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The Catholic Minority after the Americanist Controversy, 1899–1917: A Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Thomas T. McAvoy C.S.C.
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Extract

ToUnderstand the limited accomplishment of American Catholic intellectual activities in the second half of the twentieth century it is not sufficient to examine the immediate antecedents. The American Catholic history since the beginning of the first World War has, indeed, witnessed important efforts to raise Catholic intellectual activities to the level of traditional European Catholic culture, but these efforts have been handicapped by a bad starting point. The absence of similar efforts during the decades preceding World War I — a period in which Catholic intellectual activities were seriously out of step with the intellectual development of the United States — has much to do with the present mediocre status of Catholic intellectual activities and accomplishments. Unfortunately, the period in Catholic history between the Americanist controversy and the formation of the National Catholic War Council in 1917 has not been seriously studied and consequently its effect on subsequent American life is not fully understood.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 1959 , pp. 53 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1959

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References

1 Msgr. Ellis, John T.' The Life of Cardinal Gibbons, 2 vols. (Milwaukee, 1952)Google Scholar is the chief publication to use the Baltimore Archives for this period. Ryan's, Like John A.Social Doctrine in Action (New York, 1941)Google Scholar it is a bit lacking in critical evaluations of the main subject during the period. Cross's, Robert D. (Cambridge, 1957) The Emergence of Liberal Catholicism in America is less cogent in discussing twentieth century American CatholicismGoogle Scholar. Zwierlein, Frederick J., Theodore Roosevelt and Catholics, 1882–1919 (Rochester, 1956)Google Scholar deals mostly with church and state problems. Ahern's, P. H.John J. Keane (Milwaukee, 1955)Google Scholar and Moynihan's, JamesLife of Archbishop John Ireland (New York, 1953)Google Scholar treat of men whose chief activities were in the nineteenth century. For the Catholic social history of the period A. I. Abell's forthcoming volume is eagerly awaited. From his seminar at Notre Dame have already come Fox's, Mary HarritaPeter E. Dietz, Labor Priest (Notre Dame, 1953)Google Scholar and the unpublished doctoral studies: Balfe's, Richard E. “Charles P. Neill and the United States Bureau of Labor” (1956);Google ScholarGreen's, J. J. “The Impact of the Henry George Theories on American Catholics” (1956);Google ScholarWeber's, Ralph E. ”The Life of John Augustine Zahm, C.S.C.: American Catholic Apologist and Educator” (1956);Google Scholar and White's, James A. “The Era of Good Intentions — a Survey of American Catholic Writing between 1880 and 1915” (1957)Google Scholar.

2 The author has discussed the Americanist controversy in his The Great Crisis in American Catholic History 1895–1900. (New York, 1957)Google Scholar.

3 The use of the French word ”premier” to describe the Baltimore see does not disguise the fact that Gibbons exercised some of the qualities of a primate without having beneath him a national church or obtaining the official designation of primate.

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6 The story of the Federation of Catholic Societies is scattered in many newspaper articles, published proceedings, a Bulletin varying in size, and, frequently, in articles in other periodicals. The Bulletin recounts the annual convention, some local and state conventions, and above all the activities of the Social Action Committee headed by Father Peter E. Dietz.

7 In his correspondence with Father Daniel Hudson, C.S.C., the editor of the Ave Maria, Bishop McQuaid is quite clear on his reasons for opposing the Catholic University.

8 Cf. Hogan's, Peter E.The Catholic University of America, 1896–1903: The Rectorship of Thomas J. Conaty (Washington, 1949) which is the only study of Conaty. The derisive criticisms of Conaty in Preuss's Review were repeated for years in many placesGoogle Scholar.

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18 “Modernism in the Church in America” in the American Ecclesiastical Review, XXVII (1907), 1–10Google Scholar, admits the existence of Modernism in America but says it is not extensive because of the lack of speculative theologians, especially at the Catholic University. Unsigned editorials were generally ascribed to the editor, Father Herman J. Heuser. Cf. also Vieban's, A. “Who are the Modernists of the Encyclicals,” XXXVIII (1908), 489–507Google Scholar, and “Modernism and Protestantism,” XXXIX, 130–151Google Scholar. There is a difference among these writers about the connection between Liberal Protestantism and Catholic Modernism.

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24 Ellis, , Gibbons, II, 204–220Google Scholar, defends the milder and more diplomatic actions of Gibbons as opposed to the more belligerent protests.

25 Williams', MichaelAmerican Catholics in the War. The National Catholic War Council, 1919–1921 (New York, 1921)Google Scholar, is a weak effort to record the Catholic activities in the First World War.

26 “Burke, John J.”, Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1958), XXII, 72–74Google Scholar, is a weak substitute for a badly needed biography of this important Catholic leader.