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Origins of the Catholic Peace Movement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
Extract
On April 5, 1917, the day before Congress declared war, James Cardinal Gibbons stated in the name of the Catholic hierarchy:
In the present emergency it behooves every American citizen to do his duty and uphold the hands of the President … in the solemn obligations that confront us. The primary duty of a citizen is loyalty to country. This loyalty is exhibited by an absolute and unreserved obedience to his country.
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- Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1973
References
1 Ellis, John Tracy, “American Catholics and Peace: A Historical Sketch” (Washington, D.C., 1970), 25Google Scholar, reprint from James S. Rausch (ed.), The Family of Nations (Huntington, 1970).
2 Light and Truth (Chicago, 06, 1925), p. 27Google Scholar.
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6 Ellis, John Tracy, American Catholicism (Chicago, 1969), p. 141Google Scholar.
7 Ibid., p. 144.
8 O'Brien, David J., American Catholicism and Social Reform: The New Deal Years (New York, 1968), p. 42Google Scholar.
9 Ibid., p. 43.
10 Ryan, John K., Modern War and Basic Ethics (Milwaukee, 1943), pp. 41–52Google Scholar.
11 Koenig, Henry C. (ed.), Principles for Peace (Washington, D.C., 1943), pp. ix–xGoogle Scholar.
12 Pastoral Letter of U.S. Bishops 1920 (dated 1919) cited in “Notes on CAIP” by Raymond McGowan, August 4, 1958, to be found in the Archives at Marquette University (AMU), CAIP Collection.
13 Flannery, Harry W., “CAIP Fights for International Peace,” U.S. Catholic (09, 1963), 25Google Scholar. The correspondence received by Flannery while researching the CAIP is located in the CAIP Collection at AMU.
14 Ibid., 25 and 26.
15 Idem. See also Ryan's, John A. autobiography, Social Doctrine in Action (New York, 1941), pp. 140, 141, 145Google Scholar.
16 Broderick, Francis, Right Reverend New Dealer, John A. Ryan (New York, 1963), p. 136Google Scholar.
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18 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Notes on CAIP” by McGowan, Raymond, 08 4, 1958Google Scholar.
19 Idem.
20 Idem.
21 AMU, CAIP Collection, “CAIP Constitution,” Section 2.
22 O'Brien, p. 121.
23 AMU, CAIP Collection, Letter dated March 1, 1963, Mrs. R. M. Patterson to Harry W. Flannery.
24 Robb, Dennis, “Specialized Catholic Action in the United States, 1936–1949: Ideology, Leadership, and Organization” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1972), p. 32Google Scholar.
25 Flannery, p. 27.
26 This point about type of membership is similar to the thesis of Herman, Sondra R., Eleven Against War: Studies in American International Thought, 1898–1921 (California, 1969), p. ixGoogle Scholar.
27 Flannery, p. 27; Broderick, pp. 137–38 contends that Ryan drew substantially from the book of Franziskus Stratmann, O.P., The Church and War. It should be noted, however, that Stratmann believed no modern war could be just.
28 The CAIP committees expanded from its original seven to committees on Ethics, History, Inter-American Relations, World Order, Juridical Institutions, Economic Life, Social Welfare, Agriculture, Asia, Africa, Dependent Areas, Education, Religion and Culture, Adult Education and School and College Education cited in Herzfeld, Norman Krause, “Working for Peace,” The Voice of St. Jude (12, 1954), n.p.Google Scholar
29 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Summary of CAIP Committee Work,” Section 1, 6.
30 AMU, CAIP Collection, “A History of the Catholic Association for International Peace 1927–1953,” by Hohl, Clarence L. Jr, Ph.D., 22Google Scholar; see John A. Ryan's International Ethics, fourth edition.
31 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letters to Miss Elizabeth Sweeney.
32 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letters during 1930's, Anna Dill Gamble to Elizabeth Sweeney.
33 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letters during 1930's, Mary Workman to Elizabeth Sweeney.
34 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Minutes of the Executive Committee,” 12 27, 1928, and April 22, 1930Google Scholar.
35 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 04 5, 1935Google Scholar, Sister Rose de Lima to Miss Elizabeth Sweeney.
36 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letters dated May 9, 1935, and 10 28, 1936Google Scholar, Sister Rose de Lima to Miss Elizabeth Sweeney. Also a typed page announcing the two meetings on November 20.
37 Congressional Record, 71st Congress, 3rd Sess., 1931, LXXIV, 2263–67Google Scholar.
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39 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 04 5, 1934Google Scholar, Monsignor J. M. Wolfe to Committee Members.
40 Herzfeld, n.p.
41 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 02 3, 1930Google Scholar, Elizabeth B. Sweeney to Librarian of Navy Department; Broderick, p. 138, points out that from the inception of the CAIP, Ryan wanted the CAIP to function as an American Catholic pressure group for international peace, working alongside Protestant and secular groups and lobbying before congressional committees.
42 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 04 19, 1933Google Scholar, Patrick J. Ward to Miss Elizabeth Sweeney; Ryan, , Social Doctrine in Action, pp. 214–15Google Scholar, contends that he had been a member of the National Council for the Prevention of War “when the Council took a strong stand against President Roosevelt's recommendation to Congress in 1939, to lift the embargo on the sale of arms in favor of Great Britain and France, I am certain I should have then withdrawn.”
43 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Summary of CAIP Committee Work 1927 to 1952,” 7Google Scholar.
44 Idem.
45 New York Times, October 16, 1939, cited in Tull, Charles J., Father Coughlin and the New Deal (Syracuse, 1965), p. 217Google Scholar.
