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NEWSLETTERAMERICAN CATHOLIC STUDIES

CUSHWA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN CATHOLICISM

Law, Lawyers, the Court, and Catholicism

T he Supreme Court’s Alito and John Roberts. Justices co-exist with liberty or free govern-
2005-06 term was Rehnquist and O’Connor were law- ment. How did this happen, and what
marked by a num- school classmates and close friends for does it mean?
ber of important, more than 50 years.They were judicial
even landmark, colleagues and allies for a quarter of a The Supreme Court first met in
decisions.The jus- century. Between the two of them, they 1790, in New York City, under the lead-
tices considered a provided the nation with 57 years of ership of John Jay. Jay had, along with
First Amendment challenge to Vermont’s judicial service on the high court.Their Benjamin Franklin and John Adams,
campaign-finance regulations.They departure marked the end of the court’s negotiated the Treaty of Paris, and later
divided sharply over Kansas’s capital- longest run without a vacancy since the collaborated with Alexander Hamilton
sentencing procedures.They stirred up Monroe Administration, and finally and James Madison in the powerful
our public debate over physician-assisted ended Justice Stephen Breyer’s 11-year tracts that became The Federalist Papers.
suicide and agreed to decide whether stint as the junior justice charged with The court’s first Catholic did not join
the federal ban on partial-birth abortion answering the conference room door. the bench for almost 50 years, when
is constitutional. And, of course, on the Roger Taney succeeded John Marshall,
last day of the term, a court majority The court’s two new justices are our greatest chief justice, in 1836. It
concluded that the military commissions strikingly accomplished, relatively would be more than another half-
created by the administration to try sus- young, and thoughtfully conservative in century — 58 years — until the eleva-
pected terrorists were unauthorized by their approach to the work of judging. tion of the second, Edward White.
law. And, both are Catholic.This means that,
as of January 31, 2006, when Justice For the first two decades of the
At least as significant as the court’s Alito was sworn in, a majority of the 20th century, there were actually two
high-profile rulings, though, were the justices sitting on the court that is con- Catholics — White and Joseph
retirement of Justice Sandra O’Connor, stitutionally vested with the judicial McKenna — sitting together on the
the death of Chief Justice William power of the United States profess and court. Pierce Butler served from 1923 to
Rehnquist, and the nomination and practice a faith that many prominent 1939, and then Frank Murphy took
confirmation of their successors, Samuel founding fathers believed cannot over in 1940 what had become regarded
as the “Catholic seat.” However,
INSIDE between Justice Murphy’s retirement in
1949 and William Brennan’s joining the
Cushwa Center Activities ............................................................................2-5 court in 1956, that “seat” was briefly
Announcements ........................................................................................9-10 empty. (Justice Sherman Minton, of
Publications: Catholicism in the Barrio ..................................................11-25 Indiana, who served from 1949 until
Upcoming Events ........................................................................................26 1956, became a Catholic after he retired
from the court.) Justice Brennan
was the court’s sole Catholic — and
also one of the more dominant and

see Law, Lawyers, page 5

VOLUME 33 NUMBER 2 FALL 2006

CUSHWA CENTER ACTIVITIES

Seminar in American Christian or whether she was simply a make conjectures and interpretive leaps,
Religion fervent Christian convert who happened and while they can at times leap too far,
to be black. Morrow praised Sensbach’s the chance to fill in gaps in the histori-
On February 25 the spring Seminar in description of the black oral tradition cal record is well worth the risk.
American Religion featured Rebecca’s but also wondered where the actual Thinking back to the early stages of his
Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the black voices were in the accounts. research Sensbach recalled wanting to
Atlantic World (Harvard, 2005) by Jon find a colonial prototype of Sojourner
Sensbach of the University of Florida. Pierce reflected upon the remark- Truth, an activist who revealed the
Diane Batts Morrow of the University able life of Rebecca as both a product agency of black slaves. Instead he dis-
of Georgia-Athens and Richard Pierce of her time and as a person who was covered Protten, a product of pro-slav-
of Notre Dame served as commentators. able to transcend her circumstances. ery white ideology who later became an
While a more cynical interpreter might argument for African liberation.
Drawing upon a range of German argue that Rebecca used Christianity to
and Dutch sources, Sensbach examines extricate herself from slavery, this oppor- Paul Kollman asked the panelists to
the roots of black Christianity through tunistic view would not yield an discuss the relationship between piety
the life of Rebecca Protten. Born a slave authentic rendering of her life. African- and agency in Rebecca’s life. Morrow
in the West Indies in 1718, Rebecca American history is the history of hope, responded that while she did not con-
converted to Christianity as a child and and Rebecca’s life and faith reinforced test Protten’s piety, her life does raise the
later secured her freedom. She joined a religion’s promise that one’s station was question of whether social agency can
group of Moravian missionaries and not fixed. Life was alterable, albeit actually subvert piety. Sensbach argued
began evangelizing among the slaves on bound by social and economic conven- that piety was Protten’s form of agency;
the island of St.Thomas.Through her tions that even Moravians could not it was by seeking out religious learning,
interracial marriage to a missionary she escape. Rebecca’s life was thus one of after all, that she attained her freedom.
emerged as a significant conduit accommodation and perseverance. John McGreevy asked how the book
between black slaves and white Pierce also underscored many of would change if we accepted Morrow’s
Christians, later moving to Europe and Morrow’s concerns about Sensbach’s interpretation of Rebecca as a fervently
eventually Africa. Sensbach has been interpretation of sources and Rebecca’s pious Christian who merely happened
praised for placing a once-unknown place in the history of black to be black. Sensbach objected to this
figure at the center of the history of Christianity. Sensbach, Pierce noted, characterization, noting that Protten’s
American Christianity. His attention to offers the reader a series of possibilities, missionary work throughout St.Thomas
the variety of possibilities concerning but the job of the historian is to analyze underscores her self-perception as a
Rebecca’s motives and the effects of the available data.We are left with what black Christian. Morrow responded that
Christianity on her life and the lives is plausible but not what is known. it seems to have been Protten’s identity
of slaves serves as an important method- as a free Moravian woman, rather than
ological model for historians. Acknowledging the limitations of her blackness, that was paramount. Mark
his sources, Sensbach reflected on how Noll suggested that Sensbach’s depiction
Morrow noted that the book’s lib- Rebecca’s life presents scholars with an of Rebecca as a conduit between black
eral employment of historical imagina- opportunity to discuss methods of his- and Moravian worlds would still stand
tion is both its major attraction and its torical research. Historians must often even if she had become “whitened” in
most significant weakness. Limited by the process of her conversion and free-
his sources, she argued Sensbach moved Jon Sensbach dom. Morrow added that despite
too easily from a careful scrutiny of the Rebecca’s refusal to allow African forms
accounts left by European missionaries in worship, not all missionaries stamped
to an absolute faith in them.Without out such practices. In this sense,
Rebecca’s own voice, we have no real Rebecca becomes more of an overly
basis for understanding the complexity doctrinaire aberration.
of motives and religious meanings that
underlay both her freedom and mission- Sensbach observed that he could
ary work among the slaves. Peering have written another type of book, one
through European accounts, we see how that focused on African Christian mis-
Rebecca uncritically accepted slavery sionaries more generally. He chose to
and black inferiority and promoted a focus on the single figure of Rebecca
Christianity unadulterated by African instead, believing that her empathy for
influence. Morrow wondered whether and spiritual fellowship with slaves
Rebecca ever consciously created a would prove the most effective way to
space for herself as both black and understand race and religious conversion
in the Atlantic world. George Marsden

2

introduced the question of whether Margaret Preston a reputation for business acumen. In
Rebecca’s work among slaves on St. 1925, Mass Mutual Insurance Company
Thomas inspired other such movements they have played in sustaining the physi- granted a loan to McKennan Hospital in
in the region. In particular he chal- cal, economic, and spiritual health of the Sioux Falls only on the condition that
lenged Sensbach’s claim that it helped to American Midwest. the Presentations serve as guarantor.
spark the Great Awakening. Sensbach McKennan eventually became the jewel
maintained that Moravians were instru- The Presentations arrived in in the crown of the Presentation’s health
mental in shaping the Great Awakening Dakota Territory in 1880, in response to care network, which continued to
in the sense that when Methodists and the invitation of Bishop Martin Marty. expand throughout the 20th century.
Baptists traveled south to spread their They first opened a school in Wheeler, In 1998, the Presentations joined the
faith, they capitalized on a latent a small town that would eventually Benedictine sisters to create Avera
Christianity among slaves. Sensbach and become part of the state of South Health Organization, which presently
Marsden agreed that there were many Dakota. After surviving brutal winters, has over 100 hospitals and health care
other inspirations for this religious several relocations, and a skirmish with facilities in South Dakota and the sur-
revival, but Sensbach also insisted that Marty over authority, the Presentations rounding area.
Rebecca’s constituted a paradigmatic eventually founded two permanent
moment in the making of black foundations at Fargo and Aberdeen in In response to a question from
Christianity. the Dakota Territory. Although they had Luke Gibbons, Preston noted that she
originally intended to teach Native found no traces of a sectarian response
American Catholic American children, the majority of their to the Presentations in South Dakota. It
Studies Seminar students were children of Irish immi- was intra-Catholic tensions that seemed
grants who poured into the Great Plains to be more dominant, as the
On March 2, Margaret Preston present- in the late 19th century. Presentations apparently experienced
ed “From the Emerald Isle to Little more conflict with local German
House on the Prairie: Ireland, Medicine, In 1900, a diphtheria epidemic in Catholics than they did with Lutherans.
and the Presentation Sisters on Aberdeen led the sisters to expand their
America’s Northern Plains” at the traditional ministry of education into Noting Preston’s assertion that the
spring American Catholic Studies the realm of health care, a transition that Presentation sisters “clung to their Irish
Seminar. Preston is an assistant professor was hardly unprecedented for Irish heritage,” Kathleen Cummings asked
of history at Augustana College in Sioux nuns. Like other Irish congregations, the which aspects of their work were
Falls, South Dakota, where she teaches Presentations benefited from the large uniquely “Irish.” Preston noted that well
Irish and European history. Preston pub- network of sophisticated hospitals that into the 20th century, every mother
lished Charitable Words: Gentlewomen, existed in Dublin by the late 19th superior was a native of Ireland, and
Social Control, and the Language of Charity century. America’s northern plains, by each year a number of Irish-born
in Nineteenth-Century Dublin with contrast, had no large health care insti- women entered the community. In
Praegar Press in 2004. Her work has also tutions until the Presentations opened 1899, Mother M. Joseph traveled back
appeared in the New Hibernian Review, St. Luke’s hospital in 1901. Buoyed by to Ireland and returned with eight
The Hibernian, and Eire-Ireland. At pres- the arrival of Sister Dominic Boysen, a novices; in 1903, she recruited 19 young
ent she is co-editing Gender, Medicine trained nurse from Ireland, the congre- women, and in 1906, 18.The
and the State in Ireland and the United gation also established a nurse training Presentations’ spirituality, modeled on
States, to be published by Syracuse school at St. Luke’s.Within a decade, the that of Nano Nagle, was distinctively
University Press.The seminar paper was Presentations had opened three addi- Irish.Tom Kselman suggested that a
drawn from her contribution to that tional hospitals. comparative study of the Presentations
volume. and a German or French congregation
Preston emphasized that the con- might further elucidate ethnic distinc-
Upon her arrival at Augustana gregation was very engaged in the busi- tiveness. Kathleen Dolphin, herself a
College five years ago, Preston was ness of health care, and that they earned Sister of the Presentation, noted that
astonished to find in Sioux Falls a house archival sources, especially the nuns’ let-
named after Honoria (Nano) Nagle, a 3 ters to their families or home convents,
woman born in Cork, Ireland, in 1718. also demonstrate the congregation’s
As a historian of Ireland, Preston was strong connection to Ireland.
familiar with Nagle’s heroic efforts to
educate poor Irish Catholics throughout Tom Rzeznik raised a question
the 18th century, but she was not aware about Preston’s description of the sisters
that the congregation Nagle had found- as entrepreneurs.
ed, the Sisters of the Presentation of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, had such a wide- Do we do them a disservice, he
spread presence in the United States. wondered, to label them “business-
Preston’s subsequent research on the women” when they would certainly not
American foundations of the have considered themselves capitalists?
Presentations revealed the critical role Preston noted that the nuns’ evident
business savvy was solidly grounded in
pragmatic concerns: they knew they
could not respond to their vocation to

C U S HWA C E NT E R A CT IV IT I E S

care for the sick unless their institutions od of heavy-handed censorship through Poitier) and nuns in this desert setting
were financially viable. Rzeznik suggest- the interactions of secular Jews and — devoid of the typical stereotypes,
ed that the sisters’ commitment to practicing Catholics in the production prejudices, and fears that had framed
“innovation without profit” offers a process. By integrating the preoccupa- black/white, Catholic/Protestant, and
challenge to prevailing models of busi- tions of these two important minorities male/female interactions — demonstrat-
ness history. in the United States, the story of ed a sense of “adventure” and newness
Bernadette Soubirous’ Marian vision that the frontier’s unsettled quality has
Cushwa Center in Lourdes, France, appealed to a wide traditionally elicited in the American
Consultation audience of war-weary Americans seek- imagination.
ing solace in an uplifting religious film.
From April 7 to 9, the Cushwa Center In the same vein, Anthony Burke Smith While Catholic imagery and ritual
hosted a meeting for scholars contribut- examines the socio-cultural context of infuse many 20th-century American
ing to Catholics in the Movies, which will the 1944 film Going My Way. Starring films, perhaps none have done so as sub-
be published by Oxford University Bing Crosby as the amiable Father stantively as the first two films in The
Press. Edited by Colleen McDannell, Chuck, the movie derived its power Godfather trilogy (1972 and 1974), and
the book explores the interrelations from its portrayal of the “ordinariness” the classic horror film, The Exorcist
between Catholicism and the develop- of Catholic life during a period when (1973). According to Carlo Rotella, The
ment of American film. Contributors to American Catholics began entering into Godfather’s use of Catholic iconography
the volume consider Catholicism both the mainstream of middle-class America. and sacramental practice become crucial
as an institutional and ideological force. Rather than evincing an exotic or to moving beyond a simple moralistic
politically engaged church in the immi- reading of the film. Rather than merely
In the silent film Regeneration grant ghetto, the film “constructs a offering a vantage point from which to
(1915), images of the formal Catholic Catholicism at the very center of judge the main characters, Catholicism
Church remain largely absent among modern, urban American culture.” parallels the gangster world in its sense
the urban poor who find hope and spir- of Old World hierarchy and absolute
itual renewal within a Protestant settle- In speaking to the rapidly changing power, transmuting, in some sense,
ment house. According to Judith world of post-war America, “Catholic” Michael Corleone’s sins into virtues.
Weisenfeld, however, Catholicism films in the 1950s and 1960s also Rotella argues that the movie’s glorifi-
emerges as a formative agent in the film revealed a more general American con- cation of the white-ethnic-American
through the characters of Irish immi- sciousness of the civil rights movement “tough guy” represents an important
grants. By combining aesthetic sophisti- and the Cold War. According to Theresa historical moment, in which cultural
cation and social concern, Regeneration Sanders, the action-adventure film, Seven forces threatened Euro-American
offers a window into the interrelation- Cities of Gold (1955), reflected common Catholics’ sense of cultural and religious
ship of religion, ethnicity, and early- assumptions about racial difference and authenticity. Like many “ethnic revival”
century cultural attitudes about morality cultural imperialism in its portrayal of films that followed them, the Godfather
and fitness for citizenship. Spanish-Indian encounters in the West. movies responded to the civil rights
In doing so, it verified white proscrip- movement of the 1960s as well as to the
Catholicism’s socio-cultural pres- tions against interracial contact and homogenizing forces of mass media,
ence is stronger in a subsequent social- underscored American Catholics’ reluc- commercialism, and suburbanization.
problem film, Angels with Dirty Faces tance to address racial intermarriage.
(1930). According to Thomas Ferraro, Amid the rise of communism in the According to Peter Gardella,The
the gangster-genre film moves well Third World, the film’s contrast of the Exorcist’s use of Catholic symbol and
beyond a typical “good” versus “evil” violent Spanish conquerors with the sacrament demonstrates the ways the
narrative structure.While it pits the gentle missionaries also underscored a physical not only mediates divine grace
Catholic influence of the priest against very Catholic and American demand but also the power of evil. In this film,
the local gang leader for the hearts and for Christian expansion in the world. the use of holy water, the crucifix, and
minds of neighborhood boys, the film the words of ritual become vehicles —
also reveals the complexity of the Jeff Marlett’s essay on Lilies of the rather than sources of protection — for
Catholic moral imagination in portray- Field (1963) analyzes the film in the the violent struggle between good and
ing the criminal underground world and context of the civil rights movement evil.This struggle results in a redemptive
its hyper-masculinized sense of redemp- and anticommunism. As American suffering of the characters that defines
tion as an alternative to the church’s Catholics sought to distance themselves the Catholic horror film. By abandoning
salvific masculinity. from the “bad press” of McCarthyism, images of perfect priests serving the
Lilies of the Field gave them “a western urban poor in favor of a more belea-
Catholics in the Movies will also offer of their very own.” Marlett argues that guered clergy serving the rich, The
key historical insights into the social and the film’s frontier setting offers a signifi- Exorcist also represents a historical transi-
political context that shaped both the cant theater for performing rapidly tion from “an era of social good and
American Catholic experience and the altering conceptions of racial, religious, evil” to a highly personal suburban
film industry. Paula Kane’s essay on The and gender identities.The encounter world in which sins of sexuality and
Song of Bernadette (1943) explores a peri- between a black man (played by Sidney personal desire occupy the American

