Mary Brackett Willcox and Catholicism in the Suburbs

A New England Puritan becomes a prominent and influential Catholic in the Diocese of Philadelphia. An unlikely story but one that happened to Mary Brackett. Mary was born in 1796 in Massachusetts to Captain James Brackett and Elizabeth Odiorne.[1] In 1819, she married James Mark Willcox from Ivy Mill, PA.[2]

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Catholic Interracial Council

In the 1930s, there was a growing interest in cooperation between white and black Catholics to work against prejudice and towards interracial justice. This led to the creation of the Catholic Interracial Council of New York in 1934 by Father John LaFarge, S.J.[1] LaFarge hoped that local chapters would be

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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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Alliance of Catholic Women

In the fall of 1916, a new organization, the Alliance of Catholic Women (ACW) of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was officially founded with the approval of Archbishop Prendergast. The Alliance’s constitution stated that it was “organized for the allying of all charitable, educational, civic, and social activities of Catholic women.”[1]

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