American Catholic Manhood and the Holy Name Society in Boston, 1870-1960
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"For Faith and for Freedom": American Catholic Manhood and the Holy Name Society in Boston, 1870-1960 Author: David J. McCowin Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3347 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2011 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of History ―FOR FAITH AND FOR FREEDOM‖: AMERICAN CATHOLIC MANHOOD AND THE HOLY NAME SOCIETY IN BOSTON, 1870-1960 a dissertation by DAVID J. MCCOWIN submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2011 © copyright by DAVID J. MCCOWIN 2011 ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the Holy Name Society, a Catholic men‘s confraternity that thrived in early-to-mid twentieth-century America, aimed at addressing perceived problems of modernity by curbing blasphemous speech and bringing men back to the regular attendance to the sacraments of the faith. A dual focus on the local Holy Name movement in Boston and the national campaign uncovers the linkages within the organization as its numbers and purposes expanded. Blending the perspective of lived religion with the methods of social and cultural history, the study explores social relationships of Holy Name men pertaining to race, gender, family, and children, and it shows that the institution was the main lens through which its members translated their faith into their daily lives. Holy Name men, for example, entered into the era of Catholic Action long before historians understand that movement to have begun. The institution served as the Catholic counterpart to the predominantly Protestant push for muscular Christianity, combining corporate faith practice with publicly oriented events such as massive rallies and parades. As such, the society became a mouthpiece of the laity, lashing out against anti-Catholic bigotry, defining American Catholic patriotism anew, and offering a particularly strong anticommunist stance. The study uncovers new dimensions in the relationships between the clergy and the laity, it shows that liberal concepts of racial equality came early and met with mixed success in the organization, and it reveals that Catholic laymen at midcentury bore a tremendous responsibility as defenders of their nation, church, wives, and children. The domestic role of Holy Name men, moreover, was much more engaged and leadership- oriented than traditional ―separate spheres‖ assumptions about gender and family relations might suggest. The overarching result is that the study conclusively shows that many of the dramatic changes commonly attributed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council were in fact underway long before the 1960s. The distinctive era of Holy Name practice described here, however, had begun to decline by the late 1940s, a process accelerated the following decade by the relative decline of Catholic devotional life and larger social forces such as suburbanization. i CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………………ii INTRODUCTION..………………………………………………………………….........1 LIVING MODERN RELIGION IN THE HOLY NAME SOCIETY CHAPTER ONE…..……………………………………………………………………..11 PIOUS DECENCY FIRST: CREATING AMERICAN CATHOLIC MANHOOD CHAPTER TWO……….…………………………………..……………………………51 A HOLY NAME HUB: LOCAL AND NATIONAL LINKAGES IN O‘CONNELL‘S BOSTON CHAPTER THREE……………………………... ……………………………………...94 HOLY NAME MEN ―ON THE FIRING LINE OF LIFE‖: PUBLIC FAITH AND PUBLIC ACTION CHAPTER FOUR………………………………………..……………………………..142 CATHOLIC CATHOLICS: THE HOLY NAME SOCIETY CONFRONTS RACE, GENDER, AND YOUTH CHAPTER FIVE. …………………………………………………………..………….191 ―THAT HIDEOUS MONSTER BORN OF HELL ITSELF‖: THE HOLY NAME SOCIETY RESPONDS TO COMMUNISM CONCLUSION/EPILOGUE…………………………………………………………...242 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………253 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The process of researching and writing a dissertation is instructive in many ways. Not only does the student learn about the particulars of scholarly production, but he also learns about the accumulation of debt. These few lines will do little to repay the many who have aided and inspired this work, but I hope these people truly understand the depth of my gratitude. The funding (Boston College Graduate School of Arts & Sciences) and scholarly access (archivists and staff at the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, the Providence College Special and Archival Collections, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and the Boston College Burns Library) provided by various institutions made this study possible. The members of my dissertation committee have profoundly impacted my thinking, teaching, and this work in more ways than they know. Thank you to Lynn Lyerly and Seth Jacobs. The relationship of the doctoral candidate to the dissertation advisor is not entirely dissimilar from the lay-clerical structure. It is a strained metaphor to be sure, but this project has benefitted immensely from my experience with Professor James M. O‘Toole, noted archivist, widely published historian of American religion, and the occupant of the Clough Chair in History at Boston College. When I first mentioned my interest in exploring the interaction of private faith and public life, Professor O‘Toole turned to a file drawer, pulled out a copy of a paper he had once written on that general subject, and this project was born.