4

Catholic moral imagination. sion of traditional Mexican construc- tions in substance if not in style, as a
Anxieties about cultural change and tions of gender on the one hand, it also sample of older viewers drew similarly
demonstrates the ways Catholicism in positive conclusions about the movie’s
the dissolution over traditional ethnic the borderlands attempts to subvert message of faith and spiritual openness.
ties are also evident in the 1981 film, Anglo-American conceptions of place
True Confessions. As Timothy Meagher and personhood. The release of The Passion of the
argues, this “cop drama” broke way from Christ in 2004 brought the struggle
mid-century images of Irish priests, Tracey Fessenden’s essay focuses between “liberal” and “conservative”
patriots, and policemen as defenders of on Entertaining Angels:The Dorothy Day worldviews to a fever pitch. Rather than
moral and social order. As traditional Story (1996). Fessenden notes that the discuss the controversial film in terms of
notions of authority and patriotism film, unique among those featured in contemporary political divides, however
came under assault in the 1960s, the volume, represents a “Catholic insid- Colleen McDannell examines Gibson’s
American film projected a seamier and er” movie. Produced by Paulist Pictures production as a “votive offering,” an
more brutal side of Irish Americans. As in part with the aim of supporting of artistic expression of faith and thankful-
a period piece set in the same era as Day’s cause for canonization, the film ness to God. In his depiction of the
the celebratory Going My Way,True emphasizes Day’s pre-conversion life, redemptive suffering of Christ, the
Confessions deliberately mocks the image particularly her abortion. By casting devout actor and director reveals his
of Irish devotion and virtue projected Day as a stereotypical “fallen woman,” own personal faith struggles and violent
by the earlier film. Fessenden argues, the film minimizes past. Because the film’s bloodiness joins
the radicalism of her communal vision a long-line of evangelical productions
As ethnic distinctiveness declined for the church and society, and reduces focusing on the violence of personal
among Euro-Americans, members of her life to a predictable tale of personal redemption, it appealed to Catholic and
“new” ethnic groups became subjects of redemption. Protestant audiences alike.
film. Darryl Caterine analyzes Santitos
(1997), the story of a widow’s journey The final chapters of Catholics in the Whether in clear images of the for-
from Veracruz to Los Angeles in search Movies tackle the modern self ’s struggle mal church or through symbolic repre-
of her lost daughter. Reflecting the geo- with religious membership and the sentations, all of the movies chosen for
cultural “borderlands” between Mexican meaning of spirituality. Evaluating audi- this study reveal the range of Catholic
and American national and ethnic iden- ence responses to Dogma (1999), Amy forces within American film. Designed
tities, the film demonstrates the signifi- Frykholm attributes the movie’s popu- for a broad audience of students and
cance of the physical border and the larity to the younger generation’s turn scholars, Catholics in the Movies also
politics surrounding border crossing as away from formal religious structures demonstrates how the genre of film
well as the cultural and religious borders and toward more eclectic spiritualities. reveals in significant ways the American
that shape Mexican and U.S. identities. She notes, however, that this transition Catholic experience of the 20th and
While the film can be seen as a subver- may resemble that of preceding genera- early 21st centuries.

Law, Lawyers, the Court, and Catholicism

continued from page 1 things, an occasion for reflecting on 1956 work American Catholicism, that
America’s changing demographics, the a “universal anti-Catholic bias was
influential justices in the nation’s history politics of Supreme Court nominations brought to Jamestown in 1607 and
— until 1986, when President Reagan and confirmations, and the country’s vigorously cultivated in all the 13
elevated Antonin Scalia. Anthony long, complicated history of anti- colonies from Massachusetts to
Kennedy’s confirmation in 1988 Catholicism. It also provides an oppor- Georgia.” Indeed, as Notre Dame’s
brought the number of sitting Catholic tunity to engage and explore broader John McGreevy has observed, “anti-
justices to three, where it remained for questions relating to law, lawyering, Catholicism is integral to the formation
the most part — with Justice Brennan’s faith, and the future. of the United States.” Certainly,Thomas
retirement and Justice Clarence Paine’s diagnosis would have enjoyed
Thomas’s return to full communion Looking back, the fact that only broad support, when he lamented in
with the Church — until the Roberts one of our first 54 justices was Catholic 1775 that those in “the popish world at
and Alito confirmations. should come as no surprise. From the this day by not knowing the full mani-
Puritans to the Framers and beyond, festation of spiritual freedom, enjoy but
The creation of a Catholic majority anti-“popery” was thick in the cultural a shadow of political liberty.”
on the court is more than a matter for air breathed by the early Americans,
cocktail-party chatter or game-show who were raised on tales of Armadas Throughout the 19th century and
trivia. (That said, a humorous “Top Ten” and Inquisitions, Puritan heroism and well into the 20th, it was regularly
list of the changes coming to the now- Bloody Mary, Jesuit schemes and charged and widely believed that there
Catholic court made the internet and Gunpowder Plots, and lecherous confes- is something un-American about
e-mail rounds and included “oral argu- sors and baby-killing nuns. Monsignor Catholic clergy, teachings, practices,
ments in Latin,” “collections between John Tracy Ellis proposed, in his seminal structure, traditions, and adherents. For
argument sessions,” and “Wednesday
night bingo.”) It serves as, among other 5

Law, Lawyers, the Court, and Catholicism

many people and for many years, the consistent, or at least consonant, with One might also ask, more specifi-
cally, why these five Catholics? That is,
Roman Catholic Church served as a what many in the press regarded as why is it that the court’s five Catholics
are also its most “conservative” mem-
kind of foil for “American” values and the “Catholic” line? Senator Dianne bers? It is far from obvious that Catholic
commitments, or a Catholic sensibility,
ideals. And so, in a cultural context Feinstein, worried about the “dictates” translate neatly into one jurisprudential
camp or the other. (Consider the very
where even Supreme Court justices of Roberts’s religion, and Senator Arlen different approaches of Justices Brennan
and Scalia.) No, that the court’s
worried over American Freedom and Specter asked the nominee to endorse Catholics are, at present, also its conser-
vatives probably has more to do with
Catholic Power, Paul Blanshard’s best-sell- John F. Kennedy’s famous assurance that the prosaic fact that Republican presi-
dents have controlled the White House
ing 1949 warning about the “Catholic “I do not speak for the Church on pub- for 30 of the last 40 years and appointed
11 of the last 13 Justices.
problem,” it was perhaps to be expected lic matters — and the Church does not
What’s more, the pool from which
that politicians and commentators alike speak for me.” (He did.) In the end, any president seeking conventionally
well qualified candidates is more likely
demanded assurances that Catholic judi- though, the opposition to both Roberts than before to include many Catholics,
who will have varying views — “con-
cial nominees would not be “Catholic” and Alito fizzled, and sounded less in servative” and “liberal” views — about
statutory and constitutional interpreta-
justices. President Roosevelt, for exam- anti-Catholic tropes than in familiar, if tion or the role of federal judges.The
barriers that, until relatively recently,
ple, was promised that Frank Murphy overheated, warnings about the threats existed for Catholics to the kind of cre-
dentialing positions and degrees that are
would “not let religion stand in his their judicial conservatism allegedly now thought necessary for service on
elite courts have fallen. Justice Alito is a
way,” and Murphy himself made it clear poses to civil liberties and federal power. Yale Law School graduate, and Chief
Justice Roberts attended Harvard Law
that his faith and his vocation were kept The question remains, however:What School. In the early 20th century, by
contrast, the president of Harvard
“in air-tight compart- does the court’s new University refused to admit graduates of
most Jesuit colleges to its law school.
ments.” Much more Catholic majority mean?
To the extent recent Republican
recently, when then- The question What developments does presidents have sought qualified and
Judge Clarence Thomas it reflect? Perhaps, as experienced nominees thought to be
welcoming of religion in public life, or
was nominated to suc- remains, however: Notre Dame Law open to the regulation of abortion, that
ceed Justice Thurgood School’s Cathleen more narrow pool has, in recent
decades, been particularly well stocked
Marshall,Virginia’s Kaveny noted, the nomi- with Catholics.This is not because well
credentialed and intelligent Catholic
Governor, Douglas What does the nation and confirmation lawyers are all, or even predominantly,
Wilder, wondered aloud of two more Catholic conservative in political or judicial out-
look. It is, instead, that many of those
whether Thomas, who court’s new justices represents a “vic- who would have such an outlook are, at
had attended Catholic tory over historic preju- present, Catholic. (This could change,
though, as gifted Evangelical Protestants,
schools, would be suffi- dice” and “shows that such as Judge Michael McConnell, fol-
low the Catholic path into elite law
ciently independent of Catholic majority Catholics have come schools and legal jobs.)
the pope. (At the time, fully into their own in
What of the concern, expressed in
Thomas was attending mean? What the United States.”This some quarters, that the new Catholic
services at an Episcopal is not to deny, of course, justices might prefer their faith or the
Church’s teachings to the nation’s laws?
church.) the truth of Arthur For example, the Constitution has for

These familiar developments does Schlesinger Sr.’s claim
questions were raised that anti-Catholicism is

again when now-Chief it reflect? “the deepest-held bias
Justice John Roberts in the history of the

was nominated, though American people.” Nor

perhaps more artfully is it to dispute the claim

and cautiously. Indeed, the media’s reti- that, for all of the nation’s progress

cence on the matter prompted the rarely toward respectful pluralism, anti-

reticent Christopher Hitchens to chal- Catholicism remains the “last acceptable

lenge his colleagues in the press to “quit prejudice,” one that, in Rev. James

tiptoeing around John Roberts’ faith.” Martin’s words, is “more than simply a

After all, he observed, the Catholic historical legacy. It is the result of inher-

Church is a “foreign state” and “claims ent tensions between aspects of the

the right to legislate on morals[.]” More Roman Catholic worldview and a dem-

common, though, were sunny press pro- ocratic, post-Enlightenment, postmod-

files of the nominee telling us about his ern American culture.” Still, the court’s

parish in suburban Washington, D.C., his current composition certainly suggests

all-boys Catholic boarding school in the long distance traveled since, for

northern Indiana, and so on.True, some example, the presidential campaign of Al

wondered what Roberts’s Catholic faith Smith, and indicates that Catholicism is

would mean for hot-button cases about no longer regarded — or, at least, may

abortion, same-sex marriage, and capital not publicly be regarded — as particu-

punishment.Would he craft opinions larly anti-American.

and decide cases in a way that was

6

several decades been understood by a 1869, and Georgetown’s law center, — to say nothing of marketing
advantages.
majority of the justices as prohibiting established the next year. As Professor
This is not, it should be empha-
most regulations of abortion, and as Thomas Shaffer has described, though, sized, a reactionary or nostalgic conver-
sation.The idea is not a return to an
permitting governments to impose — most of what are today the best known imagined past of richly and thoroughly
Catholic law schools. It is, instead,
subject to a number of constraints, Catholic law schools were established in to rethink an approach that is content
to locate a Catholic law school’s identity
of course — capital punishment. the early 20th century with the goal of in a few liturgical offerings, clinical
programs, and abstract concerns for
A Catholic justice is taught by the providing upward mobility to the chil- “ethics.”The goal is not simply to
produce competent lawyers who
Church, though, that abortion is a grave dren and grandchildren of Catholic are Catholic, and it is not to protect
Catholic law students from the allegedly
moral evil and the death penalty per- immigrants — Fordham (1905), Loyola- pervasively hostile environment at secu-
lar law schools. It is, instead, to be a
missible, if at all, only in cases of the Chicago (1908), St John’s (1925), Boston place where Catholic legal scholars and
law students work through the claims
most pressing necessity. In hot-button College (1929), and so on.These urban that the Catholic faith and intellectual
tradition make about, and contribute to,
cases, will Catholic justices, because they law schools educated in the law thou- law and the legal development.

are Catholic, substitute revealed morality sands of Catholic politicians, judges, So, there are new Catholic law
schools, like Ave Maria School of Law
for the will of We the People? civic leaders, and “main street” lawyers and St.Thomas University School of
Law, both of which — while different
Such questions and for whom the elite in approach — were formed recently
and consciously to be deeply Catholic
concerns seem mis- schools and white-shoe law schools, not simply by virtue of her-
itage or student demographics, but in
placed. Remember, all Considering and firms were not an order to enrich the education of their
judges — Catholic or option. And, these students and the legal profession more
generally. At the well-established
not — have views, com- answering the schools were thoroughly schools, which might once have been
mitments, and experi- Catholic, in the sense content merely to acknowledge the
historical religious affiliation, there are
ences that shape their questions raised by that the overwhelming searching conversations about the mis-
decision-making and number of their students sion of a Catholic law school, a sharper
focus on identifying and hiring produc-
reasoning.There is no the nomination and faculty were profess- tive Catholic scholars, and creative new
reason to demand of ing Catholics.There was, initiatives for putting that mission into
practice.The Journal of Catholic Legal
Catholic judges specifi- and confirmation for the most part, little Studies at St. John’s, the Scarpa Chair in
cally that they “put need for reflection or Catholic Studies at Villanova, Catholic
University’s new required first-year
aside” their faith when of two new hand-wringing about course in the Catholic intellectual tradi-
they put on their judi- “Catholic identity” or tion, and Fordham’s project on faith and
the professions are just a few examples.
cial robes. Instead, we Catholic justices the requisite “critical
can and should ask of mass” of Catholics.These Next, the legal profession:
Throughout the 1990s, the complaint
every judge that she schools were effortlessly was common that lawyers had lost their
way, and that law practice was no longer
work conscientiously in has been good for “Catholic,” primarily a learned profession so much as a ruth-
lessly bottom-line oriented business.
every case to identify because they were full of Lawyers’ salaries — and workloads —
skyrocketed, but they were less and less
not her own preferred our public Catholics. happy in their vocations. As Patrick
Schiltz — a former law professor at
outcome but the answer The situation today, Notre Dame and St.Thomas, and now
a federal judge — showed, the lawyers’
that is given by the rele- conversations about of course, is different. lives were less like those of literature’s
vant legal texts, rules, Many religiously affiliat-

and precedents.The the craft of ed institutions, and
Catholic understanding Catholic ones specifical-

of vocation, and of jus- judging, the nature ly, now have tenuous
tice under law, extends connections to their

to Catholic judges the of law, and roots in faith traditions
same invitation. and religious communi-

