Catholics Responses to the Spanish Civil War
April marks 80 years since the end of the Spanish Civil War, in which the Nationalists defeated the Republicans. Both groups were diverse coalitions, with the Nationalists comprised of groups from monarchists to fascists while the Republicans contained liberal democrats to anarchists. The Catholic Church found itself thrust into the
Dougherty’s Movie Boycott
On May 23, 1934, Cardinal Dougherty called on all Catholics living in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to boycott motion picture theaters.[1] By doing so, Dougherty declared it sinful for any of the area’s 800,000 Catholics to enter a movie theater. In his letter to the priests of the Archdiocese, Dougherty
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
Thomas Nast Anti-Catholic Cartoons
In the last blog post, Nast’s anti-Irish cartoons were examined, revealing beliefs that the Irish were inferior and unable to handle American liberty. This made the Irish a threat to the United States and thus a focus of Nast’s criticism. Connected to this anti-Irish sentiment was also a strong Anti-Catholic