Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

...mainly a story of the Church in Washington D.C., Philadelphia would have a number of important connections to the building of the shrine, including Reverend Bernard McKenna, who acted as Shahan’s secretary from 1915-1929 and then as the first director of the shrine from 1929-1933.[6] McKenna was born in Philadelphia

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Collection Development Policy

...in include financial, administrative and legal records, parish histories, minute books, letters, journals and diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, artifacts, books, pamphlets and other materials that pertain to the history, development and practice of the Catholic Church in Southeastern Pennsylvania. If you are interested in donating materials to the CHRC, please contact

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Starting from Scratch: The Story of Msgr. Hawks and St. Joan of Arc Parish

...the store. One thing was certain, the chapel had to be enlarged as soon as possible.” Hawks told his parishioners that “we need any man who can drive a nail for this to work.” As was common in the archdiocese, parishes were encouraged to quickly open a school. The first

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Dougherty’s Movie Boycott

...heaters.[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 called the motion picture theater “perhaps the greatest menace to faith and morals in America today.”[2] Dougherty and many others

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