Considering and America’s religious ties. In keeping with
answering the questions the recent resurgence of

raised by the nomina- pluralism. interest in the identity
tion and confirmation and mission of Catholic

of two new Catholic universities, there is a

justices has been good rich ongoing conversa-

for our public conversations about the tion not only about what it means to be

craft of judging, the nature of law, and a Catholic law school, but about the

America’s religious pluralism. However, special place and role of such schools in

the changing composition of the the legal academy. Law schools, students,

Supreme Court is only one of several and faculty increasingly appreciate the

developments in the legal arena that extent to which a deep, critical, and

involves and should be of interest to intellectual engagement with the teach-

Catholics. ing and intellectual tradition of the

First, the law schools:There have Church can be liberating, and enriching,

been Catholic law schools in the United not constraining or confining. More and

States for some time, starting with the more, a law school’s Catholic mission

Notre Dame Law School, founded in and projects are recognized as strengths

7

Law, Lawyers, the Court, and Catholicism

hero-attornies and more like those of Pearce, are developing an account of Chicago — have offered or will soon
offer “Catholic Social Thought and the
bored check-out clerks.The dean of the lawyering that incorporates, and does Law” classes.Villanova now publishes the
Journal of Catholic Social Thought. And, for
Yale Law School, Anthony Kronman, not wall off, the lawyer’s whole person, the past few years, a politically diverse
and shifting group of Catholic law pro-
wrote in The Lost Lawyer of a “spiritual including her identity-shaping faith. fessors have contributed to the “Mirror
of Justice” weblog, which is “dedicated
crisis” among lawyers, and lamented the Lawyers and law students everywhere to the development of Catholic legal
theory.” From First Amendment matters
declining prestige among lawyers of struggle with “balance” and resist the to the minimum wage, from just wars
and presidential elections to the anthro-
prudence, practical wisdom, and public alienation that can accompany legal pological premises of family law and a
Catholic legal feminism, the conversa-
spiritedness. Other, equally eminent education and practice.The Church has tion has been rich, provocative, and
civil.
lawyers and scholars voiced similar always held out the goal of personal
It is an exciting and auspicious time
concerns. integration, and resisted disintegration for this scholarship. Legal scholarship in
recent decades has been enhanced and
At the same time, and perhaps in and pulverization. Catholic law schools, enriched by an interdisciplinary turn, an
increased emphasis on comparative and
response, an amorphous, loosely con- scholars, and lawyers are offering the international work, and by an effort to
identify and elaborate the normative
nected, but provocative and inspiring profession a rich, and perhaps re-ener- foundations for the ever-more-salient
body of international human-rights law.
group of practitioners and lawyers gizing, understanding of work, its digni- Catholic legal scholars can make, and are
making, crucial contributions.
developed what has come to be known ty, and its significance.
It has been observed since
as the “religious lawyering movement,” Finally, legal scholarship: Across a Tocqueville that America is law-soaked
and litigious. It might seem strange,
which arose to explore and nurture the range of disciplines, in Catholic and then, that our thinking about the law, its
structure, the legal profession, and so on
relationship between non-Catholic law tends to be confined to the annual end-
of-term flood of opinions from the
lawyers’ religious com- schools alike, a diverse Supreme Court and the partisan politics
surrounding judicial nominations.There
mitments and commu- Organizations like and growing group of is, after all, more to law than this. Maybe
nities, on the one hand, scholars are drawing the dust-up about the significance of
two new Catholic justices, and a
and the practice of law, explicitly on the Catholic majority on the Supreme
court, can serve as a kind of teaching
on the other.This the Catholic resources and experi- moment.We can educate our fellows
movement was not ences of the Church for about the law, drawing on the tradition,
and also renew our commitment, as
confined to Catholics, insight, questions, and Catholic lawyers and legal scholars, to a
new and exciting project.
though Catholics were Lawyers Guilds challenges. Some of this
and are among its more work, of course, is in the — Richard W. Garnett
Lilly Endowment Associate
prominent advocates. areas of “law and reli- Professor of Law, University of
Notre Dame
Notre Dame’s Thomas and Thomas More gion,” jurisprudence, and
Shaffer, in particular, church-state relations

built the movement’s but, increasingly, it

foundations in his many Societies support ranges more broadly, to

writings that resisted the corporate and business

reduction of lawyers’ and encourage law, immigration, pun-
morality to a “hired ishment theory, interna-

gun” adversary ethic and tional and human-rights

that urged religious lawyers hoping to law, torts and contracts,
lawyers to learn from, and on and on.The aim

and draw upon, the of this work is not only

more communitarian rediscover a to explore and under-
moralities of their stand well the Church’s

respective traditions. teachings and tradition,

Today, this reli- faithful but to engage issues of
gious-lawyering move- common interest to legal

ment is thriving, scholars in new, illumi-

particularly in Catholic understanding of nating ways.
schools and among A growing number

Catholic lawyers. of legal scholars —

Organizations like the law as vocation. most, but not all,
Catholic Lawyers Guilds Catholics — are work-

and Thomas More ing with the Church’s

Societies support and social tradition, and

encourage lawyers hoping to rediscover bringing its principles to bear on ques-

a faithful understanding of law as voca- tions of jurisprudence, legal theory, and

tion.Young scholars like Robert Vischer, public policy. Indeed, some of the best,

John Breen, and Amy Uelmann, follow- non-Catholic law schools — including

ing in the footsteps of Shaffer and Russ Harvard,Yale, and the University of

8

ANNOUNCEMENTS

David O’Brien Grants and Fellowships for Minority Scholars, Religious
Conference Institutions, Summer Stipend, and
• The Academy of American General Grant Programs. Application
• The Center for the Study of Franciscan History is accepting appli- deadlines vary. Complete details are
Religion, Ethics and Culture at the cations for four dissertation fellowships, available at: www.louisville-institute.org,
College of the Holy Cross will host each worth $10,000. As many as two of via e-mail at info@louisville-
“Shaping American Catholicism,” an these fellowships will be awarded for a institute.org or by regular mail at
exploration of major themes in the life project dealing with some aspect of the Louisville Institute, 1044 Alta Vista
and work of David J. O’Brien, Loyola history of the Franciscan family in Latin Road, Louisville, Kentucky 40205.
Professor of Roman Catholic Studies America, including the United States
at College of the Holy Cross.The borderlands, Mexico, Central and South Resources for Research
Conference is co-sponsored by the America. Up to another two fellowships
Cushwa Center and will be held at the will be awarded to support projects • The Academy of American
College of the Holy Cross on April 13 dealing with some aspect of the history Franciscan History is pleased to
and 14, 2007. Further information is of the Franciscan family in the rest of announce two new publications,
available at ttp://www.holycross.edu/ the United States and Canada. William J. Short, O.F.M., ed., United
departments/crec/website/ States Documents in the Propaganda Fide
obriencelebr.htm. Projects may deal with any aspect Archives: A Calendar; Volume 13,
of the history of the Franciscan family, Berkeley: Academy of American
Call for Papers including any of the branches of the Franciscan History, 2006, $50;Volume
family (male, female, tertiary, Capuchin). 12 is available for $25 and Volumes 1-11
• Anti-Popery: The The fellowships may be used for any $100 for the set.
Transatlantic Experience, c. 1530- valid purpose relating to the conducting
1850 Philadelphia, September 2008 of research and may be used in conjunc- Russell Skowronek, Situating Mission
tion with other awards and grants.The Santa Clara De Asis: 1776-1851,
The McNeil Center for Early recipient must be engaged in full-time Documentary and Material Evidence of Life
American Studies and the Omohundro research during the period of the fel- on the Alta California Frontier: A Timeline,
Institute of Early American History and lowship. Proposals may be submitted in Berkeley: Academy of American
Culture, in cooperation with the School English, Spanish, French or Portuguese. Franciscan History, 2006, $35.
of Arts and Sciences of the Catholic The applicant must be a doctoral candi-
University of America, will hold a con- date at a university in the Americas, Both volumes can be ordered from
ference in Philadelphia September 18- and the bulk of the research should AAFH, 1712 Euclid Ave., Berkeley,
20, 2008, on the uses of anti-popery in be conducted in the Americas. California 94709 or e-mail
the early modern world.We invite pro- For more information, please contact: [email protected] or call 510-548-1755.
posals for papers on any aspect of anti- Dr. Jeffrey M. Burns, Director
Catholicism in Europe or the Americas Academy of American Franciscan • The Center for Migration
from approximately 1530-1850. History Studies has completed processing the
1712 Euclid Avenue papers of the American Committee for
Presenters will be expected to Berkeley, California 94709-1208 Italian Migration (ACIM) through the
complete a 20-30 page essay by early [email protected] or [email protected] 1990s. ACIM was founded in 1953 as
2008 for pre-conference circulation a member of the National Catholic
among registered attendees.We wel- • The Louisville Institute offers Resettlement Council, itself a compo-
come submissions from advanced gradu- grant support for projects that address nent of the National Catholic Welfare
ate students as well as more senior both the mission of the Louisville Conference, to lobby for changes in
scholars. Support for travel expenses will Institute to bring pastors and academics U.S. immigration law. ACIM supported
be available.To apply, please send a 500- together and the institute’s focus on passage of the 1965 Hart-Celler Act,
word synopsis of your proposal along Christian faith and life, religious institu- which ended discriminatry national
with a short c.v. to Anti-Popery tions, and pastoral leadership.The quotas. ACIM continued lobbying, and
Conference, McNeil Center for Early Louisville Institute especially seeks to also expanded its work to include help-
American Studies, 3355 Woodland Walk, support significant research projects by ing Italian immigrants navigate Italian
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4531, both scholar/educators and pastors that and American legal paperwork. ACIM
or e-mail to [email protected] can contribute to the revitalization of also provided two sorts of educational
by September 15, 2007. Other questions the churches in North America. services: symposia to inform the public
can be directed to the conference Research grant programs include: of Italian-American immigration issues,
organizers: Evan Haefeli Christian Faith and Life, Dissertation and English lessons for Italian immi-
[[email protected]], Brendan Fellowship, First Book Grant Program
McConville [[email protected]], and
Owen Stanwood [[email protected]]. 9

A N N O U N C E M E NT S grants. A network of local chapters of
ACIM’s Women’s Division funded all
Archives Report of these activities. ACIM’s activities are
now documented in 161.5 linear feet
In our efforts to document the history of the Catholic Church in the United States, of material. For access, please contact
we need to remind ourselves sometimes that Notre Dame itself is part of Center for Migration Studies Library,
that history. Several new collections related to Notre Dame show that we do not 209 Flagg Place, Staten Island, New York
treat the local denizens as prophets without honor in their own country. 10304, (351) 718-8800 or
[email protected].
In March of 2006 Neil McCluskey, by way of Rev.Theodore M. Hesburgh,
C.S.C., donated papers having to do with the proposed merger of Saint Mary’s • Angelyn Dries, O.S.F., Danforth
College and Notre Dame, 1967-1972, consisting of correspondence, reports, and Chair in Humanities in the Department
clippings. In April Rev. E.William Beauchamp, C.S.C., donated papers he had writ- of Theological Studies at St. Louis
ten as a Notre Dame student, 1979-1981, with some notes and syllabi from Notre University, has recently completed a
Dame courses. Resource Guide for the Study of Catholic
Missions Overseas: Archival Sources in the
In May Rev. Marvin O’Connell gave the archives papers entrusted to him by Greater Saint Louis, Missouri, Area. The
his mentor, Monsignor Philip Hughes, including the manuscripts of two unpublished guide was compiled with the assistance
books by Hughes, The Last Crisis:The British State and the Catholic Church, 1850- of the Saint Louis Area Religious
1851, and an edition of the letters of the English historian Rev. John Lingard (1771- Archivists (SLARA). For more
1851), author of a 10-volume history of England from a Catholic perspective. information contact Dries at
Hughes taught at Notre Dame from 1955 until his retirement in 1966. [email protected].

Also in May Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute sent us files of prominent • The Catholic Library
Medievalist Astrik Gabriel, O. Praem. Gabriel’s personal papers date from the Association and the Center for the
early 1950s to 2005 and include scrapbooks, files on conferences he attended, his Study of Religious Life are pleased to
visiting professorships, publications, scholarly associations, lectures, correspondence, announce the first biennial Introductory
awards, and travels.These papers represent his service as a scholar at Notre Dame and Archives Workshop for Religious
with the International Commission on the History of Universities, his interest in Communities.The five-day intensive
medieval universities and Hungarian academic and ecclesiastical history, and his book program is directed toward individuals
collecting.We also received files dating after his retirement as director of the who are interested in learning about
Medieval Institute in 1975, documenting his continuing work in support of the archival theory and practice or who
Medieval Institute and the Ambrosiana Collection, continuing through the 1980s wish to update their archival training.
and 1990s. Unlike other archival workshops, the
sessions will focus on the unique types
Starting in June and continuing through September, with the help of Kathy of records found in the archives of men’s
Osberger, we acquired papers of Richard J.Westley, a professor of philosophy at and women’s religious communities.
Loyola University of Chicago associated with the Institute of Pastoral Studies there. These records document not only the
First he sent us his CD “Homilies of Faith: Sundays with Fr. Bill Kenneally in the communities themselves, but also the
Spoken and Written Word.” Rev. Kenneally was pastor of St. Gertrude Parish, near evolution of Catholicism in the United
Loyola, and Westley found his sermons so good that he recorded and transcribed all States, and its impact on educational,
of them for the years 2001 to 2006.The CD also includes audio recordings of 30 of social and charitable institutions that
the homilies. shaped the nation’s history.The pro-
gram, directed by professional religious
In August Westley sent material, including 34 cassette tapes, from talks, retreats, archivists, will include lectures, tours,
and seminars given by Rev. Leo Mahon, some done on trips to Chicago during his and opportunities for sharing experi-
time as a pastor of San Miguelito Mission in Panama, some dating from after his ences.The workshop will be held from
return to Chicago.Westley invited Mahon to give these talks, and taped and tran- July 15-20, 2007, at the National Shrine
scribed many of them.These papers and recordings are especially valuable to us of Our Lady of Snows in Belleville,
because they supplement our collection of records of San Miguelito Mission, impor- Illinois, located across the Mississippi
tant in the history of liberation theology, and particularly interesting because of the River from St. Louis, Missouri.
interaction between Latin American and North American Catholics. I expressed an
interest in the Catholic newsletter that Westley published, “In the Meantime,” and he Complete program and registration
sent a complete collection of all the issues on a CD. Finally, he sent files document- information and a registration form
ing retreats and workshops for thoughtful Catholic lay people, mostly from the are posted on the Catholic
Chicago area, organized by Westley from 1968 through 2005 and conducted chiefly Library Association website at
at Notre Dame’s Center for Continuing Education. www.cathla.org/preservation.php, or
contact the CLA at [email protected] or
— Wm. Kevin Cawley phone 413-443-2252.
Archivist and Curator of Manuscripts
University of Notre Dame
archives.nd.edu

