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American Catholic History: A Progress Report on Research and Study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Henry J. Browne
Henry J. Browne
Affiliation:
Cathedral College, New York
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Extract

Historians are wary of surveys of neatly packaged periods of time such as the decade. However, an attempt to survey progress in the field of American Catholic history might be excused if it settled on the period of the last ten years. There are two reasons for this decision. First, it was just ten years ago that the late Thomas F. O'Connor in his presidential address to the American Catholic Historical Association spoke on trends and what, for some unexplained reason, he called ominously “portents” in the writing of American Catholic history. We have, therefore, in his remarks some mark from which to judge forward movement. The second reason for restricting an examination of this matter to the last decade is that the year 1946 marked the first formal entrance of John Tracy Ellis into the circle of historians of American Catholicism.

Type
Survey
Information
Church History , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , December 1957 , pp. 372 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1957

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References

1. “Trends and Portents in American Catholic Historiography,” Catholic Historical Review, XXXIII (04, 1947), 3–11.Google Scholar

2. Frawley, Sister Mary Alphonsine, Patrick Donohoe (Washinton, 1946);Google ScholarThe Formative Years of the Catholic University of America (Washington, 1946).Google Scholar

3. The Life of James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, 1834–1921 (2 vols., Milwaukee, 1952)Google Scholar; A Select Bibliography of the History of the Catholic Church in the United States (New York, 1947)Google Scholar; American Catholicism (Chicago, 1956)Google Scholar; Documents of American Catholic History (Milwaukee, 1956).Google Scholar

4. “Church and State: An American Catholic Tradition,” Harper's Magazine, CCVII (11, 1953), 63–67Google Scholar; “American Catholics and the Intellectual Life,” Thought, XXX (Autumn, 1955), 351–388.Google Scholar This latter article was delivered as a paper at the May, 1955 annual meeeting of the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, in St. Louis. It subsequently was printed in whole or in part by Catholic papers and magazines, including a serial reproduction in three parts in the London Tablet beginning with the issue of November 17, 1956, and was put into book form by the Heritage Foundation, Chicago, 1956.

5. The published biographies are Sister Yeager, M. Hildegarde, C.S.C., The Life of James Roosevelt Bayley, First Bishop of Newark and Eighth Archbishop of Baltimore, 1814–1877 (Washington, 1947);Google ScholarNolan, Hugh J., The Most Reverend Francis Patrick Kenrick, Third Bishop of Philadelphia, 1830–1851 (Washington, 1948)Google Scholar; Ahern, Patrick H., The Life of John J.Keane, Educator and Archbishop, 1839–1918 (Milwaukee, 1955).Google Scholar The two in progress are Martin J. Spalding by Peter Hogan, S.S.J., and John Lancaster Spalding by David Sweeney, O.F.M. The monographs alluded to are Macdonald, Fergus, The Catholic Church and the Secret Societies in the United States (New York, 1946)Google Scholar; Browne, Henry J., The Catholic Church and the Knights of Labor (Washington, 1949)Google Scholar; Barry, Colman J., O.S.B., The Catholic Church and German-Americans (Milwaukee, 1953).Google Scholar

6. The exception is Curley, Michael J., C.SS.R., Venerable John Neumann, C.SS.R., Fourth Bishop of Philadelphia (Washington, 1952).Google Scholar

7. Cf. Frawley, op. cit., and Sister Kwitchen, Mary Augustine, James Mc-Master: a Study in American Thought (Washington, 1949).Google Scholar

8. Outstanding among these is LaFarge, John, S. J., The Manner is Ordinary (New York, 1954).Google Scholar

9. McSorley, Joseph, C.S.P., Father Hecker and His Friends (St. Louis, 1952).Google Scholar

10. Cf. Paré, George, The Catholic Church in Detroit, 1701–1888 (Detroit, 1951)Google Scholar and Sharp, John K., History of the Diocese of Brooklyn, 1853–1953 (New York, 1954).Google Scholar

11. Brokhage, Joseph D., Francis Patrick Kenrick's Opinion on Slavery (Washington, 1955)Google Scholar and Micek, Adam A., The Apologetics of Martin J. Spalding (Washington, 1951).Google Scholar To these might be added Farrell, Bertin, Orestes Brownson's Approach to the Problem of God (Washington, 1950).Google Scholar

12. McColgan, Daniel T., A Century of Charity: The First One Hundred Years of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the United States (2 vols., Milwaukee, 1951).Google Scholar

13. A very recent rectification of this condition is found in Marx, Paul, O.S.B., The Life and Work of Virgil Michel (Washington, 1957).Google Scholar

