THE UNITED STATES.—According to “The Official Catholic Directory” for 1911, there are 321 Catholic periodicals published in the United States. Of these about two-thirds, or 201, are printed in English, 51 in German, 24 in French, 24 in Polish, 7 in Bohemian, 5 in Italian, 2 in Slavonic, 2 in Magyar, 2 in Dutch, 1 in Croatian, 1 in Spanish, 1 in an Indian dialect. These make up 13 dailies, 115 weeklies, 128 monthlies, 29 quarterlies, 2 bi-weeklies, 5 semi-weeklies, 4 semi-monthlies, 9 bi-monthlies, and 16 annuals. Of the dailies 7 are French, 4 Polish, 2 German, and 1 Bohemian; none is English. The French Canadians of Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island support seven dailies, eleven weeklies, one semi-weekly, one monthly, and a quarterly, all of which are printed in French. From 1809 to 1911 some 550 Catholic periodicals were started in the United States, but only five of those published during the first half of the nineteenth century survive. Several attempts have been made to establish a news association of Catholic papers, notably at Cincinnati, in May, 1890, but nothing practical came of these efforts.
According to localities the Catholic publications are divided up as follows: Alabama, 2; Arizona, 1; Arkansas, 1; California, 9; Colorado, 2; Connecticut, 5; Delaware, 4; District of Columbia, 7; Illinois, 30; Indiana, 14; Iowa, 8; Kansas, 4; Kentucky, 5; Louisiana, 2; Maine, 2; Maryland, 10; Massachusetts, 15; Michigan, 11; Minnesota, 7; Missouri, 15; Montana, 1; Nebraska, 2; New Hampshire, 1; New Jersey, 4; New Mexico, 1; New York, 61; North Carolina, 2; Ohio, 23; Oregon, 7; Pennsylvania, 29; Rhode Island, 1; South Carolina, 2; Tennessee, 2; Texas, 6; Utah, 1; Washington, 2; West Virginia, 1; Wisconsin, 21.
Many publications advocating Irish interests are, and have been, edited by Catholics and addressed to a Catholic constituency, but they are secular political enterprises, and are not to be properly enumerated under the head of religious publications (see Irish, The, in Countries Other Than Ireland.—I. IN THE UNITED STATES).
Newspapers.—The first Catholic newspaper printed in the United States was due to the enterprise of Father Gabriel Richard, of Detroit, Michigan. In 1808 he visited Baltimore, and while there bought a printing press and a font of type which he sent over the mountains to Detroit (then a frontier town) and set up in the house of one Jacques Lasselle, in the suburb of Springwells. On this press, the lever of which is still preserved in the museum of the Michigan Historical Society, he printed, on August 31, 1809, the first issue of “The Michigan Essay, or Impartial Observer”, containing sixteen columns and a half in English, and one column and a half in French, on miscellaneous topics. There is no local news included in its contents and only one advertisement, that of St. Anne’s school, Detroit. The imprint says the paper was printed and published by James M. Miller, but under the direction of Father Richard. It was to appear every Thursday; only one issue, however, was made, and of this but five copies are extant. The next journalistic effort was in New York, where Thomas O’Connor, father of the jurist Charles O’Connor (q.v.), began, December 10, 1810, a weekly called the “Shamrock, or Hibernian Chronicle”, which ceased publication August 17, 1817. It was revived as a monthly called “The Globe” in 1819 and lasted a year. His pen, says his son, “was ever directed in vindicating the fame of Ireland, the honor of our United American States, or the truth and purity of his cherished mother the Apostolic Church“. Although these two papers were not distinctively religious journals, they were Catholic in tone and teaching, as might be expected from their Catholic direction.