10

PUBLICATIONS

Catholicism in the Barrio

T he photograph the Southwest since the Treaty of years, with sporadic guerrilla warfare
on the cover and Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), when juris- continuing into the ’20s and ’30s.The
title page of diction shifted to U. S. bishops and revolution left hundreds of thousands of
Roberto R. American and French clergy replaced Mexicans dead and many more unem-
Treviño’s The Mexican and local priests. At times, the ployed as the economy came to a near
Church in the ecclesiastical transition appeared as much standstill.This turmoil eventually
Barrio, Mexican of a takeover as the economic and polit- “pushed” Mexicans, also by the hun-
American Ethno- ical conquest of the area by the new dreds of thousands, into the United
Catholicism in Houston (North Carolina, Anglo American lords of the land. By States. “Pull” forces there included the
2006) reflects one of the book’s central the same token,Tejanos’ insistence on expansion of cotton and vegetable
themes, the interaction between keeping their ethno-Catholicism seemed agribusinesses, fueled by new technolo-
Mexicans and Mexican Americans in motivated by both religious fervor and gies in irrigation and the growth of
Houston and the institutional church. by socio-cultural resistance to the new cities like Houston, which joined Dallas
The photograph depicts a group of order. But Treviño doesn’t dwell long on as the major axes of the state’s ties to the
Mexican Americans in a procession this period, since his study of Mexican national and world economy.
through a city street led by youngsters Americans in the Catholic Church in
carrying a wide, white banner identify- Houston is a relatively modern story, In Houston, as elsewhere in Texas,
ing their parish church, the Immaculate focusing on the post- the Church sent priests and sisters to
Conception (the U.S. national 1910 immigration and
patroness), immediately followed by reflecting immigrants’ meet the spiritual
adults bearing a rather large painting of move to the city and an needs of their
Our Lady of Guadalupe (the Mexican American Church that new faithful,
national patroness). A second image of had a half-century of greeting them,
La Guadalupana can be seen on another working with Mexicans Treviño notes,
banner in the background, possibly and Mexican Americans. with both despair
identifying a church organization named and hope:
after her.The occasion for the proces- Mexican immigrants despair, because
sion is not identified, but the juxtaposi- had been drawn to the immigrants’
tion of images of Guadalupe and Houston since the late Catholic alle-
reference to the American patroness 1800s, albeit in small giance did not
speaks volumes of a Mexicano faith com- numbers, as part of larger measure up the
munity insisting on its own devotional economic and demo- clergy’s expecta-
expressions and the United States insti- graphic current swirling tions of church
tutional Catholic Church responding to across North America. attendance; and
traditions of the faithful. In Mexico, President hope, because
Porfirio Díaz’ Mexicano
This interchange did not begin in “Modernization of expressive devo-
Houston. Indeed, Houston is in many Mexico” linked that tions seemed to
ways a new city whose development country with the outside world through reflect a deep,
into the state’s largest urban area resulted a north-south railroad system, creating though different, inner faith. On one
from a mixture of geography and 20th huge dislocations that caused a great level, then, the immigrants’ faith seemed
century technology, the dredging of the deal of human suffering.The changes to the priests to be superficial and at
ship channel from the Gulf coast. And also created new opportunities — and times superstitious.Their references to
for Latinos, Houston is an immigrant expectations that the new prosperity “our poor Mexicans” implied pity not
city, with no Spanish and Mexican roots could not meet.Those dislocations and only for their economic depravation but
like San Antonio, Los Angeles, or various the unmet expectations “pushed” also for their supposedly limited under-
other Southwestern urban centers. But Mexicans al norte, mostly to work on standing of Catholicism.To many
the American Catholic Church, as the railroads.The trickle of immigrants churchmen, Mexicanos’ faith compared
Treviño describes in the opening chap- into the United States became a torrent unfavorably to that of the immigrants
ter, had been serving Mexicans and when revolution against Díaz broke out from Europe who had arrived in the
Mexican Americans across the state and in 1910.The fighting went on for seven United States over previous decades.
Some priests, however, saw a profound
11

P U B L I CAT I O N S

and unique spirituality evident in pri- the American church to end the prac- bonding and a closer sense of communi-
ty. Some Protestant groups also organ-
vate, individual devotions, in communal tice of creating “national parishes.” ized neighborhood centers that provided
a variety of social services, involving
celebrations, and in public observances. Simply put, in Houston, as elsewhere, adults and youth in various community
and sports activities.
The prevalence of home altars and the the spiritual ministering to these immi-
To counteract the “leakage” of
prayerful reverence in front of Church grants had to be done in Spanish. As Mexicanos to los aleluyas and acting out
of a long tradition of Catholic social
images reflected that devotion, while Treviño points out, two factors in par- justice teachings, individual bishops,
priests, and nuns organized soup
family gatherings connected with the ticular distinguished the situation in kitchens and clinics, encouraged labor
leaders, and called on employers to offer
reception of sacraments, quinceañera Texas from the Catholic experience in a living wage. Institutionally, the Church
provided what were often the better
church celebrations, and membership in the northeastern United States. First, the schools in the barrio, staffed by dedicat-
ed — and underpaid — nuns. Parishes
certain parish organiza- continued immigration also sponsored youth activities open to
everyone, whether or not the youngsters
tions brought out the from Mexico delayed the went to Catholic schools.The Bishops’
Committee for the Spanish Speaking,
communal nature of the The Catholic full acculturation process led by Archbishop Robert E. Lucey, and
immigrants’ faith. One and, second, anti- outspoken leaders like Father Frank
Kilday battled for citizens’ rights and fair
priest pointed out that Mexican sentiments, wages on local, regional, and national
stages, loudly denouncing the Bracero
some families waited Church’s response even among fellow program and periodic deportation
over a year to baptize a Catholics, bolstered sweeps of the barrios.

newborn so that they to the spiritual Mexicano cultural pride Sister Mary Benitia Vermeerch and
could save enough to the point that St. Sister Mary Dolores Cárdenas, both
Sisters of Divine Providence, undertook
money to celebrate that Stephen’s remained a the practical work of providing nutri-
tious school lunches for immigrant chil-
first sacrament with a needs of the national parish despite dren and supplying new arrivals with
groceries. “La Madre Benitia” worked at
fiesta for the extended intense pressure from the Guadalupe Parish for over two decades,
while Sister Dolores served at St.
family. A fifteen thou- Mexican bishop to change it.The Patrick’s. Along with miraculously mul-
sand-strong assembly for community’s link to St. tiplying loaves and peanut butter, these
optimistic and energetic women also
a Christ the King obser- Stephen’s was so strong wrote letters of recommendation for
youth seeking employment and provid-
vance, which included a immigrants that parishioners success- ed models for leadership for the young
women. Sister Benitia was so loved and
thunderous “Viva Cristo fully later resisted anoth- needed at Guadalupe — and she was so
attached to her parishioners — that it
Rey,” led an observer to reflected in part the er bishop’s decision to took one pastor with whom she had a
remark that “it was a dis-incorporate it and personality conflict two years,Treviño
recounts, to have her removed, some-
display of faith rarely strong challenge of merge it with the histor- thing she did only to comply with her
paralleled.” ically Anglo St. John’s. In vow of obedience.

Because of their the “middling,” presum- Houston’s Mexican and Mexican
American Catholics acknowledged the
experience with Protestantism. ably territorial, parish of spiritual and material work of these and
Mexicans and Mexican St. Philip’s, the faithful other dedicated clergymen and women
religious by supporting their parishes
Americans in South insisted on certain tradi- through donations, through their volun-
teer labor, and through sponsoring and
Texas, the Oblates of tional observances like

Mary Immaculate were entrusted with the Diez y Seis, Mexican Independence

evangelizing Houston’s Mexican immi- Day.The issue of national vs. territorial

grants.The Oblates worked in homes, parishes was debated for decades in

stores, and meeting places for months Houston.

before they established “the mother The Catholic Church’s response

church” of the city’s Mexicanos, Our to the spiritual needs of the Mexican

Lady of Guadalupe parish. At the dedi- immigrants reflected in part the strong

cation ceremony and on other occa- challenge of Protestantism.Various

sions, Galveston’s Bishop Nicholas A. churches — commonly called “los

Gallagher acknowledged the immi- aleluyas” by Catholics — had been

grants’ right to continue their Mexican working in Mexico during the Díaz

traditions, including the confirmation regime and now found their prospective

of infants and other religious customs. converts closer at hand, north of the

These concessions,Treviño argues, came border.The pastors who organized con-

as much from the demands of the faith- gregations in the barrios were often

ful as from the prelate’s sensitivity. Mexican or Mexican American with

Some parishes began as independ- deep roots in those communities, an

ent church communities while others advantage over the prevalence of

started as “mission” offshoots of estab- American or Spanish priests. Protestant

lished parishes. In either situation, the church services were, of course, in

size of Houston’s immigrant population Spanish and the congregations were

necessitated establishing “Mexican usually smaller than in Catholic church-

churches,” in spite of the trend within es, affording members deeper fraternal

12

participating in various fundraising some Mexican American priests and ing this one, will no doubt find a
favorite theme they would have like
events, including teatros (plays or talent nuns, responding to the Chicano teased out more in this story, but it
would have distracted from the excellent
shows) and jamiacas (bazaars). Mexican Movement, recognized the depth balance of narrative and analysis and the
broad scope of the book.That balance
parishes received substantial donations, of the suffering, and acknowledged and comprehensive nature makes for
engaging reading for both scholars and
often critical seed money for building the painful disappointment of some those with a more general interest in
Church and Latino history, as well as
projects, from the American Board of Mexican Americans with the institu- Mexican parishioners across the
Southwest who will see their particular
Catholic Missions, but the amounts tional church.The first action of these church community reflected in the
Houston experience.
were not in proportion to the number activist “insiders” was to push the
The basic premise of the book, the
or economic needs of the Catholics Church into non-partisan political interaction between the Church and this
ethnic community, does preclude, how-
those parishes served.Treviño traces actions such as registering voters and ever, some treatment of what happens
as part of that group becomes more
these and other external promoting certain youth acculturated and assimilated into the
American mainstream.The fact that
donations and the con- and job programs.Then, Treviño’s story ends in the 1970s may
explain his failure to discuss the transi-
tributions made by the To counteract the individual priests and tion to the middle class and the loss of
parishioners, demon- women religious from clearly identifiable ethnic religious tradi-
tions among some members of the
strating how the latter’s “leakage” of Houston began joining group. In making reference to some
offerings were usually the public demonstra- developments at St. Philip’s parish, a
“middling” community, the author does
the mainstay of the tions, including taking hint that some of these traditions per-
sisted. Additionally, because recently the
parishes, reflecting the Mexicanos to los significant roles in La “leakage” of Catholics to evangelical
faithful’s conviction that Marcha, a protest march Protestant churches has increased, the
conversions of yesteryear possibly
their parishes provided aleluyas and from the Rio Grande deserved more attention. But these types
spiritual solace, social Valley to the state capi- of questions may be better addressed by
theologians than by a historian.
bonding, and tal. Among these, Father
These small reservations aside, this
cultural affirmation. acting out of a Antonio Gonzales made reviewer thoroughly enjoyed the book.
But, alas, this was headlines in joining Treviño’s focus on the interaction
between the Church and the ethno-
not the reign of God long tradition of those confronting head- Mexican faithful in Houston carries the
made real in Houston, on the state political reader almost effortlessly through a vari-
ety of controversies and mutually bene-
and the sufferings of the leadership. On a national ficial developments across more than
half a century. A less careful observer
Mexican Americans and Catholic social level, Father Patricio may have been more critical of the
institutional church or less tolerant of
the Church’s limited Flores assisted the the immigrants’ traditional religious
practices. In the end, the “dialogue”
response to those suffer- justice teachings, United Farm Workers in between the Church and the faithful
ings were brought to the their grape boycott.The involved a give-and-take — reflected in
the procession with banners referring to
fore boldly and loudly Houston diocese also both Mary, the Immaculate Conception,
and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe — that
by Chicano activists individual bishops, provided funds for bar- only an insightful scholar like Treviño
appreciates.
during the 1960s.These rio clinics and joined
— Gilberto Hinojosa
leaders called on the priests, and nuns other churches to estab- University of the Incarnate Word
Church to advocate lish projects like the San Antonio

greater systemic change organized soup Oxford Place, a public
and to offer more sub- housing venture, which,

stantial assistance by one Chicano paper

opening facilities for kitchens and claimed, did not receive
social programs and the necessary support to

activist gatherings.The clinics, encouraged make it successful.
institution’s initial reac- National, church-spon-

tion — and that of some sored encuentros (gather-

barrio elders — was labor leaders, ings) institutionalized
shock at the confronta- the Catholic Church’s

tionist style and the and called on response to growing
abrasive rhetoric of the numbers of Latinos and

activists. In light of the their needs.Whatever

church’s earlier spiritual, employers to offer the adequacy of this par-

emotional and econom- ticular action,Treviño

ic support of the immi- a living wage. concludes, Chicanos’
grant population, the “relationship with the

strident demands of Catholic Church (in

Chicano leaders that the Houston) had been

Church live up to its professed ideal deeply intertwined as they journeyed

of Christian social justice seemed toward self-determination.”

ungrateful. This brief sketch of the topics cov-

In this context, the Church’s ered in Treviño’s book belies the depth

immediate response was to recoil from in which the author treats most of his

getting involved in “civic affairs,” but subject matter. Some reviewers, includ-

13

Recent publications of interest include:

Catherine L. Albanese, A Republic of David A. Badillo, Catholic neighbors early in the 19th
Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of Latinos and the century. Mexican American Protestants
American Metaphysical Religion (Yale, New Immigrant have faced the double challenge of
2006). Albanese follows metaphysical Church (Johns being a religious minority within the
traditions from Renaissance Europe to Hopkins, 2006). larger Mexican American community
England and then America, where they Latin Americans and a cultural minority within their
have flourished from colonial days to make up the Protestant denominations. As they have
the 21st century, blending often with largest new negotiated and sought to reconcile these
African, Native American, and other immigrant two worlds over nearly two centuries,
cultural elements.The book follows population in los Protestantes have melded Anglo-
evolving versions of metaphysical reli- the United States, American Protestantism with Mexican-
gion, including Freemasonry, early and Latino Catholics are the fastest- American culture to create a truly
Mormonism, Universalism, and growing sector of the Catholic Church indigenous, authentic, and empowering
Transcendentalism — and such further in America.The author offers a history faith tradition in the Mexican-American
incarnations as Spiritualism,Theosophy, of Latino Catholicism in the United community.This book presents the first
New Thought, Christian Science, and States by looking at its growth in San comparative history of Hispanic
reinvented versions of Asian ideas and Antonio, Chicago, New York, and Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists in
practices. Continuing into the 20th cen- Miami. Focusing on 20th-century Texas. Covering a broad sweep from the
tury and after, the book shows how the Latino urbanism, Badillo contrasts broad 1830s to the 1990s, Barton examines
metaphysical mix has broadened to historic commonalities of Catholic reli- how Mexican-American Protestant
encompass UFO activity, channeling, gious tradition with variations of Latino identities have formed and evolved as
and chakras in the New Age movement ethnicity in various locales. He empha- los Protestantes interacted with their two
— and a much broader new spirituality sizes the contours of day-to-day life as very different communities in the barrio
in the present. In its own way, Albanese well as various aspects of institutional and in the Protestant church.
argues, American metaphysical religion and lived Catholicism.The story of
has been as vigorous, persuasive, and Catholicism goes beyond clergy and Michael Battle, The Black Church in
influential as the evangelical tradition laity; it entails the entire urban experi- America: African American Christian
that is more often the focus of religious ence of neighborhoods, downtown Spirituality (Blackwell Publishers,
scholars’ attention. She makes the case power seekers, archdiocesan movers and 2006). “I am, because we are; and since
that because of its combinative nature shakers, and a range of organizations and we are, therefore I am,” said Archbishop
— its ability to incorporate differing associations linked to parishes. Although Desmond Tutu.This strong sense of
beliefs and practices — metaphysical parishes remain the key site for Latino community, argues author Michael
religion offers key insights into the efforts to build individual and cultural Battle, is central to African American
history of all American religions. identities, Badillo argues that one must Christian spirituality. Exploring the his-
consider simultaneously the triad of tory of the Black Church in America, its
Ellen T. Armour and Susan M. St.Ville, parish, city, and ethnicity to fully com- African roots, its beliefs, practices, poli-
eds., Bodily Citations: Religion and prehend the influence of various Latino tics, and moral dilemmas, the author
Judith Butler (Columbia, 2006).While populations on both Catholicism and gives readers a broad understanding of
Judith Butler’s writings have been cru- the urban environment in the United African American Christian spirituality
cial and often controversial in the devel- States. By contrasting the development and a sense of its uniqueness in the
opment of feminist and queer theory, of three distinctive Latino communities wider world.
Bodily Citations is the first anthology — the Mexican Americans, Puerto
centered on applying her theories to Ricans, and Cuban Americans — Léopold L.S. Braun, A.A., G.M.
religion. In this collection scholars in Badillo challenges the popular concept Hamburg, ed., In Lubianka’s Shadow:
anthropology, biblical studies, theology, of an overarching “Latino experience” The Memoirs of an American Priest in
ethics, and ritual studies use Butler’s and offers instead an integrative Stalin’s Moscow, 1934-1945 (Notre
work to investigate a variety of topics in approach to understanding the scope, Dame, 2006).This book chronicles the
biblical, Islamic, Buddhist, and Christian depth, and complexity of the Latino extraordinary life of a young American
traditions.The authors shed new light contribution to the character of Catholic priest, Father Léopold Braun,
on Butler’s ideas and highlight their America’s urban landscapes. who, as pastor of a Catholic church near
ethical and political import.They also the Lubianka political prison in the
broaden the scope of religious studies Paul Barton, Hispanic Methodists, heart of Moscow, witnessed Stalin’s
as they bring it into conversation with Presbyterians, and Baptists in Texas purges, the Soviet government’s cam-
feminist and queer theory. Subjects dis- (Texas, 2006).The question of how one paign against organized religion, and
cussed include the woman’s mosque can be both Hispanic and Protestant has the destruction of World War II.These
movement in Cairo, the ordination of perplexed Mexican Americans in Texas memoirs, recently discovered in the
women in the Catholic Church, the ever since Anglo-American Protestants archive of Braun’s Assumptionist order
possibility of queer ethics, religious ritu- began converting their Mexican by Soviet scholar G.M. Hamburg, offer
al, and biblical constructions of sexuality.
14