14. Cf. Morrison, John L., “American Catholics and the Crusade against Evolution,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, LXIV (06, 1953), 59–71.Google Scholar

15. Over and above Ellis, , Formative Years there have been Patrick H. Ahern on the history of the university from 1887–1896 (Washington, 1949);Google ScholarPeter Hogan on the period, 1896–1903 (Washington, 1949);Google Scholar and Colman J. Barry, covering the years 1903 to 1909. The other studies were Hurley, Mark J., Church-State Relationships in Education in California (Washington, 1948);Google ScholarConnors, Edward M., Church-State Relationships in Education in the State of New York (Washington, 1951);Google Scholar Sister Mason, Mary Paul, Church-State Relationships in Education in Connecticut. 1633–1953 (Washington, 1953)Google Scholar; Kucera, Daniel W., O. S. B., Church State Relationships in Education in Illinois (Washington, 1955).Google Scholar

16. Gearty, Patrick W., The Economic Thought of Monsignor John A. Ryan (Washington, 1953)Google Scholar, and Fox, Mary Harrita, Peter E. Dietz, Labor Priest (Notre Dame, 1953).Google Scholar

17. The former in Americas published by the American Academy of Franciscan History and the latter in Salesianum from St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee.

18. Cf., for example, “The Formation of the Catholic Minority in the United States, 1820–1860,” Review of Politics X (01, 1948), 13–34.Google Scholar These studies will reach their culmination in McAvoy's forthcoming volume on the late century problems of “Americanism.”

19. Cf. Ernst, Robert, Immigrant Life in New York City, 1825–1863 (New York, 1949);Google ScholarOverdyke, W. Darrell, The Know-Nothing Party in the South (Baton Rouge, 1950);Google ScholarHigham, John, Strangers in the Land: Pattern of American Nativism, 1860–1925 (New Brunswick, 1955).Google Scholar

20. Cf. Fecher, V. J., S.V.D., A Study of the Movement for German National Parishes in Philadelphia and Baltimore 1787–1802 (Rome, 1955)Google Scholar; Hertling, Ludwig, S. J., Geschichte der kathoolischen Kirche in den Vereinigten Staaten (Berlin, 1954)Google Scholar; Aubert, R., Le pontificat de Pie IX (1846–1878) (Paris, 1952), 427–436.Google Scholar

21. “A Guide to the Baltimore Cathedral Archives,” Catholic Historical Review, XXXII (10, 1946), 341–360.Google Scholar Since 1949 the Department of Archives and Manuscripts at the Catholic University of America has institutionalized the servicing of source materials done previously on a personal basis by Ellis and his predecessor, Monsignor Peter Guilday.

22. Monsignor Ellis has obtained copies of materials from St. Cuthbert College, Ushaw, England, All Hallows, Dublin, and the Archives of the Archdiocese of Dublin. Under Father McAvoy's direction Notre Dame in conjunction with the Historical Commission for the Beatification of Bishop Frederick Baraga, of which the historian is Joseph Gregorich, has acquired microfilm copies of the American missionaries' letters in the headquarters of the Ludwigs Missionverein of Munich and of the Lyon Council of the Association for the Propagation of the Fith in Fribourg, Switzerland. The materials from the Paris Council of this latter organization have been partly acquired as have those from the Leopoldinen Stiftung of Vienna. Mr. Gregorich has also obtained materials from Yugoslavia and Rome pertaining more specifically to Baraga.

23. Sehauinger's, works are William Gaston, Carolinian (Milwaukee, 1949)Google Scholar, Cathedrals in the Wilderness (Milwaukee, 1952),Google ScholarBadin, Stephen T., Priest in the Wilderness, (Milwaukee, 1956).Google Scholar

24. In 1949 a peak appears to have been reached when there were seven doctoral dissertations on American Catholic subjects in progress in the history departments of secular universities.

25. Cf. Browne, Henry J., “Mr. Maynard and ‘Popular’ American History,” American Ecclesiastscal Review, CXXX (05, 1954), 325–329.Google Scholar

26. To the works of Barry ulready mentioned must be added Worship and Work. St. John's Abbey and University 1856–1956 (Collegeville, 1956).Google Scholar Cf. Melville, Annabelle, Elizabeth Bayley Seton, 1774–1821 (New York, 1951),Google Scholar and John Carroll of Baltimore, Founder of the American Hierarchy (New York, 1955).Google Scholar Also forthcoming from Melville is a life of John Cheverus, first Bishop of Boston.