LSC 843 Public Programs in LAMs

Items

• Nostra Aetate: Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions
  One of the sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council, promulgated by Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965. Addresses the Church's relationship to Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other non-Christian religions, and repudiates antisemitism. English translation; official Latin text also available from the Holy See.
• Catholic Americanisms and Antisemitism: From Kristallnacht to Nostra aetate [web version]
  Slide deck from a talk on American Catholic attitudes toward Jews and Judaism between 1938 and 1975, tracing two competing strains of Catholic Americanism. The defensive strain is represented by Charles Coughlin, his weekly Social Justice, and the Christian Front; the pluralist strain by John A. Ryan, Maurice Sheehy, and George Higgins, and by the NCWC Social Action Department. The deck moves from the dueling broadcasts of November 1938 through Coughlin’s claim that Nazism arose as a defense against Communism, the Christian Front’s two afterlives after 1942, the Higgins–Tanenbaum–Shuster correspondence around the drafting of Nostra aetate, the U.S. Bishops’ Guidelines of 1967, and the NCCB statement of November 1975. This is a modified version of the talk as delivered at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on 20 July 2026. A New York Times front page obtained through ProQuest Historical Newspapers has been replaced by a transcription of its headline. An uncredited photograph of Charles Coughlin has been removed pending identification of its source.
• Two Catholic Americanisms, c. 1938-1965
  Chart showing two versions of Catholic Americanism in the United States, 1938-1965. The chart is based on Maria Mazzenga's paper: "Catholic Americanisms and Antisemitism: From Kristallnacht to Nostra Aetate," delivered at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, July 20, 2026. Interpretive chart, created in 2026, presenting a two-pole analytical framework for American Catholic attitudes toward Jews and Judaism between roughly 1938 and 1965. The chart contrasts a “defensive” Catholic Americanism, represented by Charles Coughlin, Edward Lodge Curran, and the Christian Front, with a “pluralist” Catholic Americanism represented by John A. Ryan, Maurice Sheehy, and George Higgins. This is a secondary, interpretive work and not a historical document. The two categories are analytical poles rather than fixed camps, and most American Catholics of the period fell between them.
• Correspondence of Monsignor George G. Higgins, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, and Zachariah Shuster concerning the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra aetate), 1962–1965
  Correspondence of Monsignor George G. Higgins, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, and Zachariah Shuster concerning the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra aetate), 1962–1965
• Monsignor George Higgins photo with painting of John A. Ryan in the backdrop ca. 1950
  Black-and-white photographic portrait of Monsignor George G. Higgins (1916–2002), photographed in close three-quarter view. A framed painted portrait of Father John A. Ryan (1869–1945) hangs on the wall behind him, out of focus. George Higgins with John Ryan in the backdrop. John Ryan was the first to run the National Catholic Welfare Conference Social Action Department from its founding in the 1920s to his death in 1945. Higgins ran the Social Action Department from 1954-1967.
• “Anti-Semitism Is a Communist Baby,” Social Justice, March 20, 1939,
  Photograph of page 19 of the March 20, 1939 issue of Social Justice, in a bound volume held by the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives. The page carries a fundraising appeal for Father Charles E. Coughlin’s 1939 radio broadcasting fund, illustrated with an unsigned cartoon. The cartoon and accompanying text advance the antisemitic claim that Jews created Communism and that Nazi persecution of Jews was a consequence of it, and argue that eliminating Communism in the United States would eliminate antisemitism. This material is preserved and described as historical evidence of antisemitic propaganda circulated within American Catholic media; the repository does not endorse its claims.
• Second Vatican Council (Commons file title: Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 005 – .jpg)
  Papal Mass during the Second Vatican Council, St. Peter's Basilica; view toward the papal throne between the papal altar and the apse
• "Address by Father C.E. Coughlin," November 20, 1938, "Persecution Jewish and Christian"
  The text of an address by Father Charles Coughlin dated November 20, 1938, "Persecution Jewish and Christian." Here, Coughlin claims he is against persecution of Jews by Nazis, but justifies the persecution by claiming that Jews were communist, and the Nazis arose to combat communism.
• "Texts of Catholic Protest Broadcast" National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service press release containing text of broadcast, November 21, 1938
  National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service press release, "Texts of Catholic Protest Broadcast" release containing text of the CUA Broadcast taking place on November 16, 1938, protesting the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis after Kristallnacht. The text is not exact but is mostly faithful to the original broadcast.
• Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, 1933
  Father Charles Coughlin (1891-1979) was a Roman Catholic priest, radio personality, and publsiher of the 1930s. His expression became increasingly antisemitic over time and he was prohibited from broadcasting and publishing by US authorities and episcopal authority in 1942.
• Rev. Maurice Sheehy
  Rev. Maurice Sheehy was head of Catholic University of America's Department of Religious Education and Assistant to the University Rector in the 1930s. He was the chief organizer of the Catholic University based anti-Nazi broadcast that took place on November 16, 1938, a week after the Kristallnacht anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany.