Patriotism and Fraternalism in the Knights of Columbus


Book Description

In competition with organizations which fostered historical memories exclusive of Catholics and immigrants, and which frequently portrayed the Knights of Columbus in the vanguard of "Vatican Imperialism" in the United States, the Fourth Degree, Patriotism, was founded to assert a distinctively Catholic historical memory.




Faith and Fraternalism


Book Description




Parish Priest


Book Description

"Father McGivney's vision remains as relevant as ever in the changed circumstances of today's church and society."—Pope John Paul II Is now the time for an American parish priest to be declared a Catholic saint? In Father Michael McGivney (1852-1890), born and raised in a Connecticut factory town, the modern era's ideal of the priesthood hit its zenith. The son of Irish immigrants, he was a man to whom "family values" represented more than mere rhetoric. And he left a legacy of hope still celebrated around the world. In the late 1800s, discrimination against American Catholics was widespread. Many Catholics struggled to find work and ended up in infernolike mills. An injury or the death of the wage earner would leave a family penniless. The grim threat of chronic homelessness and even starvation could fast become realities. Called to action in 1882 by his sympathy for these suffering people, Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, an organization that has helped to save countless families from the indignity of destitution. From its uncertain beginnings, when Father McGivney was the only person willing to work toward its success, it has grown to an international membership of 1.7 million men. At heart, though, Father McGivney was never anything more than an American parish priest, and nothing less than that, either—beloved by children, trusted by young adults, and regarded as a "positive saint" by the elderly in his New Haven parish. In an incredible work of academic research, Douglas Brinkley (The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc, Tour of Duty) and Julie M. Fenster (Race of the Century, Ether Day) re-create the life of Father McGivney, a fiercely dynamic yet tenderhearted man. Though he was only thirty-eight when he died, Father McGivney has never been forgotten. He remains a true "people's priest," a genuinely holy man—and perhaps the most beloved parish priest in U.S. history. Moving and inspirational, Parish Priest chronicles the process of canonization that may well make Father McGivney the first American-born parish priest to be declared a saint by the Vatican.




The Knights of Columbus


Book Description

On October 2, 1881, a small group of men met in the basement of a church in New Haven, Connecticut. Gathered together by their priest, Father Michael J. McGivney, they formed a fraternal society called the Knights of Columbus in honor of the Catholic explorer who had brought Christianity to the New World. Originally conceived as a mutual aid society, the Knights of Columbus was dedicated to helping Catholic families in need— people in the community who, in many cases, were excluded from unions and other organizations that provided social services to so many others. The members also vowed to be defenders of their nation and their faith. Well over a century later, the Knights of Columbus is going strong and, with over 1.8 million members, it has extended its reach to embrace people around the world. Through fascinating text and photographs, The Knights of Columbus: An Illustrated History tells the story of an organization that, through war and peace, has remained “the strong right arm of the Church,” bringing help and hope to people everywhere.




Patriotism Is a Catholic Virtue: Irish-American Catholics and the Church in the Era of the Great War, 1900-1918


Book Description

Most of the literature concerning the momentous challenges facing Irish American Catholics in the first two decades of the twentieth century pay but scant attention to the role played in addressing them by the American Church. Among the myriad political, social, cultural and economic issues confronting Irish American Catholics none stand out as prominently as the unabated burden of combatting scurrilous attacks upon them by nativist forces, the task of proving themselves as loyal American citizens, and navigating the perilous waves in advancing the course of directing Irish American nationalism and the cause of Ireland's freedom. Patriotism is a Catholic Virtue ferrets out the impact the institutional Church played in affecting the course of action Irish American Catholics took regarding these three crucial missions. Whereas the task of confronting the assaults of nativism, seemingly the natural task for the institutional Church, this study provides extensive evidence of the relentless defense of Catholic virtue conducted by diocesan newspapers. Similarly, the mission of promoting Catholics as loyal American citizens was largely left in the hands of the American hierarchy, its clergy, newspapers and Catholic societies and affiliates. Lastly, this book provides evidence that the Church may well have played the decisive role in guiding its Irish American faithful along paths that, while conservatively promoting Irish nationalism, did not jeopardize an "American First" policy for Catholics. All of this was accomplished in the crucible of an emerging worldwide war.




