|
John Deedy
Seven American Catholics Reviewed by Patrick Killough Product Details ISBN: 088347087X ISBN-13: 9780883470879 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Ave Maria Press Pub. Date: October 1978 I. for bn.com Title of this review: Seven forgotten men and women worth recalling Reviewer's rating of SEVEN AMERICAN CATHOLICS: * * * * * Six men, one woman. Four clerics, three lay people. All in all SEVEN AMERICAN CATHOLICS. Al Smith was the first Catholic to come close to winning the White House -- in 1928. His defeat both embittered America's Catholics against the Protestant establishment and gave them the hope vindicated by John F. Kennedy in 1960. Who had heard of Kennedy in 1956 or thereabouts? Very few compared to John Deedy's second American Catholic, Dr. Tom Dooley. Dooley was dead aged 34 in 1961. He had written books. He had started hospitals in Viet-Nam and Laos. He was ranked the seventh best known person in the world. His cause was twice pushed for canonization as a saint. There were two bishops, one of Boston, one of New York. William Henry O'Connell and Francis Joseph Spellman were their names. O'Connell believed that there was the pope and there were the bishops and there should be no structures between the pope and each ruler of a diocese: no Vatican curia, for instance, no national council of bishops. O'Connell lived like a Renaissance prince, villas and all, with art collections and a knowledge of languages. His Irish flock loved him but would never dare ask to meet him. Spellman was lucky in making a friend in 1929 who would later become Pope Pius XII. Spellman threw open the Second Vatican Council to new ideas in 1962-3 by bringing theologian John Courtney Murray, S. J. with him to crack the tough nut of religious freedom and liberty of conscience. And generally conservative Spellman never gave any trouble to Dorothy Day, pacifist extremist though she was. Dorothy Day might well be canonized. A slow mover towards Catholicism, she was a writer, mother of an illegitimate daughter, Tamar, who gave her nine grandchildren, a convert, a pacifist and a Christian anarchist. With saintly Peter Maurin Dorothy Day created the Catholic Worker magazine and its related movement to provide food and shelter to the poor. Finally, the seven included two Jesuit priests: John Courtney Murray and Leonard Feeney. Murray's careful, courteous intellect dragged the worldwide Catholic Church from three hundred years behind the times intellectually in its attitude toward church-state relations and liberty of religious conscience into the early 1960s and the Second Vatican Council. Just the opposite was the mind set of Father Leonard Edward Feeney. America was going rotten. The proof was the August 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Catholics joined almost all other Americans in cheering this horrible deed. What had gone wrong with the Church? American Catholics -- Feeney and a small band of Boston followers argued loudly and rudely -- had gone soft. They were no longer the firm believers of their immigrant fathers and grandmothers. They were buying into America's Protestant-origin 'civil religion.' That was and is a religion of surfaces, not depths, of behavior, not beliefs. All other religions boil down to voluntary associations and 'denominations.' And all denominations are both equal and best kept out of the public square, said most American Catholics willy nilly. But not Leonard Feeney. No! Catholicism was not just any old religion. It was God's unique message of salvation. If only Catholics redoubled their efforts to convert America's Jews, Protestants and non-believers, they and the nation would all be saved. America would regain its moral compass. The world would be a better place. Of course that world would look more like 1845 than 1945. But that was a price that had to be paid. At some level each of the selected 20th Century American Catholics was a giant in his or her time. Today most are scarcely remembered, if at all. That's a pity, John Deedy argues. We know today more about some than we did in 1978. Thus, Tom Dooley's cause for canonization has been quietly shelved. He has been proven an active CIA collaborator and compulsive homosexual. Still, spend a couple of pleasant, informative hours with this easy to read book and bring the seven American Catholics back to life. Close the book and they will be gone soon enough. -OOO- 08/03/2008 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Seven-American-Catholics/ John-Deedy/e/9780883470879/?itm=1 II. amazon http://www.amazon.com/Seven-American-Catholics-John-Deedy/ dp/088347087X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214316937&sr=1-1 Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first. III. epinions not covered IV. alibris http://www.alibris.com/booksearch. detail?invid=9312271297&isbn =9780883470879&qsort=&page=1 write a review: after login V. for biblio.com Journalist John Deedy's 1978 SEVEN AMERICAN CATHOLICS is about six men and one woman. Of the men four are clergymen, one a politician and one a philanthropic doctor. The woman is pacifist Dorothy Day (must I give more than her name to identify her?) Deedy says that all have quickly faded from memory, and yet each gave much to their times. If there is a constant to these seven lives, besides being American Catholics, they all had bigger reputations in life than after death. Indeed some were fading long before death. Doctor Tom Dooley, when he died of melanoma in 1961 at age 34 had been ranked the seventh best known man in the world -- far more renowned, for instance than John F. Kennedy before he ran for President. Tom Dooley is a candidate for canonization as a saint. In less than five years his MEDICO volunteer organization built seven hospitals in Asia. He was a showman, allied with the CIA. After his death biographic investigations launched by the cause for his canonization uncovered sexual addictions that shut down that initiative. Dorothy Day and her Catholic Worker Organization were in the business of caring for the poorest of the poor even before Mother Teresa of Calcutta. And with more powerful ideas behind her, too. She made it possible for committed volunteers to spend months or a few years helping her then move on with a clear conscience. The one politician among the seven Catholics was Governor Alfred E. ("Al") Smith of New York. When he ran for President in 1928, we was the first Roman Catholic to be the candidate of a major political party. He gave Catholics hope for continued upward mobility in the face of Protestant dislike. He also developed a passionate dislike for his successor as Governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt which made his last 15 years a pathetic rejection of all his earlier progressive political values. Cardinal William Henry O'Connell of Boston lived like a Renaissance prince and inspired awe among his mainly poor Irish-American flock as well as affecting Boston Brahmins. He outlived his influence by a couple of decades. Much the same was true of O'Connell's one-time auxiliary bishop, the future Cardinal of New York, Francis Joseph Spellman. When his patron Pius XII died, Spellman's clout was gone. But he brought John Courtney Murray, S. J. out of oblivion as adviser to the Second Vatican Council (1962-3). There Spellman and Murray brought Catholicism up to date on secular concepts associated with religious liberty. John Courtney Murray was a quiet man and courtly theologian. He pushed his ideas successfully and over decades in only two arenas: church-state and religious freedom. But he transformed Catholic thinking in both areas. Who remembers him today? Murray's hot-tempered Jesuit colleague Leonard Edward Feeney worked as hard to keep Rome a comfortable century or two behind the 20th Century as Murray did the opposite. Feeney for 7 1/2 years thundered every Sunday in Boston Common to generally hostile crowds that "there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church" and that Archbishop Richard Cushing was a heretic for teaching that Jews and Protestants had a shot at heaven. Feeney had a great gift for mimicry and treasured the brown derby which his hero Al Smith had given him. And there they are. This is a pleasant, informative smooth as syrup read. If you did not know much of these seven American Catholics before, you will learn a few new things. They contributed strongly to their parts of our world. They had their fame. And now it fades. -OOO- http://www.biblio.com/books/128184431.html |