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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Benedict Club: A Home Away From Home

...rst year about 200 men visited the club each day and by 1943 that was up to 800.[11] The women volunteers, called the Morale Corps, would organize various themes for the dances as well as staff the offices and service desks and serve food and refreshments. The military men described

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Parish and School Closing

...2, Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua announced plans to examine the closing of a number of parishes in North Philadelphia and the city of Chester. Both areas saw a major decrease in parishioners, with both areas losing around 60% of registered members from 1970 to 1990. Due to this and lingering financial

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Philadelphia’s Third Archbishop

...parish schools were erected, especially ethnic parishes for the increasing number of southern Italian and Eastern European immigrants. Three Italian parishes in the city alone, including St. Nicholas of Tolentine, Our Lady of Pompeii, and Our Lady of Consolation, were established during Prendergast’s brief tenure.   St. Nicholas of Tolentine

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