Iberia and the Americas [3 volumes]


Book Description

This comprehensive encyclopedia covers the reciprocal effects that the politics, foreign policy, and culture of Spain, Portugal, and the American nations have had on one another since the time of Columbus. From the discovery of Newfoundland and Labrador by Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte Real in 1501 to the phenomenal Hollywood careers of Spanish movie stars such as Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, Iberia and the Americas traces 500 years of Iberian influence on the Americas and vice versa. Featuring six introductory essays and a chronology of key events, this three-volume encyclopedia examines more than five centuries of transatlantic encounters. Students of a wide range of disciplines, as well as the lay reader, will appreciate this exhaustive survey, which traces Spanish and Portuguese influence throughout the Americas and highlights how Iberian cultures have in turn been enriched by the diverse cultures of the Americas.




The Chaldeans


Book Description

Modern Chaldeans are an Aramaic speaking Catholic Syriac community from northern Iraq, not to be confused with the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of the same name. First identified as 'Chaldean' by the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, this misnomer persisted, developing into a distinctive and unique identity. In modern times, the demands of assimilation in the US, together with increased hostility and sectarian violence in Iraq, gave rise to a complex and transnational identity. Faced with Islamophobia in the US, Chaldeans were at pains to emphasize a Christian identity, and appropriated the ancient, pre-Islamic history of their namesake as a means of distinction between them and other immigrants from Arab lands. In this, the first ethnographic history of the modern Chaldeans, Yasmeen Hanoosh explores these ancient-modern inflections in contemporary Chaldean identity discourses, the use of history as a collective commodity for developing and sustaining a positive community image in the present, and the use of language revival and monumental symbolism to reclaim association with Christian and pre-Christian traditions.




America's Church


Book Description

The National Shrine in Washington, DC has been deeply loved, blithely ignored, and passionately criticized. It has been praised as a "dazzling jewel" and dismissed as a "towering Byzantine beach ball." In this intriguing and inventive book, Thomas Tweed shows that the Shrine is also an illuminating site from which to tell the story of twentieth-century Catholicism. He organizes his narrative around six themes that characterize U.S. Catholicism, and he ties these themes to the Shrine's material culture--to images, artifacts, or devotional spaces. Thus he begins with the Basilica's foundation stone, weaving it into a discussion of "brick and mortar" Catholicism, the drive to build institutions. To highlight the Church's inclination to appeal to women, he looks at fund-raising for the Mary Memorial Altar, and he focuses on the Filipino oratory to Our Lady of Antipolo to illustrate the Church's outreach to immigrants. Throughout, he employs painstaking detective work to shine a light on the many facets of American Catholicism reflected in the shrine.




Cultural Movements and Collective Memory


Book Description

This book uses political process theory to examine three cultural movements around Christopher Columbus. The author examines the religious, ethnic and anti-colonial movements most successful at rewriting national origin myth, demonstrating the political process model while telling the story of how a powerless public mobilized to rewrite its past.




American Crusade


Book Description

Perhaps no era in Christian history since the time of the apostles presented a greater challenge to the spread of faith than the twentieth century. The First World War in particular resulted in nearly disastrous losses for the world mission movement. Christian countries were engaged in fratricidal conflict, missionaries were forced to return to their homelands, and traditional sources of mission funding dried up.In response to the missions crisis, American Catholic youth devoted themselves to a program of "prayer, study, and sacrifice"--the Catholic Students' Mission Crusade. Beginning with less than fifty members, the movement grew to over one million youth, and worked to foster support for missionaries in the field, promote missionary vocations, and educate youth about the needs of the church throughout the world. In the course of their "crusade," the movement's youth were exposed the complexities and challenges of diverse religious, political, and cultural worlds, including illiteracy in rural America, communism in China and Eastern Europe, and famine and disease in sub-Saharan Africa. In light of this experience, as well as the Second Vatican Council's reformulation of the Catholic Church's approach to missions, by the late 1960s the movement began to question its goal of converting the world, leading to the Crusade's crisis of faith and eventually to its disbanding.By exploring the fascinating story of the Catholic Students' Mission Crusade, this study offers new insights into the growth of the church amidst contemporary obstacles and historically non-Christian cultures, providing a bridge to understanding the current challenges to Christian globalization.