Fall 2008 Cushwa Center Activities

AMERICAN CATHOLIC STUDIES NEWSLETTER CUSHWA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN CATHOLICISM A Place for Everything: Catholic Studies and Higher Education Margaret M. McGuinness, La Salle University was a graduate student at Catholics have lived and practiced their tual environment hostile to religion. Union Theological Seminary religion slowly began to take shape. Today’s version of Catholic Studies (New York) when James J. Twenty-five years later, from the vantage would be virtually unrecognizable to the Hennesey, S.J.’s American point of my position as chair of the founders of ACSS and their colleagues. Catholics:A History of the Religion Department at Philadelphia’s The “old” idea no longer carries much Roman Catholic Community in La Salle University and co-editor of weight within most Catholic institutions the United States was published American Catholic Studies (formerly of higher education. Most scholars in 1981. Although other Records of the American Catholic Historical working in Catholic Studies insist the Ischolars, including Notre Dame’s Philip Society of Philadelphia), it is clear that one discipline be treated as a legitimate Gleason and Jay Dolan, were also writ- result of this scholarship has been the academic area in which men and ing about American Catholicism at this development of the emerging discipline women of all faiths (and none) are time, my church history classes were of Catholic Studies. expected to produce scholarship paying very little attention to their To a certain extent, Catholic Studies respected within the academy. work, focusing primarily on the U.S. has had a place in institutions of higher Catholic Studies is an interdiscipli- Protestant experience. Hennesey’s education as long as Catholics have had nary program that includes, but is not book convinced me that American a sustained presence in American acade- limited to, theology, history, literature, Catholicism was a vital part of the U.S. mia.The approach favored by scholars political science, economics, sociology, religious landscape, but it also made me between 1890 and 1950, however, was fine arts, music, and social work. realize how many chapters were still very different from that of today’s Courses within Catholic Studies enable missing from the story. I decided to practitioners of Catholic Studies.The students to explore the myriad ways in write my dissertation on “something American Catholic Sociological Society which Catholicism has informed people’s Catholic” (Catholic social settlements (ACSS), for instance, was founded in lives and the world in which they live. in the United States), as did a number 1938 to validate the importance of a Catholic Studies programs can be found of my contemporaries, and a more distinctively Catholic sociology in what at Catholic colleges and universities complete picture of how American some scholars believed was an intellec- throughout the United States (at least 45), and a growing number of Catholic and non-Catholic universities have I N S I D E raised money for endowed chairs in this field. Because this is a relatively new Cushwa Center Activities ............................................................................2-7 program within the academy, however, Announcements ............................................................................................11 faculty, administrators, and church leaders Publications: Leading the Way:The Chicago History Museum and Its Exhibit on do not always agree on what constitutes Catholic Chicago ....................................................................................12-26 this emerging discipline or under what Upcoming Events ........................................................................................26 see A Place for Everything: Catholic Studies and Higher Education, page 7 VOLUME 35 NUMBER 2 FALL 2008 CUSHWA CENTER ACTIVITIES and as McKevitt shows, many Jesuits substantial congregational histories, most Seminar in repatriated to Italy in the 1870s and scholars have concentrated on how American Religion ’80s. But most of McKevitt’s subjects communities adapted European customs welcomed the chance to undertake of language, ministry, dress, socializing On Saturday,April 5, the Seminar in missions in distant and exotic places, and and fund-raising to the American milieu. American Religion discussed Gerald the American West in the 19th century Though McKevitt does consider Italian McKevitt’s Brokers of Culture: Italian certainly qualified as such a place.True Jesuits’ acculturation to the United Jesuits in the American West, 1848-1919 to the history of their congregation, States, he also assesses the impact of (Stanford, 2007). McKevitt, a member the Jesuits who ministered in the West their American experience on European of the Jesuit congregation’s California proved to be both adaptable and flexible. Jesuit communities. Other historians of province, is a professor of history at Most were highly educated, and they religious life, Engh proposed, would do Santa Clara University.Walter Nugent, appeared to be gifted linguists who well to follow his lead in considering professor emeritus of history at the learned to communicate in native the complex interplay between University of Notre Dame, and Michael languages quickly.The Jesuits’ own European and American cultures. E. Engh, S.J., dean of the Bellarmine immigrant status softened their image Engh also suggested that Brokers of College of Liberal Arts at Loyola as “agents of acculturation,” as native Culture invites comparison between the Marymount University, served as peoples were more likely to perceive Jesuit experience and that of other male commentators. them as “go-betweens” than as religious orders. How did Augustinians, Brokers of Culture is a history of American aggressors. Vincentians, Marists, and Holy Cross the nearly 400 Italian Jesuits who immi- priests cope with the pressures of grated to the United States in the wake acculturation? Did the Franciscans or of Italian unification.The first wave of the Dominicans in Europe change their exiles taught in Jesuit colleges in the attitudes, governance, or ministries in East, where they played a significant role response to their activities abroad? in reforming seminary education. From Seminary education among various this base, the Jesuits migrated west. By male orders is another potentially fruitful establishing colleges, parishes, and Indian topic. How did life in the U.S. temper missions, they shaped American and and mold the religious formation pro- Catholic culture in 11 western states. grams that communities imported from Exploring the mark these clerics made Rome, and what have the consequences on the cultural and religious life of the been for the American priesthood? region, McKevitt discusses their experi- Engh pointed out that while ences as immigrants and as missionaries McKevitt’s story included richly on an ethnically diverse Catholic frontier. Gerald McKevitt documented descriptions of intra-Jesuit Nugent commended McKevitt conflict during the period, it did not for filling a significant historiographical Nugent suggested that Italian examine controversies between the con- gap. Prior to the publication of Brokers Jesuits’ multiple migrations may have gregation and the American hierarchy of Culture, he noted, standard histories increased their malleability. Pointing or between the Jesuits and other secular of religion and Catholicism in the to an apparent paradox, he noted that and religious priests. Further explo- American West paid scant attention despite their readiness to adapt to new ration of the Jesuits in national contro- either to the Jesuits or to the educational cultures, Italian Jesuits were also among versies, such as the Americanist conflict institutions they established. Nugent also the most ultramontane members of the of the late 19th century, or in local praised McKevitt for drawing on a wide American clergy. Quoting McKevitt’s conflicts, such as contests between range of archival sources, including the observation that “Wherever they [the Jesuits and their local ordinaries over collections at the Huntington and Jesuits] went, the church was more properties, assets, and authority, would Bancroft libraries, the Bureau of Roman when they left,” Nugent pointed be worthwhile scholarly endeavors Catholic Indian Missions, and Jesuit out that two of the book’s subjects, and would also help to contextualize archives in Rome,Turin, and Naples. Camillo Mazzella and Salvatore Brandi, contemporary divisions in the American Placing the book in the context of the later came to be counted among the church. Citing the discussions surround- history of the West and migration to it, most fervent ultramontanists in the ing the April 2008 visit of Pope Benedict Nugent described the Italian Jesuits as church. XVI to the United States, which have exiles from the Risorgimento. Like all Complimenting McKevitt for his focused on questions of identity, alle- people turned out of their homeland, in-depth research, Engh offered Brokers giance, and religious pluralism in they were forced to cope with new and of Culture as a model for future studies American Catholicism, Engh suggested unexpected developments in a foreign of religious life in the United States. that contemporary U.S. Catholics face country. Not all migrants could adjust, Though other historians have produced many of the same challenges that 2 dogged the American church through- seemed to define themselves as “not figures among their number. Borrowing out the

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