Transcript US Catholic Hall of Fame

US Catholic Hall of Fame
Great Figures from our Past
The Calverts
• George Calvert, Lord of Baltimore
--Secretary of State to King James
--returns to Catholicism
--At that time (1625) secular and religious
loyalties indistinguishable
--Calvert seeks to free human conscience from
state control
• Dies 1632, failed attempt in Newfoundland
George Calvert
Cecil Calvert
• Carries out his father’s dream
• Maryland, 1634
--The Ark and the Dove (St. Mary’s
City)
--10% Catholic, but Gentlemen class
Calvert to Catholic settlers:
“…be very careful to preserve unity and peace
among all the passengers on ship…suffer no
scandal or offense to be given to any of the
Protestants . To that end…cause all acts of the
Roman Catholic religion to be done as
privately as may be and instruct all Roman
Catholics to be silent upon all occasions of
discourse concerning matters of religion and
treat the Protestants with as much mildness
and favor as justice will permit.”
Maryland Tradition
• Toleration Act of 1649
--Toleration for all Christians, but still
restrictions
Catholic experiment fails by 1654, but tradition
established
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
• 1737-1832
• Places Catholics on the side of the American
Revolution
• Writes as “First Citizen”—a “flaming patriot”
• Argues for revolution on basis of natural law—
• Religion is a private matter, has nothing to do
with interpretation of constitutional principles
• Signs the Declaration of Independence
• Fights for Catholic rights: end of Catholic penal
legislation
Charles Carroll
John Carroll, 1736-1815
• First bishop, Baltimore, 1789-1815
• During Revolution, joins Charles and Benjamin Franklin
on diplomatic trip to Quebec
• 1784 named Superior of the Mission in US
• Vatican had asked US congress about appointment of
Vicar Apostolic
• Congress’s response: “Your proposal, being purely
spiritual is without the jurisdiction and the powers of
Congress, who have no authority to permit or refuse
it.”
Vatican: This is new doctrine.
Bishop Carroll
Carroll as Bishop
• Appointed 1789, Bishop of Baltimore
• Elected—only bishop to be elected
• “Our religious system has undergone a
revolution, if possible, more extraordinary
than our political one.”
Native Clergy
--St. Mary’s Seminary, 1791
--Georgetown College, 1791
John England
• Bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, 1820-42
1. Trustee Controversy
2. First US Catholic newspaper: US Catholic
Miscellany, 1822
3. 1826, addresses joint session of Congress
“I would not allow to pope or to any bishop outside
this Union, the smallest interference with our
most insignificant ballot box…You have no
power to interfere with my religious rights, the
tribunal of the church has no power to interfere
with my civil rights.”
John England
England’s Constitution
• Constitution for Diocese
• Annual convention
– House of Clergy
– House of Laity
– Bishop as executive
– Duties specifically defined
– System did not survive England
Mother Elizabeth
Ann Seton
--Born 1774; Bayley
--Marries William
Seton, 1794
--5 children
--Italy
--husband dies, 1803
--converts to
Catholicism
--shunned by her
family
First American Born Saint
1. 1808: Opens a girls school in Baltimore
2. Founds first indigenous order:
Daughters of Charity of Emmitsburg, MD
3. Schools and Hospitals
4. Pressure to adopt French rule
5. Dies 1821
6. Canonized September 14, 1975
Fiery
“Rules, prudence, subjection, opinions, etc.,
dreadful walls to a burning soul wild as mine…For
me, I am like a fiery horse I had when a girl which
they tried to break by making him drag a heavy
cart, and the poor beast was so humbled that he
could never more be inspired by whips or
caresses and wasted a skeleton until he died.”
“…illy qualified” because lacked “a pliancy of
character.
Mother Elizabeth Lange
1. Refugee from Haitian Revolution
2. 1829: First successful Black Order: Oblate
Sisters of Providence in Baltimore
3. Initial opposition but supported by
Archbishop James Whifield
4. Schools and nursing
5. Pursuing canonization
Mother Lange
Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Immigrant church workforce
Born Italy 1850, youngest of 13 children
Small pox survivor, too weak for religious life?
Teaches, works at an orphanage
1880 Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart
1889 Comes to New York City
Dies 1817
First US citizen canonized, 1946
Mother Cabrini
Isaac Hecker, 1819-1888
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Lutheran, Methodist upbringing
Leaves church
1842: mystical experience “angelic presence”
1843 Brook Farm: “Earnest the Seeker”
1844 Converts to Catholicism
1851 Redemptorist Priest
Questions of the Soul
Founding the Paulists
1. Dispute with the Redemptorists
2. 1861 Founds The Missionary Priests of St.
