Irish Catholics and Secret Societies
The Catholic Church has a long history of opposing secret societies, partly because of the oaths of loyalty involved in such groups. Nevertheless, during the 1800s there were two major organizations that attracted numbers of Irish Catholics: the Fenian Brotherhood and the Molly Maguires. The Fenian Brotherhood was founded in
Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute
The oldest Catholic lay educational society in America was founded on December 22, 1850 by Father Edward Sourin (later a member of the Society of Jesus).[1] Named, Catholic Philopatrian Literary Institute, it was organized as a fraternal setting in which young Catholic men could “cultivate and improve the minds… and
TV and Radio
The Catholic Church has a long history of using television and radio to communicate to the faithful. One of the first successful instances was in 1930 with Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s popular radio show, The Catholic Hour. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia began its own radio apostolate in 1944 and would add
Roman Catholic and Archdiocese High Schools
The start of the new academic year marks the 130th anniversary of the opening of Roman Catholic High School. The school was the dream of Thomas E. Cahill, a prominent Catholic businessman in the city. Upon his passing on August 9, 1878, he left most of his fortune to “build