American Catholic Studies: Summer 2007
Vol. 118, No.
2
About This Issue
Please plan to spend a few hours on a hot summer
day with volume 118, number 2 of American Catholic Studies. We think you
will find it time well spent.
"Drifting Toward
Irrelevance? The Laity, Sexual Ethics, and the Future of the Church," by
Leslie Woodcock Tentler, examines the impact the promulgation of Humanae
Vitae had on the moral decision-making process of American Catholics.
Dr. Tentler notes the papal encyclical on birth control ". . . brought
to an end a messy, contentious, but necessary conversation among
Catholics about the meaning and purpose of sexuality, love, and
marriage." We think you will come away from essay with new ideas about
the future of the Catholic Church in the United States. Special thanks
to Villanova University's Theology Institute for allowing us to publish
Dr. Tentler's essay.
Jennifer Cote provides
readers with the story of Boston's League of Catholic Women and the
restriction of its activities by Cardinal William O'Connell in 1918.
"There is No Gospel of True Womanhood: Progressive-Era Activism in the
Boston League of Catholic Women" offers another look at the way women of
the Progressive Era attempted to Americanize immigrant Catholics while
providing them with necessary educational and social services. After its
activities were curtailed by O'Connell, the LCW transformed into a very
different organization.
"The Jesuits at Boston
College in the Late Nineteenth Century" by Marianne Gallagher examines
the place of Boston Jesuits who were conducting a school and
administering a parish composed primarily of Irish immigrants. Gallagher
notes their decision to conduct Boston College within the context of an
Ultramontane worldview led to questions about both their intellectual
competence and the quality of a Boston College education.
Tricia Pyne provides
those readers interested in research and archives with an overview of
the Associated Archives at St. Mary's Seminary and University. The
archives are indeed "a new model for Catholic archives," and we think
you will find Dr. Pyne's narrative very informative.
Our cover essay, by Timothy Matovina, focuses on La Capilla de Nuestro
Seņor de los Milagros, a chapel very important in the devotional lives
of San Antonio Catholics.
We are delighted to
welcome James M. O'Toole (Boston College) and Kathleen Sprows Cummings
(University of Notre Dame) to the Committee on Publications. These two
distinguished scholars have graciously agreed to contribute their
talents to the journal, and we look forward to working with them in the
months to come.
As we go to press, we
have received word that American Catholic Studies is the recipient of
six awards from the Catholic Press Association, including first place
for General Excellence in the category of scholarly journals. More
information will follow in a future issue, but we congratulate Joseph P.
Chinnici, O.F.M., Angelyn Dries, O.S.F., Patrick J. Hayes, James J.
Kenneally, and Fernanda H. Perrone for their fine work.
As always, we are
grateful to our readers for their support and encouragement. We wish you
a happy and restful summer, and do enjoy this issue of American Catholic
Studies.
Margaret M. McGuinness
Co-editor
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