Catholic Church

Calling Card of Frank A. O’Brien, Dean of Nazareth Academy in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-01

A fanciful poem by Reinhold Lincke imagining the county of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, being dug out and separated from the Earth.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11

The author responds to the “strong spirit of disapproval” manifest in a recent article in The Outlook towards Pope Pius X’s selection of prelates for honors of the Cardinalate, especially towards Cardinal Denis Joseph O’Connell. The author discusses O’Connell’s career and how it reflects the similar admiral qualities ascribed to Cardinal James Gibbons by the author of The Outlook article.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-18

Maria Longworth Storer has heard that Pope Pius X declined to promote Archbishop John Ireland to Cardinal after interference from Cardinal Raphael Merry del Val, who asserted that President Roosevelt had also advocated for the promotion of Archbishop John M. Farley. As Farley represents a “foreign and reactionary spirit,” Storer does not believe that Roosevelt would have asked for his advancement. If the assertions she heard are untrue, she asks Roosevelt to write the Pope to say so.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-20

Secretary of War Taft thinks that it would be wise to wait until the report from the Army’s Board on Church Claims in the Philippines is completed before taking any further action.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03-10

The Outlook criticizes President Roosevelt’s position on authorizing the expenditure of Indian trust funds for sectarian schools and discusses why it is flawed.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02

In a speech, Jacob Gould Schurman, President of Cornell University, spoke in favor of independence for the Philippines and advocated for the government buying the land owned by the friars and selling it back to the Filipinos.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12-23

A full-page newspaper article about the “church problem” in the Philippines. The problem of anti-church sentiment among Flipinos, particularly against friars, was already existing and inherited by the United States government. Secretary of War William H. Taft, formerly Governor-General of the Philippines, takes a commission to The Holy See to seek solutions to these problems in common interest. Issues of land ownership and the establishment of a school system are negotiated successfully by Taft’s commission in the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-22

Addison B. Atkins reports that, amid fears of the schism caused by Gregorio Aglípay y Labayán and general anti-Catholic sentiments in the Philippines, Catholics are supporting Republicans over Democrats following candidate Alton B. Parker’s letter stating his belief that the United States should leave the islands and grant Filipinos self-government.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-06

Addison B. Atkins reports that, amid fears of the schism caused by Gregorio Aglípay y Labayán and general anti-Catholic sentiments in the Philippines, Catholics are supporting Republicans over Democrats following candidate Alton B. Parker’s letter stating his belief that the United States should leave the islands and grant Filipinos self-government.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-06

Anastasia Swift asks John J. Wynne to send The Messenger to the above address. She is old, but her daughter plans to keep up the magazine after she dies if she can afford it. However, the Swifts live in Hawaii, and their financial situation has become much worse since it was annexed to the United States. Swift believes that if President Roosevelt knew more about the situation he would do more for Hawaii.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904

The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore wishes to make it clear that when a newspaper has a bishop’s name connected with it, this does not mean that the bishop sanctions or condones everything that is published in that newspaper. Rather, it merely designates that when a bishop has to publish an official document, it will be published in that newspaper.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1866

Margaret Sanger writes about the Boy Scouts, stating that the movement was imported to the United States from Great Britain and “seized upon most enthusiastically by America’s grown up boy scout, Theodore Roosevelt.” Sanger criticized the Boy Scouts, claiming the organization was intended to train boys to obey and prepare them for the military, support the capitalists, and continue the oppression of the working class. She argues that President Roosevelt was “delighted” to “hasten” these ideas upon American society.

Collection

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Creation Date

1912-04-06

American Baptist Flag suggests that a Jesuit was involved in the assassination of William McKinley.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901

Daniel H. Reese criticizes the Catholic Church and the changing of its doctrine throughout history.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-10-31

Daniel H. Reese believes that the Jesuits are very dangerous and sends a related newspaper article.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-15

Daniel H. Reese sends a newspaper article that shows his views toward Catholics.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-15

Theodore Roosevelt views the war as a battle between militarism and democracy. Currently, Russia and Japan are allied with democracy, but with their “alien” institutions and ideals they may “menace civilization.” To do her duty, the United States must be the “just man armed” and avoid pacifism. Roosevelt, and his views, are unpopular and he no longer desires to be a political candidate. He fears his candidacy would be interpreted as greedy ambition. Roosevelt is also opposed by many Catholics due to his previous policies and recent statements. His victory in the Barnes libel suit was also a victory for his supporters as it showed they were right about “boss rule and crooked business.” Roosevelt feels he has done his share in the progressive movement and can no longer take a leading role. The public has had enough of reform and Roosevelt’s presence will now hinder, rather then benefit, the cause.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-06-03

A priest stands at the pulpit in a cathedral, preaching from the “Holy Ledger.” Beneath his feet is a cut-away of an area labeled “Rentals” and revealing bags of money above the phrase, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” The bottom half of the image shows the squalor of poor families living in sections of the city identified as “Filth Lane, Tuberculosis Alley, Bacteria Court, Thug Corner, Squalor Street, [and] Fire Trap.”

Comments and Context

The great radical cartoonist Art Young, creator hundreds of effective and famous cartoons over his long career, once called “Holy Trinity” the favorite among his cartoons. The color double-page in Puck was prompted by an article about the Episcopal Church in New York City owning a multitude of tenements. Its clergy, in Young’s powerful Puck cartoon, were in effect slumlords

This Puck cartoon garnered much attention at the time, as much as the expose that inspired it. Charles Edward Russell, who had written the expose in Everybody’s Magazine, in 1911 reported that Trinity Church had quietly destroyed 156 of the tenements they owned. “It was one of the great cartoons of history,” he wrote. Young himself added in his autobiography His Life and Times, “He went on to say… that I could feel that thousands of people in New York were better housed and more comfortable because of the power of my pencil. That commendation was the fines reward that had come to me since I had begun to draw.”

Pope Leo XIII holds out his robe labeled “Catholicism” and bows to Columbia who politely returns the bow and declines the offer to shelter under his robe. Behind Leo XIII is “St. Peters” at the “Vatican” and behind Columbia are buildings labeled “Public School” and “School.” Caption: His Holiness–Dear Miss Columbia, won’t you come under my robe? – you’ll be so much more comfortable! – for further particulars, see my late encyclical. / Miss Columbia–Much obliged, Pop; but I’m doing very well as I am!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-02-13