.Google Scholar; she traces the congress idea back to Mainz in 1848.

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11 For almost daily accounts of the Congress and of the Parliament of Religions see files of Chicago's Tribune, Herald, Times, Record, Inter Ocean, and Columbian.

12 Boston Pilot, September 16, 1893.

13 Ibid., September 23, 1893.

14 Lectures on the above topics are to be found in Barrows, World's Parliament of Religions; Houghton, Walter R., ed., Neely's History of the Parliament of Religions (2v., Chicago, 1894)Google Scholar; Hanson, J. W., ed., The World's Congress of Religions (Boston, 1894)Google Scholar; Savage, Minot J., The World's Congress of Religions (Boston, 1893)Google Scholar. Also see Johnson, Rossiter, A History of the World's Columbian Exposition (New York, 18971898)Google Scholar.

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18 Ibid., May 27, 1893.

19 Bishop John J. Keane's account of the Parliament prepared for the Catholic Family Annual and reported in the Boston Pilot, November 4, 1893. Also see Houghton, Neefy's History, 23. Archbishop Feehan served on the General Committee along with Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Congregationalist, Unitarian, Universalist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Swedenborgian, independent, and Jewish religious leaders.

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38 Ireland, of course, was soon embroiled in the “Americanism” controversy.

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