Congratulations to Christopher Gildemeister

Yesterday, one my closest American friends, Christopher Gildemeister, received his long overdue PhD from our alma mater, The Catholic University of America, with a dissertation entitled An Analysis of the Portrayal of Catholicism on Prime-Time Network Entertainment Television, 1950-1980. It was dearly earned, but few people I know deserve more to bear the appellation Doctor of Philosophy.    

The Legacy of Vatican II: Another Scholarly Contribution

With sincerest thanks to my fellow editors, Chris and Mary Beth, and to all our contributors, I am pleased to announce that Fordham University Press have released Empowering the People of God: Catholic Action Before and After Vatican II. You can purchase it at the FUP website or on Amazon.

Update: 26 November 2013.

Fordham University Press Booth, American Academy of Religion, November 2013

The Papal Resignation

It seems only fitting to note today's indication by Pope Benedict XVI of his intention to retire on February 28. The last such resignation was by Gregory XII in 1415, in an effort to end the Western Schism, while the resignation most comparable with today's announcement is that of Celestine V in 1294. While no one expected the current primacy to match that of John Paul II, it's still a remarkable occurrence and the prospect of a Pope who hails from the Global South must now surely increase, though whether from Africa or Asia remains to be seen.

New Orleans Panel on Catholic Action

Our panel at the American Catholic Historical Association in New Orleans, January 2013.

L to R: Patrick Hayes (Archivist, Redemptorist Fathers, Baltimore Province), Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello (Salem State University), Christopher Denny (St. John's University), Mary Beth Fraser Connolly (Lily Fellows Program, Valparaiso University), Leslie Tentler (Catholic University of America), Mary Elizabeth Brown (Archivist, Marymount Manhattan College)

Newman, Manning and the Anglican Dilemma

From Owen Chadwick's magisterial The Victorian Church Vol. 1 (1966), 300.

Manning and Newman were contrasting types and leaders of Anglicans attracted towards Rome. Newman was a divine, Manning a churchman. Newman looked for theological truth and found it in that church which, he came to believe, represented with least unfaithfulness the doctrine and ethos of the first Christian centuries. Manning knew that the church possessed the truth, but the English establishment allowed the state to adulterate the possession. Newman left the Church of England because it spoke to his conscience with stammering lips. Manning left the Church of England because it let a non-Christian state within its borders and surrendered its guardianship of truth to state officers. Newman left the Anglicans because they were Protestants, Manning because they were established.    

The Catholic Laity in an Era of Turmoil

Together with my co-editors, Mary Beth Fraser Connolly and Christopher Denny, I am pleased to announce that Fordham University Press will be publishing our Empowering the People of God: Catholic Action before and after Vatican II. Composed of eleven essays dealing with a wide range of topics ranging from the Catholic Club of New York City and postwar Italian-American Catholic Action to the Extension Lay Volunteers and the National Council of Catholic Women, our volume has already received very positive feedback from the readers assigned by Fordham.

A panel discussion by some of our contributors is scheduled for next year's American Catholic History Association meeting:

Outgrowing Catholic Action? Transforming the Parochial Identity of American Lay Apostolates in the Vatican II Generation

Sunday, January 6, 2013: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
New Orleans Marriott, Preservation Hall, Studio 1

Chair: 

Patrick Hayes, Redemptorist Archives of the Baltimore Province, Brooklyn, New York

Papers:
 

John Courtney Murray’s Justification for American Lay Catholic Movements
Christopher Denny, Saint John's University

Azzione Cattolica in an American Setting: The Society of Saint Charles-Scalabrinians and Catholic Action
Mary Elizabeth Brown, Marymount Manhattan College

Relevant Transformations: The Young Women of the Extension Lay Volunteers, 1961–71
Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello, Salem State University

Reaching Out to the People of God: The Implications of Renewal for the Sisters of Mercy in Parochial Education
Mary Beth Fraser Connolly, Valparaiso University

Comment: 

Leslie W. Tentler, Catholic University of America 

A word of thanks to an Amazon reviewer

I never thought that I would earn an Amazon review, since my publications could hardly be described as popular literature, yet back in April I apparently did. Since I have no other means of thanking him/her, I would like publicly to express my appreciation to D. Schweitzer of Okarche, Oklahoma, for taking the time to do a review.

Romeward Bound

On Wednesday, it was reported that the vestry of our former parish of Mount Calvary, Baltimore has voted to follow All Saints Sisters of the Poor into the Roman Catholic Church, under the auspices of Benedict XVI's Anglicanorum Coetibus. This vote is to be confirmed in an all-parish meeting on October 24.

This was the parish from which my wife and I were married in 2004, a small, spiky (in the Anglo Catholic sense) congregation, with pronounced Romeward leanings and very warm hearts. In the Nineteenth Century, its ritualism earned it a reputation for defiance of episcopal authority, but it retained considerable freedom of action within the Diocese of Maryland, not least, I suspect, because its sizable endowment generated a significant slice of diocesan income.

While I am in one sense happy for them if it brings peace, I find the news revives all the uncertainty that Anglicanorum Coetibus inspired in me when it was first announced, all the more so because the Diocese of Maryland has apparently signified a willingness to negotiate a settlement. That in itself is striking, given the way in which the Presiding Bishop warned the Diocese of Virginia off settling with the CANA churches, but of course Mount Calvary has considerable resources and it won't be setting up an alternative Anglican hierarchy.