† The considerate counsel he has since provided to a graduate † James M. O‘Toole, ―The Church Takes to the Streets,‖ unpublished paper in author‘s possession. iii student of Protestant background has saved this project from many errors. Those that remain might best be regarded as acts of lay rebellion. Countless scholars, friends, and family members – each of them teachers in their own ways – have contributed to this work with thoughtful comments and encouragement. Those of special note include Erik Seeman and Gail Radford at the State University of New York at Buffalo; Richard Dutson and the late Richard Doyle at the University of Mount Union (Alliance, Ohio); and Robert M. Frazier at Geneva College (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania). My parents, David and Debra McCowin, have been a constant source of inspiration and support, as have my siblings – Amanda, Jarrod, and Rachel – and their families. If I can repay even a fraction of the support and love given by my wife, Peggy, I will have accomplished much. And for countless breaks from this work – to play ball, complete puzzles, paint, read books, and many other fun activities – and for the kind of faith, love, and inspiration that only they could provide, I am grateful to my children, Emmet and Hazel. Being a husband and becoming a father during the course of this project have, I think, afforded a degree of insight not otherwise possible in my effort to understand the hopes, fears, motivations, and actions of Holy Name men. The final thank you goes to those Holy Name men themselves. The humanity of these men – the good, the bad, and everything in between – has taught me far more than has reached these pages. iv To the memory of Dr. Richard L. Doyle – a ―reader,‖ a teacher, a mentor, a champion of the study of Dutch immigrants in Iowa, and a friend. 1 INTRODUCTION LIVING MODERN RELIGION IN THE HOLY NAME SOCIETY The historian Jon Butler is correct. Contrary to the residual power of secularization models, religion is central to modern American history. While survey text narratives of early American history are deeply intertwined with religious history, Butler laments that they are much more sparing in their treatments of religion since the Civil War, often touching on only a few major highlights of American religious experience in the modern era—the Social Gospel (including, at times, Catholic Action), fundamentalism and the Scopes Trial, the Cold War era addition of ―under God‖ to the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Reagan Revolution. To combat this ―jack-in-the-box‖ phenomenon, as he terms it, in which religion springs into view only occasionally and most often randomly, Butler has called for deeper investigation of the meanings and importance of religion in the post-Civil War era.1 Historians of religion (and Butler is among the greats) must do better at locating the connections between religious experience and public life, and the Holy Name Society offers for twentieth century America a quintessential example of such interactions. The Holy Name Society was an organization for Catholic laymen, a confraternity, developed and encouraged most fervently by the Dominican priests in the late 1800s. 1 Jon Butler, ―Jack-in-the-Box Faith: The Religion Problem in Modern American History,‖ Journal of American History 90, no. 4 (2004): 1357-78. 2 William Stang‘s Pastoral Theology text (1897) advised that the Holy Name Society ―appears best suited for the entire male portion of the congregation.‖2 The aims of the society were purely devotional: first, to stop blasphemous speech, perceived to be a major problem amongst men; and second, to recruit men back to regular attendance at the sacraments. Through the strategy of corporate communion – Holy Name members attending the sacrament as a whole – the clergy effectively added a social element to a religious practice they believed was naturally unpalatable to men. With the expansion of the movement came not only the material trappings of membership (Holy Name pins and buttons to be prominently displayed, even at work, if possible) but also the expanded definitions of Catholic manhood, and