One Year of the Church
McMahon, Charles A.
288 THE COMMONWEAL January 20, 1926 ONE YEAR OF THE CHURCH By CHARLES A. McMAHON AN OFFICIAL summary of the progress of the Catholic Church in America during 1925 is not u the intention of...
...A movement, destined, it is believed, to be far-reaching In its influence, and enlightening to Catholics and non-Catholics alike concerning the Catholic attitude toward questions of current interest, is the Study Club movement of the Conference...
...Radio talks based on these outlines were broadcast during the year from Station WLWL, launched during September, 1925, under the auspices of the Paulist League, and conducted from the Church of Saint Paul, the Apostle, in New York City...
...In September, 1925, the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops of the United States gathered at the Catholic University in annual meeting to receive the report Oi the administrative archbishops and bishops of the National Catholic Welfare Conference...
...This organization was continued as the official agency of the hierarchy for Catholic welfare work...
...On November 6, 7 and 8, the first convention of the National Catholic Alumni Federation was held in New York City...
...The September meeting reflected the following members of the Conference's administrative committee: Most Reverend Edward...
...Financial figures for the home missions are not at hand...
...Louis...
...Since the question of education is, of course, of paramount importance to Catholic people, the epochmaking decision of the United States supreme court, in the appeal of the Oregon school cases, was an event of prime interest...
...One of the most pleasing developments in the Catholic school work during 1925 was the added emphasis given to civic education...
...to stimulate greater love for tke Holy Eucharist...
...The health education movement also has developed rapidly in the Catholic elementary schools...
...and, by a public manifestation Of faith, tO make at least partial reparation for the indignities committed against Our Blessed Lord in the Sacrament of the Altar...
...The examples quoted are typical of the generous financial support which Catholics are according their school system in the various dioceses of the country...
...and the Seattle diocese raised a million dollar diamond jubilee fund, a large portion of which will be spent in extending its diocesan school system...
...During the past year, through its Rural Life Bureau, the Conference intensified its work in ttl£ fUf&l P<ifishes, giving especial attention to the development of the religious vacation school movement and to the organization of catechetical classes...
...Nearly one hundred Catholic newspapers published in the United States and elsewhere subscribe to it...
...It will work along the same lines as the International Federation of Catholic Alumni, which has an active membership of 60,000—graduates of 455 colleges and schools...
...This School is maintained at 24OO Nineteenth street, Washington, D. C, and has been referred to as "the consecrated tabernacle of a great ideal...
...Right Reverend Joseph Schrembs, bishop of Cleveland, chairman, Department of Lay Organizations...
...The power of the decision appears in the monumental simplicity of this sentence as contained in the opinion written by Justice McReynolds—"The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this union repose, excludes any general power of the state to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only...
...The National Catholic School of Social Service is a project to which the Council and its constituent organizations and members are devoting themselves...
...The result is an attainment of one of the objects of the nationwide civic education campaign conducted for seven years by the National Catholic Welfare Conference...
...Franciscan Educational Conference, Cincinnati...
...The Catholic Medical Mission movement was organized in the United States during the past year at a meeting of missionary leaders and physicians held in New York City during August...
...and Right Reverend Thomas F. Lillis, bishop of Kansas* City, a member without portfolio...
...Right Reverend Edmund F. Gibbons, bishop of Albany, chairman, Department of Laws and Legislation...
...The program and policy of the Conference's Bureau of Motion Pictures, which is interested in elevating the artistic, entertainment, and moral standards of the screen, have been accepted by practically every Catholic organization and many non-Catholic ones...
...those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations...
...the third annual meeting of the,Catholic Rural Life Conference, St...
...Most Reverend Austin Dowling, archbishop of St...
...The Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems, fostered and promoted by the Social Action department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, held its third annual meeting in Chicago on June 24 and June 25, devoting its attention exclusively this year to a discussion of injunctions, employee insurance, conciliation and arbitration, and women in industry...