At a deeper level, though, is it wise to depart not just as a community, but as an organized parish, complete with all accouterments? As I understand it, Pope Benedict is not inclined to establish an Anglican Rite, merely a more developed form of Anglican Use. Basically, it is a recognition of the value of certain liturgical forms and in no way undermines Leo XIII's declaration in Apostolicae Curae as to the invalid character of Anglican Orders. By departing in this manner - as opposed to accepting ordinariate status as a community of souls - the impact of the change is blunted. What guarantee is there that Mount Calvary will be any less of an enclave after the transition than before, a place to which Anglican converts to Rome can resort to sustain their former identity? Of course, if an Anglican Rite were to be accepted by Rome on the same terms as the Uniate and Oriental Catholic churches this might not matter so much. If it is not, surely it would be far better to accept the costs that come with sacrifice (and which earlier generations of Anglican converts have been obliged to bear).

All that said, we wish them well!

October 25 Update:

Mount Calvary voted on two resolutions today at a special meeting following 10:00 Mass:

1) That Mt. Calvary Church separate itself from The Episcopal Church, and

2) That Mt. Calvary Church seek admission to the Roman Catholic Church as an Anglican Use parish.

Both resolutions passed by majorities of almost 85%.

The ballots were counted by two disinterested outsiders: Dr. Daniel Page (a friend of many parishioners who lives nearby) and Sister Mary Joan of the All Saints' Sisters of the Poor.

The ballots were counted in the presence of the Rev. Scott Slater, Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Maryland.

Source: Stand Firm

Thomas Elton Brown reflects on The Road to Renewal

Dr. Brown wrote the pioneering study Bible Belt Catholicism: A History of the Roman Catholic Church in Oklahoma, 1905-1945. He was kind enough to permit me to share his personal impressions of my biography of Victor Reed.

I was raised a Catholic in Oklahoma during Victor Reed’s episcopacy. My family was a member of Christ the King parish in Oklahoma City while the then Monsignor Buswell was pastor and the then Father James Halpine was the assistant pastor. Long before Mother Denise was removed from her position as the head of the convent in Tulsa, she taught me second grade at Christ the King elementary school. And I graduated from McGuinness High School in 1964. So much of your monograph was a narrative of my youth. Since I attended McGuinness from 1960 to 1964, you can figure out the events I remembered and the participants I personally knew. It was a first for me as a trained historian to read a scholarly study that both was a narrative in which I would be a primary source and was an analysis about which I had produced a secondary source. I was somewhat schizophrentic in my reading. I would be checking footnotes to identify sources and mulling over the conclusions of each chapter in light of the narrative. Only then I would swing to my personal recollections – “Oh yes, I remember that.” Or “Wow, I didn’t know that.” Or “Oh no, that’s not how it happened” [Or at least, “That’s not how I remember it.”]

In sum, then, I just wanted to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it – both as an historian of the subject and as a reader with a personal involvement. As I initially wrote, I found it to be well researched and well written – both in a flowing writing style and a readily understandable structure. I thought you did an admirable job of placing Oklahoma within the broader context of the changes occurring simultaneously in other parts of the country. Some reviewers will often conclude a laudatory review by stating the monograph is a model for future studies or breaks new historiographical ground. Being so close personally to the topic and being so far away from active historical scholarship, I am not in position to make such a statement. But I can confidently state that it is as outstanding biography that captured a personality that truly wrestled with a range of issues as he struggled to do the right thing.

First Peer Review

Professor Thomas W. Jodziewicz of the University of Dallas has been kind enough to offer some positive impressions of my first monograph. To learn more, read his review at:

http://www.catholichistory.net/Book%20Reviews/BonnerRoadRenewal.htm

Making Corrections

An occasional embarrassment of publication is the discovery of errors. While these are often purely textual, they occasionally involve the reproduction of local urban legends. This past month I became aware that this had occurred in my first published monograph, The Road to Renewal. I must therefore admit that on page 202, I describe the publicity given by the National Catholic Reporter to Father John Bloms following his employment of girl servers at the Catholic parish in Ada, Oklahoma, as dating from 1964.

The diminutive Benedictine did indeed feature on the front page of the national paper celebrating the Eucharist facing the people and flanked by two young female parishioners, but although he instituted this practice in 1964, it was not until November 24, 1965 that reporters finally caught up with him. Two weeks later, the National Catholic Reporter dutifully reported that Father Bloms had signified his submission to an episcopal injunction to cease and desist.

While my error does not detract from the essential truth of the story, it nevertheless requires correction and this seems the best forum in which to acknowledge it.

My contribution to the Vatican II debate

After a few months away from blogging (writing Pittsburgh's diocesan history has kept me fairly occupied), I am pleased to announce my small contribution to the historiography of the Second Vatican Council. Due to be released in December, The Road to Renewal takes the story of conciliar reform to the Great Plains and to the experience of one Catholic bishop in the heady days of the 1960s. Those whose interest is piqued may consult the catalog entry at http://cuapress.cua.edu/BOOKS/viewbook.cfm?Book=BORR