FDR, the Vatican, and the Roman Catholic Church in America, 1933-1945

by Woolner, David B.; Kurial, Richard G.

• ISBN13: 9780230623514
• ISBN10: 0230623514
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

In this collection of essays, leading scholars analyze the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Vatican, and the Roman Catholic Church in America. With the nation mired in economic depression and the threat of war looming across the Atlantic, in 1932 Catholics had to weigh political allegiance versus religious affiliation. Many chose party over religion, electing FDR, a Protestant. This book, a complex blend of religion and politics with the added ingredients of economics and war, grew out of an international conference in 1998 held at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, New York. From the multiplicity of Catholic responses to the New Deal, through FDR's diplomatic relationship with the Vatican during World War II, and on to the response of the US and the Vatican to the Holocaust, this book expands our understanding of a fascinating and largely unexplored aspect of FDR's presidency.

Author Biography

David Woolner is Executive Director, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and Assistant Professor of History, Marist College.

Richard Kurial is Dean of Arts and Associate Professor of History, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments · Foreword · Part I: Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Catholics · Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Protestant Patrician in a Catholic Party--Michael Barone · Roosevelt and the American Catholic Hierarchy--Gerald P. Fogarty, S.J. · Part II: Catholic Friends/Catholic Foes: The New Deal and American Catholicism · John A. Ryan, the New Deal, and Catholic Understandings of a Culture Abundance--Anthony Burke Smith · Al and Frank: The Great Smith-Roosevelt Feud--Robert A. Slayton · California Catholics and the Gubernatorial Race of 1934--Steven M. Avella · The Practical Personalism of the Catholic Worker and the Pragmatic Policies of the New Deal--Francis Sicius · Father Francis E. Lucey and President Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Neo-Scholastic Legal Scholar's Ambivalent Reaction to the New Deal--Ajay K. Mehrota · Religious Liberty in American Foreign Policy, 1933-41: Aspects of Public Argument Between FDR and American Roman Catholics--Philip Chen · Part III: Searching for a New World Order: FDR, the Vatican, and World War II · Pope Pius XII and the Myron Taylor Mission: The Vatican and Wartime Diplomacy--John S. Conway · Catholics, Jews, and the Bombardment of Rome: The Priorities of Pope Pius XII during World War II--Michael Phayer · Toward the Reconstitution of Christian Europe: The War Aims of the Papacy, 1938-45--Peter C. Kent · Diplomacy's Detractors: American Protestant Reaction to FDR's "Personal Representative" at the Vatican--Michael H. Carter · The Department of State and the Apostolic Delegation in Washington during World War II--Robert Trisco · A Few Bits of Information: American Intelligence and the Vatican, 1939-45--David Alvarez · A Peculiar Brand of Patriotism: The Holy See, FDR, and the Case of Reverend Charles E. Coughlin--Charles R. Gallagher · Part IV: Reflections on the Shoah · The Purpose of the Document, We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah--Remi Hoeckman, O.P. List of Contributors · Index