...The enrolment of the Catholic colleges now totals 60,000 students...
...There were large delegations of clergy and laity from practically every diocese in the United States, which will receive next year, through a special act of the Holy Father, the privileges of the Jubilee celebration...
...The September meeting of the American Hierarchy, held at the Catholic University of America, established an American Board of Catholic Missions, and provided for a unified, national control of funds contributed by parish and diocesan organizations toward the home missions...
...During the past year, the diocese of Pittsburgh alone raised nearly $6,000,000 for the extension of its parochial school system...
...Two important results of this meeting were the formation of a Catholic Medical Mission Board and the founding, in Washington, D. C, of the first house of the Society of Medical Missionaries...
...Even this summary serves very well to emphasize the wide-spread interest of American Catholics in matters of social welfare...
...national conference of Catholic Charities, Washington, D. C...
...The appeal was conducted by the administrative committee of archbishops and bishops of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, and resulted in the unanimous decision of the United States supreme court, upholding the lower federal district court of Oregon which had declared the law unconstitutional...
...More than thirty dioceses adopted the parent-teacher association plan of cooperation between school and home during the past year, and the movement is spreading rapidly...
...Members of the new board are: Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago, Bishop Kelley of Oklahoma, Bishop Noll of Fort Wayne, Bishop Boyle of Pittsburgh, Archbishop Curley of Baltimore, and Archbishop Daeger of Santa Fe...
...The method of the Conference is that of discussion— discussion of the pivotal and outstanding problems of industrial life...
...Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems, Chicago...
...The child is not the mere creature of the state...
...Some of the principal Catholic conventions of the past year were: the fifteenth annual meeting of the Catholic Press association, at St...
...The Federated Colored Catholics of the United States, representing thirty-eight affiliated organizations, held an important meeting in Washington during December, during which the delegates adopted a definite program for the advancement of the Federation's work with especial emphasis upon the Christian education of colored youth...
...Last year, unit courses of study in the following subjects were prepared and widely distributed among Catholic organizations: elements of American democracy, current legislation, the Catholic press, the boy problem, the Catholic ideal of life, Catholic education, the Christian family, the Mass, girls' welfare, the Church and rural problems, the labor problem...
...The American Catholic Historical society has launched a movement to complete the collection of materials for a history of the Catholic Church in the United States in time for the tercentenary of Catholic Maryland in 1934...
...the fifth annual meeting of the National Council of Catholic Men, Washington, D. C; annual meeting of the American Hierarchy, Washington, D. C...
...Right Reverend Philip R. McDevitt, bishop of Harrisburg, chairman, Department of Publicity, Press, and Literature...
...Paul...
...Catholic Union of Ohio and Catholic Women's Union, Cleveland,* sixty-ninth general convention of the Catholic Central Verein of America, Cleveland...
...What follows in simply a brief resume of some of the more important activities which took place during the past year, and in which a great variety of Catholic agencies participated...
...Supplemental programs emphasize health and recreation...
...The organization has been most active in promoting a modesty in dress campaign, and its resolution on this subject received wide publicity...
...Daughters of Isabella, Atlantic City, New Jersey...
...In September, the Catholic school system opened its doors to 2,461,850 pupils, that number representing the total enrolment in Catholic universities, colleges, seminaries, high schools, normal training and elementary schools, which today are staffed by more than fifty thousand religious teachers and 3,000 lay teachers...
...The supreme object and end of the Congress is to spread, more widely, devotion to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament...
...the diocese of Indianapolis raised $1,000,000 for a central Catholic high school...
...Catholic Education association, Pittsburgh...
...Practically every Catholic elementary school now stresses this important subject in the seventh, eighth, and higher grades...
...288 THE COMMONWEAL January 20, 1926 ONE YEAR OF THE CHURCH By CHARLES A. McMAHON AN OFFICIAL summary of the progress of the Catholic Church in America during 1925 is not u the intention of the present article...
