SUBSIDIARITY IN AMERICA: THE LEGACY OF BISHOP BERNARD JAMES SHEIL Dissertation Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology By Justin Michael Yankech, M.A. Dayton, Ohio May 2021 SUBSIDIARITY IN AMERICA: THE LEGACY OF BISHOP BERNARD JAMES SHEIL Name: Yankech, Justin Michael APPROVED BY: _____________________________________________ Vincent J. Miller, Ph.D. Committee Chair _____________________________________________ Kelly Johnson, Ph.D. Committee Member _____________________________________________ David J. O’Brien, Ph.D. Committee Member _____________________________________________ William L. Portier, Ph.D. Committee Member _____________________________________________ Anthony B. Smith, Ph.D. Committee Member ii © Copyright by Justin Michael Yankech All rights reserved 2020 ABSTRACT SUBSIDIARITY IN AMERICA: THE LEGACY OF BISHOP BERNARD JAMES SHEIL Name: Yankech, Justin Michael University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Vincent J. Miller The principle of subsidiarity is a signature concept in Catholic social doctrine and papal teaching. Yet, an incomplete understanding of the full principle and papal refrain from prescribing policies or concrete examples of the principle has created difficulties in developing subsidiarity within specific social and cultural situations. This project uses theological and historical methods to investigate the social work and thought of Bishop Bernard James Sheil, his collaboration with Saul Alinsky, and the results of their collaboration in the institutionalization of Alinsky-style community organizing in the American Catholic Church in the form of the Campaign for Human Development, to determine how Catholic subsidiarity is influenced by an adaptation to American democratic culture and the demands that Catholic subsidiarity makes on American liberal democratic social imagination. This study shows that Bishop Sheil’s collaboration with Saul Alinsky represents a full embodiment of the structural pluralism, structural-pluralistic subsidiarity and associational subsidiarity that make up the principle of subsidiarity while also attending to American democratic culture’s focus on the liberal individual. In short, Bishop Sheil’s legacy, in the form of the institutionalization of his collaboration with Saul Alinsky in the CCHD, is representative of a distinctly American and wholly Catholic form of subsidiarity. iii Dedicated to my wife and children iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Vincent Miller, my advisor, for providing his support and time during the many Summers it took to complete this, and for his expertise and much- needed editorial skills. I would like to thank the staffs at the Archdiocese of Chicago Archives, the Archives of the University of Notre Dame, the Briscoe Center for American History, and the Madonna House Archives. Their work and help made this project possible. I would like to thank Leah Yankech, my wife, whose patience, support and motivation during this long process has been vital. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 Research Focus ................................................................................................................................ 1 Background ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Findings ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................................. 12 Methodology................................................................................................................................... 16 Research Methods and Sources ................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER I: UNDERSTANDING SUBSIDIARITY .............................................................. 18 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 18 Part I. The Current State of Subsidiarity. ................................................................................... 23 Part II. Structural Pluralism and Structural-Pluralistic Subsidiarity ........................................ 32 Part III. Subsidiarity of Associations .......................................................................................... 60 Conclusion. ..................................................................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER II: “PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CHARITY”: THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY IN BISHOP SHEIL’S DEPRESSION-ERA SOCIAL WORK AND THOUGHT ........................................................................................................................................ 73 vi Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 73 Part I. Charity in Depression-Era Chicago: The Loss of Structural Pluralism and the Application of Associational Subsidiarity. .................................................................................. 76 Part II. Bishop Bernard James Sheil and a Charitable Catholic Experiment in Subsidiarity. ................................................................................................................................ 92 Conclusion. .................................................................................................................................. 113 CHAPTER III: ORGANIZING FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY ............................... 116 Introduction. ................................................................................................................................ 116 Part I. Origins of Alinsky's Thought: American Liberal Democracy and Corporate Society........................................................................................................................................... 119 Part II. Alinsky's Original Thought: Before Reveille for Radicals ........................................... 134 Part III. Reveille for Radicals: Parallels with Catholic Social Doctrine ................................... 147 Conclusion. .................................................................................................................................. 169 CHAPTER IV: “MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK”: SHEIL’S AMERICAN FORM OF CATHOLIC SUBSIDIARITY .............................................................................................. 171 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 171 Part I. “To give the spirit of the Church its full place in the spirit of America”: Sheil’s Career from 1939 to 1954. ............................................................................................ 174 Part II. “Our Unfinished Business”: Sheil’s Catholic American Democracy. ................... 193 Part III. ‘Making Democracy Work”: An American Catholic Subsidiarity. ....................... 211 vii Conclusion. .................................................................................................................................. 225 CHAPTER V: SUBSIDIARITY IN AMERICA: THE CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND THE LEGACY OF BISHOP BERNARD JAMES SHEIL .............................................................................................................................................. 228 Introduction. ................................................................................................................................ 228 Part I. From Sheil to the CHD: Institutionalizing Community Organizing in American Catholicism. .......................................................................................................... 231 Part II. The Demands of Catholic Subsidiarity ...................................................................... 240 Part III. The CCHD: An American Subsidiarity .................................................................... 256 Conclusion. .................................................................................................................................. 269 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 272 Introduction. ................................................................................................................................ 272 Part I. Summary of Findings. .................................................................................................... 272 Part II. Contributions to Knowledge. .....................................................................................