Paul—Special charism to Protestants
3. Conversion Of America
--America seen in positive terms
4. 1886 The Church and the Age
5. Dies 1888
6. Americanist controversy
Hecker
Hecker on America
“Nowhere is there a brighter future for the Church
than in our own country. Here, thanks to the
American Constitution, the Church is free to do
her divine work. Here, she finds a civilization in
harmony with her divine teachings. Here,
Christianity is promised a reception from an
intelligent and free people, that will bring forth a
development of unprecedented glory. For religion
is never so beautiful as when in connection with
knowledge and freedom”
Daniel Rudd
1. Born a slave in Kentucky
2. Following Civil War, moves to Ohio.
3. 1886 Begin Black newspaper, becomes American
Catholic Tribune
4. 1889-1894 National Black Catholic Congresses
5. “The Catholic Church alone can break the color
line…only place on the continent where rich and
poor, white and black, must drop prejudice at
the threshold and go hand in hand to the altar.”
Daniel Rudd
Appeal to African Americans
“There is an awakening among some
people to the fact that the Catholic
Church is not only a warm and true
friend to the colored people, but it is
absolutely impartial in recognizing them
as the equals of all and any of the other
nations and races of men before her
altars. Whether priest or layman they are
equals, all within the fold.”
Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin
Dorothy Day
1. Born Brooklyn, 1897
2. Radical background
3. 1927 birth of child, received into the Church
1932: Washington, DC: National Shrine
“I offered a special prayer, a prayer which came
with tears and anguish, that some way would
open for me to use what talents I possessed
for my fellow workers, for the poor.”
Peter Maurin
1. Born in France, 1877, 21 brothers
2. 1909 Flees to Canada
3. Works a variety of manual labor jobs
4. Develops radical philosophy
“If the Catholic Church is not today the dominant
social dynamic force, it is because scholars have
failed to blow the dynamite of the Church…”
5. 1932 Commonweal editor introduces him to Day
Catholic Worker
1. Founded May 1, 1933, New York City
“For those that think there is no hope for the
future, no recognition of their plight…[this
paper] is printed to call their attention to the
fact that that the Catholic Church has a social
program…”
“It is about time to blow the lid off…”
Catholic Worker Program
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Personalism
Anarchism
Pacifism
Houses of Hospitality
Clarification of thought: newspapers, round
table discussions
6. Farms
Easy Essay
“The world would be better off if people tried to
become better.
And people would become better if they
stopped trying to become better off.
For when everybody tries to become better off,
nobody is better off.
But when everybody tries to become better,
everyone is better off.”
Protest
Dorothy
Bishop Fulton Sheen
1.
2.
3.
4.
Born May 8, 1895, El Paso, Illinois
Ordained 1919, Diocese of Peoria
Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium
“God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy:
A Critical Study of the Philosophy of St.
Thomas.”
5. Professor at CUA
Bishop Sheen
Popular prelate
1. Annual Lenten homilist—St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, 1930-1952
2. Books: Peace of Soul (1949)--#6 bestseller;
Life of Christ (1958)
3. Convert maker: Clare Booth Luce, Henry Ford
III, Louis Budenz (communist)
4. Radio: The Catholic Hour, 1930-52
5. TV: Life is Worth Living, 1952-57
Daniel and Philip Berrigan
1. Dan: ordained Jesuit 1952
2. Phil: ordained Josephite 1955, WW II vet—
civil rights
3. Dan: 1965 Clergy and Laity Concerned About
Vietnam—Neuhaus, Heschel
4. Dan’ s exile—Latin America
5. 1967: Dan arrested at March on Pentagon;
Phil: Baltimore Action
The Berrigan Brothers
Catonsville 9
May 17, 1968
Trial: Convicted
“Our apologies good friends for the
fracture of good order the burning of
paper instead of children the angering of
the orderlies in the front parlor of the
charnel hose. We could not, so help us
God, do otherwise.”
Holy Outlaw
• Dan goes underground
• Nov. 27, 1970: East Coast Conspiracy to Save Lives
• 1980 Plowshares Action
• Phil:
“I have been driven to think what is wrong with a
Church whose great leaders have always been
against war yet, who in a national situation, are
never against this war. Do we honestly think
there are no alternatives to war?
Virgil Michel
John Courtney Murray, SJ
John Hughes