an intimate account of Father Braun’s ing and purpose of marriage, the role Church authorities finally culminated in
valiant effort to uphold Christian wor- of betrothals, the status of women, the a decision by the Congregation for the
ship in the only Catholic church place of romance, grounds for divorce, Doctrine of the Faith, headed by then-
allowed to operate in Stalin’s Moscow. celibacy, and sexual deviance. Separate Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, that Curran
Posted to Moscow in 1934 as chaplain chapters devoted to each religion was neither suitable nor eligible to be
of the United States embassy, Father include introductions by leading scholars a professor of Catholic theology. As a
Braun served the embassy staff and local that contextualize the readings.The result of that Vatican condemnation, he
parishioners in the Saint Louis des selections are drawn from a variety of was fired from his teaching position at
Français Church at a moment when genres including ritual, legal, theological, Catholic University of America and,
Stalin’s anti-religious campaign was poetic, and mythic texts. since then, no Catholic university has
reaching a crescendo. He describes the been willing to hire him.Yet Curran
Soviet government’s intimidation and Allen Dwight Callahan, The Talking continues to defend the possibility of
arrest of his parishioners, police surveil- Book: African Americans and the Bible legitimate dissent from those teachings
lance of the church building, and per- (Yale, 2006). Callahan casts the Bible as of the Catholic faith — not core or
sonal harassment designed to force him the central character in a vivid portrait central to it — that are outside the
out of the country. Braun’s responses to of black America, tracing the origins of realm of infallibility.
these pressures — sometimes amusing, African American culture from slavery’s
sometimes heart-rending, but always secluded forest prayer meetings to the Edward E. Curtis IV, Black Muslim
intelligent and soulful — tell us much bright lights and bold style of today’s Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-
about the capacity of ordinary people to hip-hop artists.The Bible has profound- 1975 (North Carolina, 2006). Elijah
respond to extraordinary circumstances. ly influenced African Americans Muhammad’s Nation of Islam came to
throughout history. From a variety of America’s attention in the 1960s and
Kenneth Briggs, perspectives this wide-ranging book is 1970s as a radical separatist African
Double Crossed: the first to explore the Bible’s role in American social and political group. But
Uncovering the the triumph of the black experience. the movement was also a religious one.
Catholic Using the Bible as a foundation, African Curtis offers the first comprehensive
Church’s Americans shared religious beliefs, creat- examination of the Nation of Islam’s
Betrayal of ed their own music, and shaped the ulti- rituals, ethics, theologies, and religious
American Nuns mate key to their freedom — literacy. narratives, showing how the movement
(Doubleday, Callahan highlights the intersection of combined elements of Afro-Eurasian
2006).There are biblical images with African-American Islamic traditions with African American
100,000 fewer music, politics, religion, art, and litera- traditions to create a new form of
women religious in the Roman ture.The author tells a moving story of Islamic faith. Considering everything
Catholic Church in America than there a biblically informed African-American from bean pies to religious cartoons,
were 40 years ago.The population of culture, identifying four major biblical clothing styles to prayer rituals, Curtis
sisters has declined more rapidly than images — Exile, Exodus, Ethiopia, and explains how the practice of Islam in
that of priests.While the explanation is Emmanuel. He brings these themes to the movement included the disciplining
partly cultural — contemporary women life in a unique African-American histo- and purifying of the black body, the
have more choices in work and life — ry that grows from the harsh experience reorientation of African American his-
Kenneth Briggs contends that the rapid of slavery into a rich culture that torical consciousness toward the Muslim
disappearance of convents can be traced endures as one of the most important world, an engagement with both main-
directly to the Church’s betrayal of the forces of 21st-century America. stream Islamic texts and the prophecies
promises of reform made by the Second of Elijah Muhammad, and the develop-
Vatican Council. Charles E. Curran, Loyal Dissent: ment of a holistic approach to political,
Memoir of a Catholic Theologian religious, and social liberation. Curtis’
Dan S. Browning and David A. (Georgetown, 2006.) Over the last 50 analysis pushes beyond essentialist ideas
Clairmont, eds., Sex, Marriage, and the years, Charles E. Curran has distin- about what it means to be Muslim and
Family in World Religions (Columbia, guished himself as one of the most well- promotes a view of the importance of
2006). Spanning thousands of years, this known and controversial Catholic moral local processes in identity formation and
new collection brings together writings theologians in the United States. He has appropriations of Islamic traditions.
and teachings about sex, marriage, and disagreed with official church teachings
family from the Jewish, Christian, on subjects such as contraception, Nicholas P. Cushner, Why Have You
Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Confucian homosexuality, divorce, abortion, moral Come Here?:The Jesuits and the First
traditions.The volume includes tradi- norms, and the role of the hierarchical Evangelization of Native America
tional texts as well as contemporary teaching office in moral matters. (Oxford, 2006). Cushner provides the
materials showing how religions tradi- Throughout, Curran has remained a first comprehensive overview and analy-
tions have responded to the changing committed Catholic, insisting that his sis of the American missionary activities
conditions and mores of modern life. positions are always in accord with the of the Jesuits. From the North American
Selections shed light on each religion’s best understanding of Catholic theology encounter with the Indians of Florida in
views on a range of subjects, including and always dedicated to the good of the 1565, to contact with Native Americans
sexuality and sexual pleasure, the mean- Church. In 1986, years of clashes with in Maryland on the eve of the American

15

Revolution, members of the order P U B L I CAT I O N S men and women at New Hope
interacted with both native elites and Ministry, a residential ex-gay program,
colonizers. Drawing on the abundant Lonergan, this book demonstrates a Erzen traces the stories of people who
documentation of these encounters, reasonable and authentic process of have renounced long-term relationships
Cushner examines how the Jesuits coming to faith. Drilling’s multi-faceted and moved from other countries out of
behaved toward the indigenous popula- approach looks at faith in the Trinity a conviction that the conservative
tion and analyzes the way in which through the diverse perspectives of anal- Christian beliefs of their upbringing and
native belief systems were replaced by ogous understanding, spirituality, ecclesi- their own same-sex desires are irrecon-
Christianity. He seeks to understand ology, philosophy, and interreligious cilable. Rather than definitively chang-
how and why the initial European- dialogue. ing from homosexual to heterosexual,
Indian encounter changed not only the the participants experience a conversion
religion of the natives, but also their Elaine Howard Ecklund, Korean that is both sexual and religious as born-
material culture, economic activity, American Evangelicals: New Models for again evangelical Christians. At New
social organization, and even their sexual Civic Life (Oxford, 2006). Scholarly and Hope, they maintain a personal relation-
behavior. Always sensitive to the influ- popular commentators lament the dete- ship with Jesus and build new forms of
ence of European “cultural filters” on rioration of civil society as a result of kinship and belonging. By becoming
Jesuit accounts, Cushner attempts as far American individualism, a decline based what they call “new creations,” these
as possible to discover the authentic in part on eroding religious participa- men and women testify to religious
voices of the Native Americans with tion. In this context, it is important to transformation rather than changes in
whom they interacted.The result is a ask how second-generation immigrants sexual desire or behavior. Straight to
fascinating and highly accessible intro- use religious resources to understand, Jesus exposes how the Christian Right
duction to the earliest colonial encoun- participate in, and potentially change attempts to repudiate gay identity and
ters in the Americas. American religion. Scholars stress that political rights by using the ex-gay
religion was vital for the civic integra- movement as evidence that “change is
Gary J. Dorrien, The Making of tion of earlier European immigrants. possible.” Instead, Erzen reveals, the real-
American Liberal Theology: Crisis, However, studies of religion among our ities of the lives she examines actually
Irony, and Postmodernity, 1950-2005. nation’s newest immigrants largely focus undermine this anti-gay strategy.
(Westminster John Knox, 2006). on how religion serves the immigrant
Dorrien sustains his previous definition community. Drawing on ethnographic Alexander Estrelda, The Women of
of liberal theology and his mixture of data from two congregations in one Azusa Street (Pilgrim Press, 2005).
theological, philosophical, and historical impoverished, primarily non-white city Capturing the stories of 18 individuals,
analysis, while emphasizing the unprece- on the east coast, Ecklund widens the this book pays tribute to the women
dented diversity of liberal theology in inquiry to look at how Korean who played a vital role — which was
the postmodern age. He argues that Americans use religion to negotiate typically overlooked or downplayed in
while liberal theology has been in crisis civic responsibility, as well as to create literature — in the 1906 Azusa Street
for the past half century, it has also racial and ethnic identity. She compares Revival, an event that catapulted the
experienced a hidden renaissance of the views and activities of second- then fledgling Pentecostal Movement
intellectual creativity. Liberal theology in generation Korean Americans in two into national prominence. As women
the early 21st century is more diverse, different congregational settings, one become more prominent in contempo-
complex, and marginalized than ever ethnically Korean and the other multi- rary Pentecostal churches, the role of
before in its history, he concludes, but its ethnic. She finds that the Korean women in the history of the movement
essential idea — creating a progressive, churches de-emphasize ethnicity.They will evoke growing interest among
credible, integrative third way between look like other evangelical congrega- scholars and church leaders.
orthodox over-belief and secular unbe- tions and are concerned about evangel-
lief — remains as necessary as ever. izing in the context of providing social Laura E. Ettinger, Nurse-Midwifery:The
services. Multiethnic churches, by con- Birth of a New American Profession
Peter Drilling, Premodern Faith in a trast, use evangelical Christianity to (Ohio State, 2006). Nurse-midwifery
Postmodern Culture: A Contemporary legitimate a political and social justice developed in the 1920s when nurses
Theology of the Trinity (Rowman & consciousness that values ethnic diversity took advanced training in midwifery.
Littlefield, 2006). Since the European and individualized understanding of Ettinger shows how nurse-midwives in
Enlightenment of the 18th century, tra- faith in the context of a conservative New York City, eastern Kentucky, and
ditional religious faith has been chal- Christianity. Santa Fe, New Mexico, both rebelled
lenged from many sides.This book against and served as agents of a nation-
acknowledges these challenges to the Tanya Erzen, Straight to Jesus: Sexual wide professionalization of doctors and
Christian doctrine of God and explains and Christian Conversions in the Ex- medicalization of childbirth.The book
their sources in philosophical terms. By Gay Movement (California, 2006). Every argues that nurse-midwives challenged
using the theological method articulated year, hundreds of gay men and lesbians what scholars have called the “male
by the philosopher-theologian Bernard join ex-gay ministries in an attempt to medical model” of childbirth, but the
convert to non-homosexual Christian
lives. Examining the everyday lives of

16

cost of the compromises they made to fresh and powerful.The essays study mediocrity in art, architecture, music,
survive was that nurse-midwifery did women of Christian denominations, and intellectual life and its level of com-
not become the kind of independent, African and Afro-Caribbean traditions, fort with American materialism and
autonomous profession it might have and Islam, addressing their roles as military power. Merton, Lax and Rice
been.Though nurse-midwives now have spiritual leaders, artists and musicians, engaged in a spiritual search that
assumed a larger role in mainstream preachers, and participants in bible study extended beyond Christianity to the
health care, they remain marginalized. groups. great religions of the East.
The history of the profession suggests
that nurse-midwives will continue to Jan Hare and Jean Barman, Good David Horace Harwell, Walker Percy
navigate in difficult waters in a middle Intentions Gone Awry: Emma Crosby Remembered: A Portrait in the Words
space between the mainstream and the and the Methodist Mission on the of Those Who Knew Him (North
margins of medicine and between the Northwest Coast (University of British Carolina, 2006). Harwell, a professor
nursing profession and midwifery Columbia, 2006). Emma Crosby was the of English at Thailand’s Thammasat
traditions. wife of the well-known Methodist mis- University, brings together 13 interviews
sionary,Thomas Crosby, who came to with intimates of the late Southern nov-
Frank Graziano, Cultures of Devotion: Fort Simpson, near present-day Prince elist Walker Percy. Among them are
Folk Saints of Spanish America Rupert, in 1874 to set up a mission Percy’s brothers, the proprietor of a
(Oxford, 2006). Spanish America has among the Tsimshian people. Her letters New Orleans bookstore, and the Percys’
produced numerous “folk saints” — to family and friends in Ontario reveal housekeeper, Carrie Cyprian. Certain
venerated figures regarded as miraculous the hardships and isolation she faced, as themes run through many of the con-
but not officially recognized by the well as her assumptions about the versations, including Percy’s involvement
Catholic Church. Some of these have supremacy of Euro-Canadian society in Civil Rights and other community
national cults with hundreds — perhaps and of Christianity.The authors critical- issues, his commitment to and questions
millions — of devotees. Graziano pro- ly represent Emma’s sincere convictions about Catholicism, and his struggles
vides the first overview in any language towards mission work and the running with depression. Lee Barrios, who
of these saints, offering in-depth studies of the Crosby Girls’ Home (later to worked as Percy’s assistant for a few
of the beliefs, rituals, and devotions sur- become a residential school), while at years, describes the writer’s comfort
rounding seven representative figures. the same time exposing them as a prod- with existential mystery. She also offers a
These case studies are illuminated by uct of the times in which she lived. unique perspective on Percy’s writing
comparisons to some hundred additional They also examine the roles of native process, which included countless revi-
saints from contemporary Spanish and mixed-race intermediaries who sions.The novelist’s lifelong friend,
America. Graziano draws upon site visits made possible the feats attributed to writer and historian Shelby Foote, tells
and extensive interviews with devotees, Thomas Crosby as a heroic male mis- anecdotes from their childhood. As a
archival material, media reports, and sionary persevering on his own against whole, these conversations not only shed
documentaries to produce vivid por- tremendous odds. light on a great American author, but
traits of these fascinating popular move- also plunge readers into the rhythms of
ments. In the process he sheds new light James J. Harford, Merton and Friends: folksy Southern storytelling.
on the fraught relationship between A Joint Biography of Thomas Merton,
orthodox Catholicism and folk beliefs Robert Lax, and Edward Rice James L. Heft, S.M., ed., Passing on the
and on an important and little studied (Continuum, 2006).Thomas Merton, Faith:Transforming Traditions for the
facet of the dynamic culture of contem- Robert Lax, and Edward Rice were Next Generation of Jews, Christians, and
porary Spanish America. college buddies who became life-long Muslims (Fordham, 2006). From the
friends, literary innovators, and spiritual beginning, the Abrahamic faiths —
R. Marie Griffith and Barbara Dianne iconoclasts.Their friendship and collab- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — have
Savage, eds., Women and Religion in the oration began at Columbia College in stressed the importance of transmitting
African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power, the 1930s and reached its climax in religious identity from one generation
and Performance (Johns Hopkins, 2006). the widely acclaimed magazine, the to the next.Today, that sustaining mis-
This landmark collection of newly com- Columbia Review, which ran from 1953 sion has never been more challenged.
missioned essays explores how diverse to 1967, a year before Merton’s death. Will young people have a faith to guide
women of African descent have prac- Rice was founder, publisher, editor, and them? How can faith traditions anchor
ticed religion throughout North art director, and Merton and Lax were religious attachments in this secular,
America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and two of his steadiest collaborators.This skeptical culture? The fruit of a historic
Africa. Contributors identify the pat- book is not only the story of a friend- gathering of scholars and religious lead-
terns that emerge as women, religion, ship but a richly detailed depiction of ers across three faiths and many disci-
and diaspora intersect, mapping fresh the changes in American Catholic life plines, this book reports on the religious
approaches to this emergent field of over the past 60-some years, a micro- lives of young people in today’s world.
inquiry.The volume focuses on issues of history of progressive Catholicism from It is also a unique inventory of creative
history, tradition, and the authenticity of the 1940s to the turn of the 21st centu- and thoughtful responses from churches,
African-derived spiritual practices in a ry. Despite their loyalty to the church, synagogues, and mosques working to
variety of contexts, including those the three often disagreed with its posi- keep religion a significant force in those
where memories of suffering remain tions, grumbled about its tolerance for lives.

