An “Un-American Invention”?: Catholics and the Issue of Prohibition

The 18th Amendment which outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol was ratified on January 16, 1919. The amendment was passed with the belief that by banning alcohol many of the negative aspects associated with drunkenness would be removed from society. For this reason, many Protestant religions embraced the

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Victory Mass

  With the outbreak of World War II, the Catholic Church in America declared their support to the American war effort. Nowhere was this more evident than in Philadelphia, when Cardinal Dougherty held a Mass to “obtain from the mercy of God our country’s victory.”[1] The Mass was scheduled for

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World War One Army Chaplains

With the upcoming 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, this month’s blog post looks at the contribution of Catholic chaplains. The history of chaplains in the United States date back to the American Revolution when the Centennial Congress created the Chaplain Corps; however, Catholic priests would not

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Influenza Pandemic and the Sisters

The Influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, also known as the Spanish Flu, is considered one of the worst epidemics in history. Between the spring of 1918 and the summer of 1919, an estimated 50 million deaths worldwide were attributed to the flu, 34 million more than the total casualties of World

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