...During the year, Chicago was selected as the place, and His Eminence, Cardinal Mundelein, as the sponsor of the twenty-eighth International Eucharistic ConJanuary 20, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 289 gress, to be held in the United States from June 20 to June 24, 1926...
...J. Hanna, archbishop of San Francisco, chairman...
...The home and foreign missions engaged the attention of a great variety of Catholic agencies, religious as well as lay, during the year...
...Organization of immigrant aid and follow-up in more than half of the 101 dioceses of the country took place last year under the auspices of the Conference's Bureau of Immigration, which maintains an extensive immigrant aid service at Ellis Island, with branch offices in New York City and other ports of entry...
...Outlines in preparation are: immigration, social service, history of Catholic charities, and women in industry...
...A marked increase in the growth of central high schools has attended the development of the Catholic secondary school system...
...The Paulist station, which is one of several organized under Catholic auspices during 1925, in addition to broadcasting the usual entertainment programs, features sermons devoted to Catholics and non-Catholics, talks on Catholic Apologetics, A Religious Question Box, and explanations of the various movements forwarded throughout the country under Catholic auspices...
...Knights of Columbus, Duluth, Minnesota...
...The new organization is financed by the Catholic Charities of the New York Archdiocese, and has the complete backing of all of its social resources...
...The organization's aim is to advance the educational and spiritual ideals for which the Catholic colleges of the country were founded, and to draw more closely together, socially and intellectually, men who have trained in these institutions...
...According to the official report of the pontifical work of the Propagation of the Faith for the fiscal year 1924-25, Catholics of the United States contributed more money for the support of foreign missions during that period than was distributed by the Propagation of the Faith from the funds donated by fifty-three nations, the American Catholic contribution to the foreign missions amounting to 42,413,253.79 lire...
...Its program is built around catechetical instruction for children in parishes where there is no parochial school, and is aided by organized groups of the laity...
...those referred to will undoubtedly prove of general interest...
...It is estimated that the cost of maintaining during 1925-26, the 7,000 elementary parochial schools in operation in the United States will amount to $140,620,872...
...The Bureau has devoted special attention to immigration conditions on the Mexican border where there is great need of work of this kind among the constantly increasing number of Mexicans emigrating to this country...
...During the past year, Cardinal Hayes inaugurated a model probation system in the Court of General Sessions, with trained social workers, mental clinic, employment bureaus, and other progressive facilities...
...The Conference continues to maintain an international news service at its Washington headquarters...
...One of the most representative gatherings of the Catholic women of the United States was the fifth annual convention of the National Council of Catholic Women, held in Washington from November 15 to November i<^7 1925...
...Throughout the year, the Council and its 3,000 constituent societies also waged an active campaign against the birth-control propaganda and the publication and circulation of salacious literature...
...No votes are taken on questions of industrial policy...
...annual convention of the National Council of Catholic Women, Washington, D. C; and the meeting of the American Catholic Historical association, Ann Arbor, Michigan...
...Many things are necessarily omitted...
...Paul, chairman, Department of Education...
...It is expected that the meeting of the Congress will bring a million Catholic visitors to Chicago, including cardinals, bishops, and church dignitaries from every country on the globe...
...Right Reverend P. J. Muldoon, bishop of Rockford, chairman, Department of Social Action...
...Of great interest to American Catholics making the pilgrimage to Rome, in addition to the six canonizations which took place, was the beatification of the Jesuit martyrs of North America...
...More than two thousand delegates, representing the Catholic colleges, seminaries, high schools, and secondary schools throughout the country, attended the twenty-second annual meeting of the Catholic Educational association, held in Pittsburgh last June...
...Ancient OfJfif of HllWnians and Ladies7 Auxiliary, Atlantic city...
...The past year, being Jubilee Year, was attended by many pilgrimages of American Catholics to Rome for the purpose of gaining the indulgences of the Holy Year...
...The religious vacation school movement now is launched successfully in more than twenty dioceses in the United States...
Vol. 3 • January 1926 • No. 11