17

Samuel C. Heilman, Sliding to the P U B L I CAT I O N S Emmett Larkin, The Pastoral Role of the
Right:The Contest for the Future of Roman Catholic Church in Pre-Famine
American Jewish Orthodoxy (California, the role of religion in the lives and Ireland (Catholic University of America,
2006).This book explores the evolution communities of Italian immigrants in 2006). Noted Irish historian Emmet
of the Orthodox Jewish community in Philadelphia from the 1850s to the Larkin examines the pastoral challenges
the United States since World War II. early 1930s.Throughout this period the the Roman Catholic Church faced in
Incorporating rich details of everyday Archdiocese of Philadelphia established ministering to an exploding population
life and fine-grained observations of 23 parishes for the exclusive use of of Irish Catholics in the years before the
cultural practices and descriptions of Italians. Juliani describes the role these Great Famine of 1847.The extraordi-
educational institutions, Heilman delin- churches played in developing and nary increase in the Irish population, a
eates the varieties of Jewish Orthodox anchoring an ethnic community and lack of financial resources available to
groups, focusing in particular on the in shaping its members’ new identity as the church, and a shortage of clergy and
contest between the proudly parochial, Italian Americans during the years of sacred space characterized the Irish
contra-acculturative haredi Orthodoxy mass migration from Italy to America. church between the mid-18th to the
and the accomodationist modern This book blends the history of mid-19th century. Larkin explores the
Orthodoxy for the future of this reli- Monsignor Antonio Isoleri — pastor church’s response to these challenges,
gious community.What emerges overall from 1870 to 1926 of St. Mary and their lasting impact on Irish
is a picture of an Orthodox Jewry that Magdalen dePazzi, the first Italian parish Catholicism.
has gained both in numbers and intensi- founded in the country — with that of
ty and that has moved farther to the Philadelphia’s Italian community, one of Francisco A. Lomelí, and Clark A.
religious right as it struggles to define the largest in the United States. Relying Colahan, eds. and transl., Defying the
itself and to maintain age-old traditions on parish and archdiocesan records, sec- Inquisition in Colonial New Mexico:
in the midst of modernity, seculariza- ular and church newspapers, archives of Miguel de Quintana’s Life and Writings
tion, technological advances, and the religious orders, and Isoleri’s personal (New Mexico, 2006). Miguel de
pervasiveness of contemporary papers, Juliani chronicles the history of Quintana was among those arriving in
American culture. St. Mary Magdalen dePazzi as it grew New Mexico with Diego de Vargas in
from immigrant refuge to a large, stable, 1694. He was active in his village of
David Hempton, Methodism: Empire of ethnic community that anchored “Little Santa Cruz de la Cañada where he was
the Spirit (Yale, 2006).This lively history Italy” in South Philadelphia. a notary and secretary to the alcalde or
of the rise of Methodism charts the mayor, functioning as a quasi-attorney.
development of the movement from its Todd M. Kerstetter, God’s Country, His conflicted life with local authorities
unpromising origins in England in the Uncle Sam’s Land: Faith and Conflict in began in 1734, when he was accused of
1730s to its emergence as a major inter- the American West (Illinois, 2006).This being a heretic.What unfolded was a
national denomination by the 1880s. book analyzes Mormon history from personal drama of intrigue before the
The book explores Methodism’s growth the Utah Expedition and Mountain colonial Inquisition. Searching
in the British Isles, America, and around Meadows Massacre of 1857 through Inquisition archives, Lomelí and
the globe, and the complex reasons for subsequent decades of federal legislative Colahan recovered Quintana’s writings,
its wide-ranging appeal. and judicial actions aimed at ending the second earliest in Hispanic New
polygamy and limiting church power. Mexico’s literary heritage.The first sec-
Douglas Jacobsen, ed., A Reader in It also focuses on the Lakota Ghost tion of the book places Quintana’s life
Pentecostal Theology:Voices from the Dancers and the Wounded Knee in the context of Church and society in
First Generation (Indiana, 2006).This Massacre in South Dakota (1890), and colonial New Mexico.The second part
reader examines the ideas that launched the Branch Davidians in Waco,Texas is a translation of and critical look at
Pentecostalism and fueled its expansion (1993). In sharp contrast to the mythic Quintana’s poetry and religious plays.
around the world over the last century. image of the West as the “Land of the
A general introduction to the book Free,” these three tragic episodes reveal Tomas Lozano, with Rima Montoya, ed.
describes the history and theology of the West as a cultural battleground — in and trans., Cantemos al Alba: Origins of
the early Pentecostal movement and its the words of one reporter, “a collision of Songs, Sounds, and Liturgical Drama of
significance to the contemporary guns, God, and government.” Kerstetter Hispanic New Mexico (New Mexico,
Christian world. A brief biography asks important questions about what 2006). Lozano weaves a historical unify-
introduces each of the 16 influential happens when groups with a deep trust ing thread of events originating in
leaders whose voices are recorded here. in their differing inner truths meet, and medieval Spain, passing through Mexico
he exposes the religious motivations and into New Mexico. Revealing a
Richard N. Juliani, Priest, Parish, behind government policies that worked largely unrecognized chapter in United
and People: Saving the Faith in to alter Mormonism and extinguish States history, he demonstrates how the
Philadelphia’s “Little Italy” (Notre Native American beliefs. first music schools of what today is the
Dame, 2006). From the perspective contemporary United States actually
of historical sociology, Juliani traces 18

began along the Río Grande Valley of and were the 12 principal researchers in presidential election of 2000, the influ-
New Mexico. Lozano presents over 100 a three-year collaborative project spon- ence of Catholics on American politics
songs with original music notations, sored by the Lilly Endowment. Profiling has followed a peculiar arc. In the colo-
compares full dramatic exemplars, and practices that range from Puritan devo- nial period, Catholics were often denied
brings forward recordings of forgotten tional writing to 20th-century prayer, participation in the process. In the 19th
sounds. from missionary tactics to African- and 20th centuries, the Catholic bloc
American ritual performance, these was recognized as a swing vote that
Morris J. MacGregor, Steadfast in the essays provide a unique historical per- determined the outcome of numerous
Faith:The Life of Patrick Cardinal spective on how Protestants have lived elections. Marlin and Barone trace the
O’Boyle (Catholic University of their faith within and outside of the political and electoral history of
America, 2006). Cardinal Patrick church and how practice has formed American Catholics from the time of
O’Boyle (1896-1987) is largely remem- their identities and beliefs. Each chapter Lord Baltimore and the founding of
bered as the controversial leader of the focuses on a different practice within a Maryland to the election of George W.
Archdiocese of Washington during its particular social and cultural context. Bush, arguing that Catholics’ assimila-
first, formative quarter century. O’Boyle The essays explore transformations in tion and fragmentation have diminished
encountered opposition from those who American religious culture from Puritan their electoral influence.
reviled his progressivism on social issues, to Evangelical and Enlightenment sensi-
especially his demand for racial equality bilities in New England, issues of mis- William C.
and support of organized labor. At the sion, nationalism, and American empire Mattison III, ed.,
same time, he earned the opprobrium of in the 19th and 20th centuries, devo- New Wine, New
those who resisted his firm support of tional practices in the flux of modern Wineskins: A
the magisterium, in particular his con- intellectual predicaments, and the claims Next Generation
troversial defense of the pope’s ban on of late-20th-century liberal Protestant Reflects on Key
artificial birth control and his rejection pluralism. Issues in
of liturgical experimentation in the Catholic Moral
wake of the Second Vatican Council. Arthur J. Magida, Opening the Doors of Theology
MacGregor seeks to explain O’Boyle’s Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites (Rowman &
apparent contradictions by placing of Passage (California, 2006).This book Littlefield, 2005).
special emphasis on his formative years explores rites of passage by sifting Young Catholic moral theologians
as the only child in an immigrant, through the accounts of influential experience a sharply different profes-
staunchly pro-labor family in Scranton, Americans who experienced them. sional formation than prior generations
Pennsylvania, and his training as a semi- Magida explains the underlying theolo- of moral theologians. How do these dif-
narian and curate in the rigidly tradi- gies, evolution, and actual practice of ferences influence the field of moral
tional Church of his adopted New York. Jewish bar and bat mitzvahs, Christian theology as a whole? This book address-
These experiences, combined with his confirmations, Hindu sacred thread es this and other questions by offering a
subsequent work with the poor and ceremonies, Muslim shahadas and Zen snapshot of how a new generation of
orphaned, instilled in him a progressive jukai ceremonies. In rare interviews, Catholic moral theologians understands
economic and social outlook as well as a renowned artists and intellectuals such not only topics in the field, but the
lifetime sympathy for society’s neglect- as Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, holistic effects of their own identity and forma-
ed. At the same time, they strengthened guru Deepak Chopra, singer Yusuf Islam tion on their treatment of those topics.
an unquestioned obedience and loyalty (Cat Stevens), actress/comedienne Julia The volume interweaves three key con-
to those in authority that figured so Sweeney, cartoonist Roz Chast, inter- cerns, all of which arise out of a critical
prominently in his later Washington faith maven Huston Smith, and many self-reflection on the task of moral the-
years. As Archbishop of Washington dur- more talk intimately about their reli- ology today: the character and adequacy
ing the modernization of the American gious backgrounds, the rites of passage of training and ongoing formation in
Church’s charitable apparatus and the they went through, and how these the field of Catholic moral theology, the
organization of its international relief events shaped who they are today. purpose and nature of teaching Catholic
efforts, O’Boyle was at the epicenter Magida compares these coming of age moral theology, and the relationship
of the debate over the proper roles of ceremonies’ origins and evolution, con- between methodological debates and
church and state in providing social siders their ultimate meaning and pur- the needs of the Christian life.
services. pose, and gauges how their meaning
changes with individuals over time. He Jon Meacham, American Gospel: God,
Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, Leigh E. Schmidt, also examines innovative rites of passage the Founding Fathers, and the Making of
and Mark Valeri, eds., Practicing that are now being “invented” in the a Nation (Random House, 2006).
Protestants: Histories of Christian Life United States. Debates about religion and politics are
in America, 1630-1965 (Johns Hopkins, often more divisive than illuminating.
2006).This collection of essays explores George J. Marlin and Michael Barone, Secularists point to a “wall of separation
the significance of practice in under- American Catholic Voter:Two Hundred between church and state,” while many
standing American Protestant life.The Years of Political Impact (St. Augustine conservatives believe that the founding
authors are historians of American reli- Press, 2006). From the earliest days in fathers advocated a fusion between reli-
gion, practical theologians, and pastors the New World through the disputed gion and politics. Meacham complicates

19

both assumptions. At the heart of the P U B L I CAT I O N S inspirational fiction plays a unique and
American experiment lies the God of important role in the religious lives of
what Benjamin Franklin called “public Bruce T. Morrill, Joanna E. Ziegler, and many evangelical women. Neal inter-
religion,” a God who invests all human Susan Rodgers, eds., Practicing Catholic: views writers and readers of the genre
beings with inalienable rights while Ritual, Body, and Contestation in and finds a complex religious piety
protecting private religion from Catholic Faith (Palgrave Macmillan, among ordinary people. In evangelical
government interference. Meacham 2006).This collection explores love stories, the success of the hero and
re-creates the fascinating history of a Catholicism as a faith grounded in ritual heroine’s romance rests upon their reli-
nation grappling with religion and practices. Ritual, encompassing not only gious choices.These fictional religious
politics, including discussions of John the central celebration of Mass but also choices, readers report, often inspire real
Winthrop’s “city on a hill” sermon, popular ceremonies and devotional acts, spiritual change in their own lives.
Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of comprises a base for Catholicism that Neal’s study of religion in practice high-
Independence, the American requires both constant engagement of lights evangelicalism’s aesthetic sensibili-
Revolution and the Civil War, the the human body and negotiation of var- ty and helps to alter conventional
proposed 19th-century Christian ious types of power, both human and understandings — both secular and reli-
Amendment to the Constitution, and divine. Practicing Catholic brings together gious — of this prominent subculture.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for civil top scholars from diverse backgrounds
rights. to explore methodologies for studying Justin N.
ritual and Catholicism. Nordstrom,
Melanie M. Morey and John J. Piderit, Danger on the
S.J., Catholic Higher Education: A Mark Thiessen Nation, John Howard Doorstep: Anti-
Culture in Crisis (Oxford, 2006). Yoder: Mennonite Patience, Evangelical Catholicism and
Catholic higher education in the United Witness, Catholic Convictions American Print
States is undergoing dramatic changes, (Eerdmans, 2006). John Howard Yoder Culture in the
driven largely by the virtual disappear- (1927-1997) was a leading Christian Progressive Era
ance of sisters, brothers, and priests from witness against violence, articulating a (Notre Dame,
Catholic university campuses.Today theology from his own tradition so 2006). From 1910
Catholic colleges and universities are powerful that it compelled people from to the end of World War I, American
dealing with critical questions about many other traditions to take notice. society witnessed a tremendous out-
what constitutes Catholic collegiate The war on terror, the temptations of pouring of books, pamphlets, and news-
identity.What are appropriate ways to nationalism, and the painful divisions papers expressing intense anti-Catholic
engage the Catholic tradition across all between those who call themselves fol- hostility and calling on readers to recog-
sectors of university life? What consti- lowers of Jesus signal our need to hear nize the danger Catholicism posed to
tutes a critical mass of committed and Yoder’s voice again at the beginning of the American republic. Anti-Catholic
knowledgeable Catholics necessary to the 21st century. In this book, Nation propaganda of this decade revived older
maintain religious identity? What is an provides an insider’s introduction to xenophobic traditions in the United
appropriate level of knowledge and reli- Yoder, demonstrating how a committed States, while revealing writers’ deep anx-
gious commitment for those who lead, Mennonite could also be profoundly ieties about the early 20th century. Justin
govern, and teach at Catholic institu- evangelical in his witness and broadly Nordstrom examines for the first time
tions and how do they acquire it? Based catholic in his Christian sensibilities. the rise and abrupt decline of anti-
on their research at 33 Catholic colleges Taking us into Yoder’s life and writings, Catholic literature during the
and universities across the United States, Nation explores Yoder’s context, his Progressive Era, as well as the issues
Morey and Piderit argue that a cultural keen interest in the Anabaptist tradition, and motivations that informed anti-
crisis is looming at a number of his sustained engagement with other Catholic writers and their “Romanist”
Catholic institutions.They offer con- Christians and other faiths, and his opponents.
crete suggestions for enhancing Catholic claim that pacifism is inherent to Jesus’
identity, culture, and mission at all message. David O’Connell, The Life of Abram J.
Catholic colleges and universities and Ryan, Poet-Priest of the South (Mercer,
provide four different models of how Lynn S. Neal, Romancing God: 2006). In 1879, Abram J. Ryan’s name
Catholic colleges and universities can Evangelical Women and Inspirational was a household name in the South,
operate and successfully compete as reli- Fiction (North Carolina, 2006). In the especially after the publication of his
giously distinctive institutions in the world of the evangelical romance novel, book, Father Ryan’s Poems. Released a
higher education market. sex and desire are mitigated by an year later as Poems, Patriotic, Religious and
omnipresent third party — the divine. Miscellaneous, the book was marketed to
Thus romance is not just an encounter a national audience and published in 40
between lovers, but a triangle of affec- editions until 1929.Two important
tion that includes man, woman, and poems, “The Conquered Banner”
God. Although this literature is often
disparaged by scholars and pastors alike,

