Papal Infallibility

A hundred and fifty years ago, the First Vatican Council gave formal definition to the dogma of Papal Infallibility. While the idea of Papal Infallibility had a long history of support within the Catholic Church, such as from St. Francis de Sales in the 1500s, declaring it an official dogma

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Mathew Carey

A major figure in the fields of literature, religion, and economics in the post Revolution America, has often been overlooked and forgotten. That figure is Mathew Carey, an Irish Catholic immigrant who helped shape the intellectual landscape of Philadelphia. Born on January 26, 1760 in Dublin, Carey entered a printing

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In Her Own Right: Jane and Marianne Campbell

As part of the In Her Own Right project through PACSCL, we have been able to digitize the correspondence of Marianne and Sarah Jane (referred to as Jane) Campbell. As discussed in a past blog post, the sisters were actively involved in the suffragist movement in the late 1800s and

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Archbishop Ryan

135 years ago on July 8th, 1884, Patrick John Ryan was appointed as the new Archbishop of Philadelphia. Ryan replaced Archbishop Wood who had passed away a year prior. Patrick Ryan was born in Thurles, Ireland on February 20, 1831.[1] His father would pass away when he was nine and

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