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eke r:rete FATHER COUGHLIN of the SHRINE OF THE LITTLE FLOWER An Account of the Life, Work and Message of Reverend Charles E. Coughlin By RUTH MUGGLEBEE With a Foreword by HON. ALFRED E. SMITH and an Introduction by ROBERT E. ROGERS Illustrated from original photographs L. C. PAGE Sz. COMPANY Publishers Boston Copyright, 1933 BY L.C .P AGE & COMPANY (INCORPORATED) Made in U. S. A. First Impression, February, 1933 THE COLONIAL PRESS INC. CLINTON, MASS. "I LISTENED HUMBLY TO THE COUNTRY'S MOST DARING APOSTLE OF TRUTH" (See page 319) DEDICATION To My Mother and My Father— To All Mothers and All Fathers— Whose love has- been a guide to Destiny. FOREWORD by Hon. Alfred E. Smith For centuries past men of the cloth have played rôles of incalculable importance in the history of the world. Their interest and expressions of interest have helped to shape not only religious destinies for their adherents, but have served as instruments in the molding and remolding of the political spheres in which they lived. In this modern day and age a religious man has come forward to cope with destiny in shaping the ends of world living. He has youth and spirit. He has righteousness in his heart and brilliance in his mind. He uses both to preach his gospel and he proves conclusively that the man of words is greater than the man of swords. Too often do we feel that men of the cloth have no drama in their lives. Too often do we make the mistake of thinking that men of the cloth belong only to the altar. Father Coughlin, for whom I have the greatest admiration, has demonstrated that the clergy can play its part in the fast moving spectacle of humanity, modified by the various inci- dents with which the cleric must necessarily be in- timately connected. Of such aman has the author written, aman who has swayed minds and captivated hearts. In his life one will find fast moving drama—the drama of con- vil vin FOREWORD flicts, the drama of conquests. When the history of this period of American life is written Father Coughlin will be known as one who lifted his voice for his fellow men. The story of his life is an appealing picture of human activities which Miss Mugglebee has blended into a colorful and appre- ciative study of Father Coughlin, the man. At this time, especially when the "radio priest" has served so well the cause of righteousness, it is altogether fitting and proper that abook about the man himself should come into our midst to acquaint us with the beauty of his boyhood, the simplicity of his manhood and the dominant power of his life work. eliet,sel, New York January, 1933 INTRODUCTION by Robert E. Rogers Personalities make good books. The more strik- ing they are, the more they arouse public interest, strong criticism and devoted enthusiasm, the better books they ought to make. The Reverend Charles E. Coughlin, the "radio priest" of the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan, is one of the most interesting personalities of our days. Within ayear or two he built up agreat supporting follow- ing on the air. He became one of the very small number of men of religion in the United States who are as universally known as are the stars of public life. Both within and without his Church there has been room for drastic difference of opinion about his methods, his facts and ideas, and the value of his work. There has been, so far as Iknow, no ques- tion of the man's sincerity or integrity, and there can be no doubt of the influence he has wielded for the past two or three years. The author of this book pictures him as a modern Savonarola. The comparison does not seem to be exaggerated. Al- though Miss Mugglebee does not make the claim, it is not impossible that Father Coughlin's wide radio influence played avery real part in the result of the fight against prohibition and the election of 1932. ix x INTRODUCTION Miss Mugglebee has written a detailed, full and interesting work. It contains, for a book about a contemporary, a very considerable amount of care- fully worked-up background material in history, sociology, theology and the Customs of the Church. From the beginning of the hero's rise to a national celebrity, the detail is thick, brilliant and often sen- sational. But the finest part of the book, the part that you will remember, is the first part dealing with the boyhood, the education, the novitiate and early pastorates of Father Coughlin. Miss Mugglebee pictures life in asmall Canadian town of forty years ago, as well as the requirements of the religious life, with skill and charm. The