20

(1865) and “The Sword of Robert Lee” Stephen Prothero, ed., A Nation of hierarchy’s internal, and often confiden-
(1866), were committed to memory by Religions:The Politics of Pluralism in tial, deliberations during the California
three generations of school children in Multireligious America (North Carolina, farm labor crisis of the 1960s and 1970s.
the South until the mid-20th century. 2006).The United States has long been He traces the Church’s gradual transi-
Margaret Mitchell, who knew them by described as a nation of immigrants, but tion from reluctant mediator to outright
heart, included Ryan as a character in it is also a nation of religions in which supporter of Chávez, providing an inti-
Gone With The Wind because of her Muslims and Methodists, Buddhists and mate view of the Church’s decision-
admiration for his work. Ryan was the Baptists live and work side by side.This making process and Chávez’s steadfast
editor of the Banner of the South, an book explores that nation of religions, struggle to win rights for farm workers.
anti-Reconstruction newspaper, in focusing on how four religious commu-
Augusta, Georgia, and popularized the nities — Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Virginia Chieffo Raguin, ed., Catholic
term “Lost Cause.” His outspoken views and Sikhs — are shaping and, in turn, Collecting, Catholic Reflection 1538-
with regard to the policies of the federal shaped by American values. For a gener- 1850: Objects as a Measure of Reflection
government caused him to lose the sup- ation, scholars have been documenting on a Catholic Past and the Construction
port of the paper’s owner, Bishop Verot how the landmark legislation that loos- of a Recusant Identity in England and
of Savannah.When the paper was closed ened immigration restrictions in 1965 America (Catholic University of
down, he moved to Mobile, Alabama, catalyzed the development of the America, 2006).When England became
serving as a parish priest for 10 years. United States as “a nation of Buddhists, a Protestant state in the 16th century,
Until now, no one has been able to Confucianists, and Taoists, as well as religious imagery was largely banned in
understand why Ryan left the quiet life Christians,” as Supreme Court Justice the visual arts and Catholics were for-
of retirement in Mississippi to begin Tom Clark put it.The contributors to bidden to erect buildings.They came to
preaching around the country to raise this volume take U.S. religious diversity identify their faith with their collections
money. Based on the study of the not as a proposition to be proved but as of illicit statues, paintings, chalices, pro-
previously unknown correspondence the truism it has become. cessional crosses and other objects of
between Ryan and two nuns in a ritual, prayer books, and works of devo-
Carmelite convent in New Orleans, Marco G. Prouty, César Chávez, the tional literature.The art was preserved
Ryan became convinced that he could Catholic Bishops, and the Farmworkers’ by Catholics who, recusing themselves
save his soul by devoting the last years of Struggle for Social Justice (Arizona, from oaths of loyalty and participation
his life to paying off the mortgage on 2006). César Chávez and the farmwork- in the state-sanctioned religion, were
their convent.Tragically, he worked ers’ struggle for justice polarized the dedicated to collecting pious texts and
himself to death in this endeavor. Catholic community in California’s images even in the face of opposition.
Central Valley during the 1965-1970 These objects — some featured in these
Mark A. Noll, The Civil War as a Delano Grape Strike. Because most farm pages — embodied their bonds with
Theological Crisis (North Carolina, workers and landowners were Catholic, God, church tradition, and one another.
2006). Noll argues that the Civil War the American Catholic Church was Many of the treasures featured in this
represented a major turning point in placed in the challenging position of book are housed in museums and in the
American religious thought. Although choosing sides in an intrafaith conflict. rare book libraries at major Jesuit insti-
Christian believers agreed with one Twice Chávez petitioned the Catholic tutions.The collection features stained
another that the Bible was authoritative, Church for help. Finally, in 1969 the glass, alabaster, carving, manuscripts,
there was rampant disagreement about American Catholic hierarchy responded printed books, liturgical vessels, paint-
what Scripture taught about slavery. by creating the Bishops’ Ad Hoc ings, and vestments, including the prized
Furthermore, most Americans continued Committee on Farm Labor.This com- chasuble given to Westminster Abbey by
to believe that God ruled over the mittee of five bishops and two priests Henry VII. A series of essays introducing
affairs of people and nations, but they traveled California’s Central Valley and the objects profiles aspects of piety, poli-
were radically divided in their interpre- mediated a settlement in the five-year tics, and art, including the early mission-
tations of what God was doing in and conflict.Within months, a new and ary work of the Society of Jesus in
through the war. In addition to examin- more difficult struggle began in England and Maryland.
ing what white and black Americans California’s lettuce fields.This time the
wrote about slavery and race, Noll Catholic Church drew on its long- Gary Scott Smith, Faith and the
surveys commentary from foreign standing tradition of social teaching and Presidency: From George Washington to
observers. Protestants and Catholics in shifted its policy from neutrality to out- George W. Bush (Oxford, 2006). Despite
Europe and Canada saw clearly that no right support for Chávez and his union, the mounting interest in the role of reli-
matter how much the voluntary reliance the United Farmworkers (UFW).The gion in American public life, we actually
on scriptural authority had contributed bishops’ committee became so instru- know remarkably little about the faith
to the construction of national civiliza- mental in the UFW’s success that of our presidents.Was Thomas Jefferson
tion, if there were no higher religious Chávez declared its intervention “the an atheist, as his political opponents
authority than personal interpretation single most important thing that has charged? What role did Lincoln’s reli-
regarding an issue as contentious as slav- helped us.” Drawing upon rich, gious views play in his handling of slav-
ery, the resulting public deadlock would untapped archival sources at the United ery and the Civil War? How did
amount to a full-blown theological States Conference of Catholic Bishops, born-again Southern Baptist Jimmy
crisis. Prouty exposes the American Catholic Carter lose the support of many evan-

21

P U B L I CAT I O N S

gelicals? Is George W. Bush, as his critics Douglas A. Sweeney and Allen C. U.S. Catholicism. Short introductions to
often claim, a captive of the religious Guelzo, eds., The New England the lives of people such as Archbishop
right? Smith takes a sweeping look at Theology: From Jonathan Edwards to John Carroll, Kateri Tekakwitha,
the role religion has played in presiden- Edwards Amasa Park (Baker Academic, Dororthy Day, and Mother Katharine
tial politics and policies. Drawing on 2006).While Jonathan Edwards’ influ- Drexel reveal how Catholics have lived
extensive archival research, Smith paints ence in American theology has long their faith throughout American history.
compelling portraits of the religious been recognized, the significance of his Each chapter also includes doctrine,
lives and presidencies of 11 chief execu- disciples has been less widely acknowl- reflection, quotations, discussion ques-
tives for whom religion was particularly edged and in many cases their writings tions and prayer intended to guide the
important. have been largely inaccessible.This reader to a deeper faith.The Catechism
important collection gathers representa- for Adults is an excellent resource for
Ryan K. Smith, Gothic Arches, Latin tive documents from the key figures of preparation of catechumens in the Rite
Crosses: Anti-Catholicism and American the Edwardsean tradition in the 18th of Christian Initiation of Adults and for
Church Designs in the Nineteenth and 19th centuries to introduce their ongoing catechesis of adults.
Century (North Carolina, 2006). work to contemporary readers.The
Crosses, candles, choir vestments, sanctu- selections are gathered thematically in Joseph A.Varacalli, The Catholic
ary flowers, and stained glass are com- sections on the New Divinity move- Experience in America (The American
mon church features found in nearly all ment, atonement and the moral govern- Religious Experience series)
mainline denominations of American ment of God, Edwardsean ethics, New (Greenwood Press, 2006).This volume
Christianity today. A century ago, how- Haven theology, Finney and the new in the American Religious Experience
ever, most Protestants would have measures, and the last of the consistent series chronicles the history and present
viewed these features as suspicious, for- Calvinists. situation of the Catholic Church and
eign implements associated strictly with the American Catholic subculture in the
the Roman Catholic Church. Blending Thomas A.Tweed, Crossing and United States. The Catholic Experience in
history with the study of material cul- Dwelling: A Theory of Religion America combines historical, sociologi-
ture, Smith sheds light on the ironic (Harvard, 2006). Beginning with a cal, philosophical, and theological and
convergence of anti-Catholicism and Cuban Catholic ritual in Miami, this religious scholarship to provide the
the Gothic Revival movement in 19th- book takes readers on a momentous reader with an overview of the general
century America. Smith finds the source theoretical journey toward a new trends of American Catholic history,
for both movements in the sudden rise understanding of religion. At this histor- without over-simplifying the complex
of Roman Catholicism after 1820, when ical moment, when movement across nature of that history.
it began to grow from a tiny minority boundaries is of critical importance for
into the country’s largest single religious all areas of human life — from media Michael E.Williams, Isaac Taylor
body. Its growth triggered a correspon- and entertainment to economy and pol- Tichenor:The Creation of the Baptist
ding rise in anti-Catholic activities, as itics — Tweed offers a powerful vision New South (University of Alabama,
activists representing every major of religion in motion. He considers how 2005). Born in Spencer County,
Protestant denomination attacked “pop- religion situates devotees in time and Kentucky, in 1825, Isaac Taylor Tichenor
ery” through the pulpit, the press, and space, positioning them in the body, the worked as a Confederate chaplain, a
politics. At the same time, Catholic wor- home, the homeland, and the cosmos. mining executive, and as president of the
ship increasingly attracted young, gen- He explores how religious people Agricultural and Mechanical College of
teel observers around the country. Its art employ tropes, artifacts, rituals, and insti- Alabama (now Auburn University). He
and its tangible access to the sacred tutions to mark boundaries and to pre- also served as corresponding secretary
meshed well with the era’s romanticism scribe and proscribe different kinds of for the Home Mission Board of the
and market-based materialism. Smith movements across those boundaries, and Southern Baptist Convention in Atlanta
argues that these tensions led Protestant examines how religion can enable and from 1882 until 1899. In these capacities
churches to break with tradition and constrain terrestrial, corporeal, and Tichenor developed the New South
adopt recognizably Latin art. He shows cosmic crossings. ideas that were incorporated into every
how architectural and artistic features aspect of his work and ultimately influ-
became tools through which Protestants United States Conference of Catholic enced many areas of southern life,
adapted to America’s new commercial- Bishops, United States Catechism for including business, education, religion,
ization while simultaneously defusing Adults (USCCB, 2006).The Catholic and culture.Williams documents the
the potent Catholic “threat.”The results Church has had a central presence in methodologies Tichenor used to rally
presented a colorful new religious land- the United States since the early nation- Southern Baptist support around its
scape, but they also illustrated the dura- al period. Each chapter in the United struggling Home Mission Board, which
bility of traditional religious boundaries. States Catechism for Adults begins with defined the makeup of the Southern
the story of an American saint or other- Baptist Convention and defended the
wise significant figure in the history of territory of the convention.Williams

22

contends that Tichenor’s role in shaping as the average age of ordination in both within Muslim communities in the
Southern Baptists as they became the Episcopal and United Methodist West and by non-Muslims. In their pub-
largest denomination in the South was churches is over 40. Female clergy face a lic and private lives, Muslim women are
crucial in determining both the identi- “stained glass ceiling” as churches still actively negotiating what it means to be
ties of the region and the SBC. prefer a man as the principal minister. a woman and a Muslim in an American
While deeply motivated by the mystery context. Haddad, Smith, and Moore
Larry A.Witham, Who Shall Lead of their “call” to ministry, America’s offer a much-needed survey of the situ-
Them?:The Future of Ministry in priests, pastors, and ministers are ation of Muslim American women,
America (Oxford, 2006).The clergy reassessing their roles in a world of new focusing on how Muslim views about
today faces mounting challenges in an debates on leadership, morality, and the and experiences of gender are changing
increasingly secular world, where declin- powers of the mass media. in the Western diaspora. Centering on
ing prestige makes it more difficult to Muslims in America, the book investi-
attract the best and the brightest young Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith, gates Muslim attempts to form a new
Americans to the ministry. As Christian and Kathleen M. Moore, eds., Muslim “American” Islam. Such specific issues as
churches dramatically adapt to modern Women in America:The Challenge of dress, marriage, childrearing, conversion,
changes, some are asking whether there Islamic Identity Today (Oxford, 2006). and workplace discrimination are
is a clergy crisis as well. Drawing on The treatment and role of women are addressed.The authors also look at the
dozens of interviews with clergy, semi- among the most discussed and contro- ways in which American Muslim
narians and laity, and using newly avail- versial aspects of Islam.The rights of women have tried to create new para-
able survey data including the 2000 Muslim women have become part of digms of Islamic womanhood and are
Census,Witham reveals the trends in a the Western political agenda, often per- reinterpreting the traditions apart from
variety of religious traditions.While petuating a stereotype of universal the males who control the mosque
evangelicals are finding innovative paths oppression. Muslim women living in institutions. A final chapter asks whether
to ministry, the Catholic priesthood America continue to be marginalized 9/11 will prove to have been a water-
faces a severe shortage. In mainline and misunderstood since the 9/11 ter- shed moment for Muslim women in
Protestantism, ministry as a second rorist attacks.Yet their contributions are America.
career has become a prominent feature, changing the face of Islam as it is seen

Recent journal articles of interest include:

C.F. Abel and Hans J. Hacker, “Local Wallace Best, “‘The Right Achieved Jay R. Case,“And Ever the Twain Shall
Compliance with Supreme Court and the Wrong Way Conquered’: J.H. Meet:The Holiness Missionary
Decisions: Making Space for Religious Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Movement and the Birth of World
Expression in Public Schools,” Journal of Conflict over Civil Rights,” Religion and Pentecostalism, 1870-1920,” Religion and
Church and State 48, no. 2 (spring 2006): American Culture 16, no. 2 (June 2006): American Culture 16, no. 2 (June 2006):
355-77. 195-226. 125-60.