46 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence.” This is revealed in the letter of Miss Elizabeth Sweeney. It is never explicitly stated. Broderick, p. 137, points out that “Groups with strong Protestant backing, like the National Study Conference on the Church and World Peace, wanted to draw the NCWC in, but Bishop Muldoon warned Ryan to avoid the type of official cooperation with Protestant organizations that might draw a rebuke from Rome and would certainly outrage the more conservative American bishops. The hierarchy even steered clear of the National Council for the Prevention of War, a group less intimately associated with Protestant churches as such. Ryan himself moved cautiously, for a tinge of pacifism surrounded the peace movement generally; he was always wary of extremist views because he was willing to support war measures under some circumstances.”
47 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 11 17, 1936Google Scholar, Walter Van Kirk to Miss Elizabeth Sweeney.
48 Ryan, , Social Doctrine in Action, p. 214Google Scholar.
49 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 05 17, 1934Google Scholar, Miss Elizabeth Sweeney to Mr. Caravati.
50 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 06 26, 1929Google Scholar, Franziskus Stratmann, O.P., to Miss Elizabeth Sweeney.
51 AMU, CAIP Collection, Hohl, p. 55.
52 AMU, CAIP Collection, “CAIP Constitution.”
53 Letter dated February 29, 1972, Paul H. Furfey to author.
54 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Notes on CAIP” by McGowan, Raymond, 08 4, 1958Google Scholar.
55 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 02 18, 1963Google Scholar, Rev. Charles C. Miltner, C.S.C., to Harry W. Flannery.
56 AMU, CAIP Collection, “Correspondence,” Letter dated 02 2, 1963Google Scholar, George Shuster to Harry W. Flannery.
57 In this article I have presented a general interpretation of Coughlin's relationship to the Catholic peace movement. To achieve this interpretation I have consulted a number of studies on Coughlin. See O'Brien; Tull; Bennett, David H., Demagogues of the Depression: American Radicals and the Union Party, 1932–36 (New Jersey, 1969)Google Scholar; Abell, Aaron, American Catholicism and Social Action (1960Google Scholar, rpt. Notre Dame, Ind., 1963); Newton, Craig A., “Father Coughlin and His National Union for Social Justice,” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, XLI (12, 1960), 341–49Google Scholar and Shenton, James P., “The Coughlin Movement and the New Deal,” Political Science Quarterly, LXXIII (09, 1958), 353–73Google Scholar. I have also consulted twenty pamphlets written by Coughlin, and his newspaper, Social Justice, 1937–1942Google Scholar. Pamphlets and newspaper are located in the Archives at the University of Notre Dame.
58 The Catholic Worker, 09, 1933, and April, 1935, cited in O'Brien, , p. 195Google Scholar.
59 Day's, Dorothy books are mainly autobiographical: From Union Square to Rome (Maryland, 1939)Google Scholar, Houses of Hospitality (New York, 1939)Google Scholar, The Long Loneliness (New York, 1952)Google Scholar and Loaves and Fishes (New York, 1963)Google Scholar.
60 Presentation by Rev. James T. Burtchaell of Laetare Medal to Dorothy Day at University of Notre Dame's Commencement, May, 1972.
61 Day, , The Long Loneliness, p. 166Google Scholar.
62 Herman, p. ix.
63 The major influences were Benedictine Virgil Michel, Monsignor Paul Hanley Furfey, Tolstoy, Berdyaev and Emmanuel Mounier and many other personalist thinkers.
64 It is important to note that there is nothing in the closed Catholic Worker Collection at AMU which deals directly with peace. Both Dorothy Day and her chosen biographer, William Miller, so report.
65 The Catholic Worker, June, 1940, and October, 1939.
66 A complete study of American Catholics' reaction to the Spanish Civil War is found in the works of Valaik, J. David: “American Catholic Dissenters and the Spanish Civil War,” The Catholic Historical Review, LIII (01, 1968), 537–546Google Scholar and “Catholics, Neutrality, and the Spanish Embargo, 1937–1939,” Journal of American History, LIV (06, 1967), 73–85Google Scholar.
67 The Catholic Worker, October, 1938.
68 Letter dated February 29, 1972, Paul Hanley Furfey to author.
69 The Catholic Worker, May, 1935.
70 Interview with Dorothy Day, June 24, 1971: Dorothy stated that there was never any significant cooperation with other peace groups until the 1950's.
71 See author's article, “Catholic Conscientious Objectors During World War II,” soon to appear in The Catholic Historical Review.
72 The Catholic Worker, April, 1934.
73 Ibid., January, 1936, and March, 1937.
74 Ibid., July-August, 1935.
75 Ibid., May, 1936.
76 Ibid., December, 1935.
77 Ibid., July-August, 1939.
78 Idem.
79 Ibid., December, 1934, also cited in O'Brien, p. 202.
80 Ibid., May, 1934.
81 Ibid., July-August, 1935; July, 1936; May, 1937; January, 1938.
82 Ibid., May, 1936.
83 Ibid., January, 1938.
84 Idem.
85 Chatfield, p. 325.
86 “War,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, XV (New York, 1913)Google Scholar, gives Charles Mackey's definition of the just war criteria and presents it as normative. “War,” The New Catholic Encyclopedia, XIV (New York, 1967)Google Scholar, quotes Paul Ramsey: “It has been observed that according to recent papal teaching (Pius XII and John XXIII) there is no longer any just war theory, because these popes have withdrawn the right of war in the situations to which these tests or conditions had reference, i.e., offensive war. This means that contemporary moral teaching represents both a continuation and a radical adjustment of traditional teaching on just warfare.”