Founded as a life insurance program. Associated with the rising sense of nationality (Columbus = Americanism...a catholic who contributed to American history) promoted Columbianism. Educated the members in the Catholic culture, provided a place where people could come together and share concerns. most popular labor union in the US in the 1880s. Unlike the Knights of Labor, Knights of Columbus focused on Americanism, which appealed to many nationalities, which allowed it to become the most popular and still thrive today.
Leo XIII's encyclical that condemned American heresy (errors in American Church, to ensure church in US did not allow civil liberties model to undermine doctrine of church)
- excessive accommodationism, seeking converts (US Catholics too accommodating/open to other regligions)
- religious subjectivism- interior over external guidance (US Catholics trust individual conscience too much over Church guidelines)
- ecclesiastical nationalism- independent of Rome
- Emphasis on active over passive virtues
**important because portrays tension with Rome and US
Catholic response to liberal ideas where they rejected influence on philosophy and theology
- biblical criticism
- evolutionary theories of dogma
"Thomism" continues to be standard over "modernist"
- Leo XIII's first of social encyclicals, came out when labor in Catholic Church important with the Knights of Labor, Rise of American Federation of Labor in 1886
- anti-socialist, capitalist individualism, pro-labor, private property
- in favor of rights of labor-- agrees with Father John Ryan social reconstruction program of 1919
- social reform movement in early 1900s
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- by activist bishops during social reform movements
- annual meeting of American Catholic clergy and bishops who got together to discuss or issue statements on education (safeguard Catholic schools), welfare, and health care
- came after National Catholic War Council- Catholic response to WWI
- consultative role
- official voice of American visits
- protect Catholics in US
- By Father John Ryan during social reform
-permanent federal Labor Board, housing projects for the working classes, a general reduction of the cost of living, vocational training, end to child labor, women's worker rights, resist general wage reductions, free medical care to those who cannot afford to pay, end to monopolies
- able to get persuade lots of American bishops to support program
- MASSA pg 139
In 1922 the School Bill in Oregon stated that all kids have to be sent to public schools between the ages of 8 and 16, no private schools
- Society of the Sisters was a group in Oregon that cared and educated orphans and other youths, including religious and moral training under the Roman Catholic Church
- they were against School Bill because they had many of their own private schools throughout Oregon... "interferes with their liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control"
- the case went to the Supreme Court and it was concluded that the state was forbidden to deny the right of parents to choose a private school for their children as a violation of the fourteenth amendment
Governor in New York who ran for President in 1928
- Democrat and the first Roman Catholic to run for president
- against prohibition
- lost presidency badly b/c people fear Catholic in the government
- Charles Marshal, episcopal layman, said it would be dangerous to have Catholic in government because Smith would have to follow Catholic encyclicals that the Pope made that condemned religious freedom and separation of church and state
-Al Smith responded with "what is an encyclical?" to prove that wasn't his first priority, he also wrote back to Marshall explaining that the 19th century Pope encyclicals are not applicable to the modern world-- successful rebuttal
- the next catholic to run for president was JFK
- Part of the devotional Catholicism of 20s and 30s and having to do with Mary, healing shrine
- story: three young girls in Fatima, Portugal saw Mary appear and Mary told them three secrets, people thought the secrets were a conspiracy because the Pope would not let them be told
- officially called "worthy of belief" in 1930