young pastor comes alive for us as athlete, actor, orator, scholar, man of business, promoter and reformer. The require- ments of good biography are excellently met. The book ends rather than concludes, of course, because the man is still young and still at work. But even incomplete, the story of the career of the Reverend Charles E. Coughlin furnishes an impor- tant and characteristic chapter in the history of these times. Cambridge, Massachusetts January, 1933 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE "I LISTENED H UMBLY TO THE COUNTRY'S M OST DARING APOSTLE OF TRUTH" . frontispiece FATHER COUGHLIN'S M OTHER AS A YOUNG W OMAN 8 CHARLES COUGHLIN AT THE AGE OF SEVEN YEARS 19 AsA CHOIR BOY AT ST. M ICHAEL'S . 24 "As A BOY CHARLIE W AS RUGGED AND STRONG" . 33 SAINT M ARY'S AAAAAAAA SCHOOL, 'HAMILTON, ON- TARIO A ...... • • • 42 FATHER COUGHLIN'S M OTHER 62 "DERBIES AND ULSTERS W ERE FASHIONABLE AT ST M ICHAEL'S IN 1909" 69 IN THE DAYS W HEN HEW AS KNOWN AS "CHUCK" COUGHLIN — THOMAS J. COUGHLIN—PROUD FATHER OF H IS FAMOUS SON 73 ST. BASIL'S NOVITIATE 87 FATHER COUGHLIN, H IS M OTHER AND FATHER 99 GOING ABOUT THE DUTIES OF H IS PARISH . II7 PIE EATING CONTEST AT FATHER COUGHLIN'S FAIR 144 A NEAR VIEW OF THE SHRINE I54 THE ORIGINAL CHURCH— GROTTO OF LOURDES— FATHER COUGHLIN PREPARING A SERMON . 158 SPEAKING FROM THE ALTAR OF THE SHRINE OF THE LITTLE FLOWER . 164 "THE M ICROPHONIC APOSTLE" 171 "A FLAT, W HITE SLAB OF STONE, TAKEN FROM THE H ILL OF CALVARY" . • . 183 "THE FASTIDIOUSLY GARBED, W ELL-TAILORED CLERIC" 194 xi xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE FATHER COUGHLIN'S HOME AT ROYAL OAK, M ICHIGAN 205 M AIL FROM HIS VAST UNSEEN AUDIENCE . 210 M ISS M UGGLEBEE INTERVIEWING FATHER COUGHLIN 222 FATHER COUGHLIN DICTATING TO ONE OF His SECRETARIES 23 I FATHER COUGHLIN BROADCASTING FROM THE FIRST UNIT OF THE ONLY RADIO CHURCH . 248 GROTTO OF LOURDES 251 CHARITY CRUCIFIXION TOWER 266 THE SHRINE OF THE LITTLE FLOWER . 277 "A M AN OF KINDNESS AND BEAUTIFUL UNDER- STANDING" 288 "AT THE PIANO IN HIS SIMPLE BUNGALOW" . • 292 THE RADIO PRIEST AND HIS DEVOTED DOG . • 300 "HIS GOLDEN VOICE IN STIRRING SPEECH" . 3°8 FATHER COUGHLIN, M ISS M UGGLEBEE AND "PAL" . 315 CHAPTER I "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will." — SHAKESPEARE. Two cowled figures, voluminously-skirted silhou- ettes, walked across Cathedral Square from St. Joseph's Convent, in the early morning of October 25, 1891, and in the year of Pope Leo XIII's great encyclical, to a small five-room, red-brick house at the corner of Barton and McNab streets. Their rubber-heeled shoes passed them noiselessly into the cottage, bordering on the grounds of amagnificent cathedral in Hamilton, Ontario, aprovince of Can- ada, as atown's populace sat itself down to a forti- fying breakfast for the ensuing hours to be spent in labor. Within the cottage, the middle-aged and sober-miened nuns knelt in prayer at the bedside of an expectant mother. The chimes of St. Mary's tolled a guardian call. Significant bells, these, pre- saging a call that years later was to be of import and compelling reality. Sharing a fervent hope and sanguine expectation for the unborn, the holy-faced women invoked Di- vine intercession. Their supplication was real, as was to be shown, and their humble petition apredes- tination of aquarter of acentury of years hence. It was a religious solicitation for the birth of a child, who would be achild of the church. It was ahope expressed by religious women for areligious woman. I 2 FATHER COUGHLIN OF THE Softly and in unison, they prayed. They gave voice to avision of ababy girl whose maturing womanhood was cloaked in the canonicals of the convent. Their pious murmurings continued. Still they visualized. Their prayers solicited a boy baby grown to man- hood, joyously passing through transitional stages in requisite compliance with the holy orders of priesthood. The young woman, whose approaching motherhood was fast becoming active, and for whose unborn they implored the faith, cast heavy eyes heavenward, and whispered: "Amen." Eleven months before, to the very day, on No- vember 25, 1890, Amelia Mahoney—pronounced Ma—honey, with the accent on the first syllable, in this part of Canada—had tread the carpeted aisle to the altar with Thomas J. Coughlin, an upstanding young Irishman, foreman in one of the town's big concerns. Today, she was on the threshold of Eternity, about to embrace the crowning moment of her life. All womanhood, in true honesty, dreams of, muses on, and divinely bends in meditation to the epic of childbirth.