Janet S. Armitage and Rhonda E. John C. Blakeman, “The Religious Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M., “Rewriting
Dugan, “Marginalized Experiences of Geography of Religious Expression: the Master Narrative: Religious Life and
Hispanic Females in Youth-Based Local Governments, Courts, and the the Study of American Catholicism,”
Religious Groups,” Journal for the First Amendment,” Journal of Church and American Catholic Studies 117, no. 1
Scientific Study of Religion 45, no. 2 (June State 48, no. 2 (spring 2006): 399-422. (spring 2006): 1-22.
2006): 217-31.
Stephanie M. Brewer, James J. Helen M. Ciernick, “Catholic College
Jerome P. Baggett, “The Catholic Jozefowicz, and Robert J. Stonebraker, Students in the San Francisco Bay Area
Citizen: Perennial Puzzle or Emergent “Religious Free Riders:The Impact of and the Civil Rights Movement,” U.S.
Oxymoron?” Social Compass 53, no. 2 Market Share,” Journal for the Scientific Catholic Historian 24, no. 2 (spring
(June 2006): 291-309. Study of Religion 45, no. 3 (September 2006): 131-41.
2006): 389-96.
Sandra L. Barnes, “Whosoever Will Let Nancy Nakano Conner, “From
Her Come: Social Activism and Gender Tricia C. Bruce, “Contested Internment to Indiana,” Indiana
Inclusivity in the Black Church,” Journal Accommodation on the Meso Level,” Magazine of History 102, no. 2 (June
for the Scientific Study of Religion 45, no. 3 American Behavioral Scientist 49, no. 11 2006): 89-116.
(September 2006): 371-87. (July 2006): 1489-508.
David E. Decosse, “Authority, Lies, and
Andrew Beatty,“The Pope in Mexico: Matthew Butler,“Revolution and the War: Democracy and the Development
Syncretism in Public Ritual,” American Ritual Year: Religious Conflict and of Just War Theory,” Theological Studies
Anthropologist 108, no. 2 (June 2006): Innovation in Cristero Mexico,” Journal 67, no. 2 (June 2006): 378-94.
324-35. of Latin American Studies 38, no. 3
(August 2006): 465-90.

23

Angelyn Dries, O.S.F., “Two Sides of the P U B L I CAT I O N S Xabier Itcaina, “The Roman Catholic
American Catholic Mission Coin: Church and the Immigration Issue,”
Mission Funding and Credit Unions,” Daniel Greene,“A Chosen People in a American Behavioral Scientist 49, no. 11
American Catholic Studies 117, no. 1 Pluralist Nation: Horace Kallen and the (July 2006): 1471-88.
(spring 2006): 23-44. Jewish-American Experience,” Religion
and American Culture 16, no. 2 (June Elizabeth Jameson, “Dancing on the
David J. Endres, “An International 2006): 161-94. Rim,Tiptoeing Through Minefields:
Dimension to American Challenges and Promises of
Anticommunism: Mission Awareness and Richard Gribble, C.S.C., “Cardinal Borderlands,” Pacific Historical Review 75,
Global Consciousness in the Catholic Humberto Medeiros and the no. 1 (February 2006): 1-24.
Students’ Mission Crusade, 1935-1955,” Desegregation of Boston’s Public
U.S. Catholic Historian 24, no. 2 (spring Schools, 1974-1976,” Journal of Church Paula Kane, “American Catholic Studies
2006): 89-108. and State 48, no. 2 (March 2006): at a Crossroads,” Religion and American
329-353. Culture 16, no. 2 (June 2006): 263-71.
Carl H. Esbeck, “Governance and the
Religion Question:Voluntaryism, Richard Gribble, C.S.C., “Advocate for Timothy Kelly,“The Strange Case of
Disestablishment, and America’s Ethnic and Religious Diversity:The Murray Kram: Catholic Devotionalism
Church-State Proposition,” Journal of Ecumenical Spirit of Archbishop and Direct Mail Marketing in
Church and State 48, no. 2 (March 2006): Edward Hanna,” American Catholic Pittsburgh,” Journal of Ritual Studies 19
303-26. Studies 117, no. 2 (summer 2006): 61-78. (2, 2005): 89-97.

Amitai Etzioni, “Should the United Richard Gribble, C.S.C., “A Kathleen Kennedy, “A Charge Never
States Support Religious Education in ‘Consecrated Thunderbolt’ of Catholic Easily Made:The Meaning of
the Islamic World?” Journal of Church and Education:The Contribution of Peter Respectability and Women’s Work in the
State 48, no. 2 (March 2006): 279-301. C.Yorke,” U.S. Catholic Historian 24, no. Trial of the Reverend William Hogan,”
2 (spring 2006): 57-70. American Nineteenth Century History 7,
John H. Evans, “Cooperative Coalitions no. 1 (March 2006): 29-62.
on the Religious Right and Left: Paul J. Griffiths, “On the Future of the
Considering the Resilience of Study of Religion in the Academy,” Carl E. Kramer, “Race, Religion, and
Sectarianism,” Journal for the Scientific Journal of the American Academy of Religion Reform in Urban Education,” Journal of
Study of Religion 45, no. 2 (June 2006): 74, no. 1 (March 2006): 66-74. Urban History 32, no. 4 (May 2006):
195-215. 643-56.
Stephen J. Gross,“The Grasshopper
Elizabeth Fenton, “Birth of a Protestant Shrine at Cold Spring, Minnesota: Thomas A. Kselman, “The Bautain
Nation,” Early American Literature 41, no. Religion and Market Capitalism among Circle and Catholic-Jewish Relations in
1 (March 2006): 29-57. German-American Catholics,” Catholic Modern France,” The Catholic Historical
Historical Review 92, no. 2 (April 2006): Review 92, no. 3 (July 2006): 177-96.
James T. Fisher,“Christopher Kauffman, 215-43.
the U.S. Catholic Historian, and the Michael J. Lacey, “Review Essay:
Future of American Catholic History,” Jacqueline Hagan, “Making Theological Authoritative Fallibility: the
U.S. Catholic Historian 24, no. 2 (spring Sense of the Migration Journey from Magisterium and the Moral Law,”
2006): 19-26. Latin America,” American Behavioral American Catholic Studies 117, no. 2
Scientist 49, no. 11 (July 2006): (summer 2006): 79-87.
Barbara J. Fleischer, “The Ministering 1554-1573.
Community as Context for Religious Pui-Yan Lam, “Religion and Civic
Education: A Case Study of St. Gabriel’s Christopher Hamlin and John T. Culture: A Cross-National Study of
Catholic Parish,” Religious Education 101, McGreevy, “The Greening of America, Voluntary Association Membership,”
no. 1 (winter 2006): 104-22. Catholic Style, 1930-1950,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Environmental History, (July 2006): 45, no. 2 (June 2006): 177-93.
David Kerrigan Fly, “An Episcopal 464-99.
Priest’s Reflections on the Kansas City Justus George Lawler,“With Chris
Riot of 1968,” Missouri Historical Review Leon Hutton,“The Future Pope Comes Kauffman Over the Years: Notes for a
100 (January, 2006): 103-12. to America: Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli’s Talk Not Given,” U.S. Catholic Historian
Visit to the United States,” U.S. Catholic 24, no. 2 (spring 2006): 1-18.
Mark M. Gray, Paul M. Perl, and Mary Historian 24, no. 2 (spring 2006):
E. Bendyna, “Camelot Only Comes But 109-30. Geoffrey C. Layman and John C. Green,
Once?: John F. Kerry and the Catholic “Wars and Rumours of Wars:The
Vote,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 36, William Issel,“‘Still Potentially Contexts of Cultural Conflict in
no. 2 (2006): 203-22. Dangerous in Some Quarters’: Sylvester American Political Behaviour,” British
Andriano, Catholic Action, and Un- Journal of Political Science 36, no. 1
American Activities in California,” Pacific (January 2006): 61-89.
Historical Review 75, no. 2, 231-70.

24

Mathew R. Lee,“The Religious David L. O’Connor,“The Cardinal Thomas H. Steele and Florence Byham
Institutional Base and Violent Crime in Mindszenty Foundation: American Weinberg, “By Letter:Three Years in the
Rural Areas,” Journal for the Scientific Catholic Anti-Communism and its Life of Vicar Machebeuf,” New Mexico
Study of Religion 45, no. 3 (September Limits,” American Communist History 5, Historical Review 80 (summer 2005):
2006): 309-24. no. 1 (June 2006): 37-66. 293-308.

Ann M. Little, “Cloistered Bodies: Jerome Oetgen, “The American- John Turpin, “Visual Culture and
Convents in the Anglo-American Cassinese Congregation: Origins and Catholicism in the Irish Free State,
Imagination in the British Conquest of Early Development (1855-1905),” 1922-1949,” Journal of Ecclesiastical
Canada,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 39, American Benedictine Review 56, History 57 (January 2006): 55-77.
no. 2 (winter 2006): 187-200. (December 2005): 418-54.
Rodger Van Allen “What Really
Josefina Lujan and Howard B. Michael Leo Owens, “Which Happened?: Revisiting the 1965 Exiling
Campbell, “The Role of Religion on Congregations Will Take Advantage of to Latin America of Daniel Berrigan,
the Health Practices of Mexican Charitable Choice?: Explaining the S.J.,” American Catholic Studies 117, no. 2
Americans,” Journal of Religion and Health Pursuit of Public Funding by (summer 2006).
45, no. 2 (summer 2006): 183-95. Congregations,” Social Science Quarterly
87, no. 1 (March 2006): 55-75. Michelle VanArk, “Portrait of
Dennis J. Lyle, “Catholics in Political Stangelville: Life in a Rural Community
Life: Reflections on Speeches by Smith, Paul Perl, Jennifer Z. Greely, and Mark During the 1930s and 1940s,” Voyageur:
Kennedy, and Cuomo,” Josephinum 12 Gray, “What Proportion of Adult Northeast Wisconsin’s Historical Review 22,
(summer/fall 2005): 253-67. Hispanics Are Catholic?: A Review of no. 2 (2006): 44-47, 49-50, 52.
Survey Data and Methodology,” Journal
Jaci Maraschin and Frederico Pieper for the Scientific Study of Religion 45, no. 3 Christopher G.White, “Minds Intensely
Pires, “The Lord’s Song in the Brazilian (September 2006): 419-36. Unsettled: Phrenology, Experience, and
Land,” Studies in World Christianity 12, the American Pursuit of Spiritual
no. 2 (2006): 83-100. Fernanda H. Perrone, “‘A Well-Balanced Assurance, 1830-1880,” Religion and
Education’: Catholic Women’s Colleges American Culture 16, no. 2 (June 2006):
Michael J. McNally, “Reconstruction in New Jersey, 1900-1970,” American 227-61.
and Parish Life in Charleston, South Catholic Studies 117, no. 2 (summer
Carolina, 1865-1877: A Pastor’s 2006): 1-32. Douglas L.Winiarski,“Jonathan
Perspective,” American Catholic Studies Edwards, Enthusiast?: Radical
117, no. 1 (spring 2006): 45-68. Joe Perry,“Nazifying Christmas: Political Revivalism and the Great Awakening in
Culture and Popular Celebration in the the Connecticut Valley,” Church History
Patrick J. McNamara, “Russia, Rome, Third Reich,” Central European History 74 (December 2005): 683-739.
and Recognition: American Catholics 38, no. 4 (2005): 572-605.
and Anticommunism in the 1920s,” U.S.
Catholic Historian 24, no. 2 (spring Ralph E. Pyle, “Trends in Religious
2006): 71-88. Stratification: Have Religious Group
Socioeconomic Distinctions Declined in
William M. Montgomery, “The Oblate Recent Decades?” Sociology of Religion
Sisters of Providence:The Origins of 67, no. 1 (spring 2006): 61-79.
their Mission to Latin America,” U.S.
Catholic Historian 24, no. 2 (spring Rosemary Radford Ruether,“My Life
2006): 41-56. Journey,” Dialog: A Journal of Theology 45,
no. 3 (fall 2006): 280-87.
Margarita Mooney, “The Catholic
Bishops Conferences of the United Stijn Ruiter and Nan Dirk De Graaf,
States and France,” American Behavioral “National Context, Religiosity, and
Scientist 49, no. 11 (July 2006): 1455-70. Volunteering: Results from 53
Countries,” American Sociological Review
Kenneth Mulligan, “Pope John Paul II 71, no. 2 (April 2006): 191-210.
and Catholic Opinion Toward the Death
Penalty and Abortion,” Social Science John Thomas Scott, “The Final Effort to
Quarterly 87, no. 3 (September 2006): Fulfill George Whitefield’s Bequest:The
739-53. Bethesda Mission of 1790-1792,”
Georgia Historical Quarterly 89 (Winter
Alexander-Kenneth Nagel, “Charitable 2005): 433-61.
Choice:The Religious Component of
the U.S.Welfare Reform:Theoretical William Shuter, “Sharing Our
and Methodological Reflections on Humanity:The Psychological Power of
‘Faith-Based Organizations’ as Social the Catholic Mass,” American Imago 63,
Service Agencies,” Numen: International no. 1 (spring 2006): 7-23.
Review for the History of Religions 53, no.
1, (2006): 78-111.

25

UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE CUSHWA CENTER

American Catholic Seminar in American Conference on the
Studies Seminar Religion History of Women
Religious
“Guadalupanas a Pie: Embodied King Tiger:The Religious Vision of Reies
Devotional Performance, Political López Tijerina (New Mexico, 2005) Local Cultures/Global Church:
Economy, and the Sanctification of Rudy V. Busto, University of California, Challenge and Mission in the History of
Space” Santa Barbara Women Religious
Elena Pena, University of Illinois at Seventh Triennial Meeting of the
Urbana-Champaign Commentators: Conference on the History of Women
Commentator: Daniel Ramírez Religious
Theresa Delgadillo Arizona State University University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame Marc Rodríguez June 24-27, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007, 4:15 p.m. University of Notre Dame
1140 Flanner Hall Saturday, March 31, 2007, 9 a.m.-noon Registration information and the
McKenna Hall, Center for Continuing conference program are available at
Education www.nd.edu/~cushwa

On October 15, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Mother
Theodore Guerin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence of
Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods in Terre Haute, Indiana.

On October 26, 2006, the Cushwa Center and the Office of
Campus Ministry co-sponsored a talk by Sister Marie Kevin
Tighe, S.P., Guerin’s vice-postulator.Tighe’s presentation was
followed by a Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

26

NEWSLETTERAMERICAN CATHOLIC STUDIES

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Opinion” — fall 2003

Mary J. Henold, “Gluttons for Dialogue:The American Catholic Feminist
Movement on the Eve of Disillusionment, 1975-1978” — spring 2004

Timothy B. Neary, “Taking It to the Streets: Catholic Liberalism, Race, and
Sport in Twentieth-Century Urban America” — fall 2004

Sally Dwyer-McNulty “In Search of a Tradition: Catholic School Uniforms” —
spring 2005

L.E. Hartmann-Ting “‘A Message to Catholic Women’: Laywomen, the
National Catholic School of Social Science, and the Expression of Catholic
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Margaret Preston “From the Emerald Isle to Little House on the Prairie”:
Ireland, Medicine and the Presentation Sisters on America’s Northern Plains”
— spring 2006

£

THE CUSHWA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN CATHOLICISM

The Cushwa Center seeks to promote and encourage the scholarly study of the American Catholic tradition through
instruction, research, publication, and the collection of historical materials. Named for its benefactors, Charles and
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contemporary expressions of Catholic religious tradition in the United States.The American Catholic Studies Newsletter is
prepared by the staff of the Cushwa Center and published twice yearly. ISSN 1081-4019

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