Bishop England of Charleston (see John England) follows, in 1822, with his “United States Catholic Miscellany”. “The writer would add”, says the bishop, in a history of his diocese which he published while on a visit to Dublin, in 1832, “that during upwards of ten years he and his associates have, at a very serious pecuniary loss, not to mention immense labor, published a weekly paper, `The United States Catholic Miscellany’, in which the cause of Ireland at home and Irishmen abroad, and of the Catholic religion through the world, has been defended to the best of their ability. This paper is published every week on a large sheet of eight pages containing twenty-four pages of letter press, in the city of Charleston.” Its publication ceased in 1861, as a result of the War of Secession. One of the bishop’s most efficient assistants in this enterprise was his sister Johanna, a woman of fine culture and much mental vigor, who has never received proper credit for all the variety of solid work she did on the paper. With the second quarter of the nineteenth century came the great influx of Catholic immigrants and a consequent development of the Catholic Press. The pioneer journal of this era was “The Truth Teller”, the first number of which appeared in New York, on April 2, 1825, with the imprint of W. E. Andrews & Co., which was continued on the first six issues of the paper. William Eusebius Andrews (q.v.) was the English publisher who was so active in England, during Bishop Milner’s time, and his connection with the New York venture is now explainable only as he was then printing a “Truth Teller” in London. In the issue of October 19, 1825, William Denman (q.v.) and George Pardow are given as the proprietors of the New York “Truth Teller”, and so continued until January 2, 1830, when Pardow sold his interest to Denman, and the latter remained its sole proprietor until March 31, 1855, when he disposed of it to the owners of the “Irish American”, who shortly after merged it in that paper.
Denman, in the early days of the “Truth Teller”, had the assistance, as contributors, of the Rev. Dr. John Power, rector of St. Peter’s Church, the Rev. Thomas Levins, a former Jesuit and a man of ripe learning and ability, Dr. William James MacNeven (q.v.), the Rev. Joseph A. Schneller, the Rev. Felix Varela, and Thomas O’Connor, but the paper becoming tainted with trusteeism (see Trustee System), and opposing Bishop Dubois, a rival, the “Weekly Register and Catholic Diary” was started on October 5, 1833, by Fathers Schneller and Levins. It lasted three years, and was succeeded, in 1839, by the “Catholic Register”, which, the next year, was combined with the “Freeman’s Journal”, then a year old. The editors at first were James W. and John E. White, nephews of Gerald Griffin, the Irish novelist. Eugene Casserly (q.v.) and John T. Devereux succeeded them, and in 1842 Bishop Hughes took the paper to keep it alive, and made his secretary, the Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley (afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore), its editor. In 1848 the bishop offered to give the paper to Orestes A. Brownson (q.v.), but soon after sold it to James Alphonsus McMaster (q.v.), the latter borrowing the money for its purchase from George Hecker, a brother of the Rev. Isaac Thomas Hecker (q.v.), founder of the Paulists. McMaster continued as its editor and proprietor until his death, December 29, 1886. In 1861, because of its violent State’s Rights editorials, it was suppressed by the Government, and did not resume publication until April 19, 1862. Maurice Francis Egan was editor of the paper for two years after McMaster’s death and in 1894 the Rev. Dr. Louis A. Lambert (b. at Allenport, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1835; d. at Newfoundland, New Jersey, September 25, 1910) took the position and so continued until his death.
New York City was, during the first half of the nineteenth century, the leader in Catholic journalism. The pioneer papers devoted their space mainly to controversial articles explanatory of the truths of the Faith, and in defense of the teachings of the Church in answer to attack and calumny. The assaults of the Native American and Know nothing periods also largely engaged their attention. In this they were assisted by a number of journals not strictly religious, but political and social, edited by Catholics, and for a numerous constituency Irish by birth or descent. Of these the oldest, “The Irish American”, founded August 12, 1849, by Patrick Lynch (b. at Kilkenny, Ireland, 1811; d. in Brooklyn, New York, May, 1857); edited from 1857 until 1906 by his stepson Patrick J. Meehan (b. at Limerick, Ireland, July 17, 1831; d. Jersey City, New Jersey, April 20, 1906), with the “Catholic Telegraph” of Cincinnati (founded 1831), “Pilot” of Boston (1837), “Freeman’s Journal” of New York (1840), and “Catholic” of Pittsburg (1846), alone survive in 1911, of the many Catholic papers in existence in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century. In October, 1848, Thomas D’Arcy McGee began in New York a paper called “The Nation” which lasted until June, 1850, its end being hastened by McGee’s violent controversy with Bishop Hughes. Another venture of his, “The American Celt”, completed in June, 1857, had a peripatetic existence of four years—in Boston, Buffalo, and New York—when it was purchased by D. & J. Sadlier and made over into a new paper, “The Tablet”, the first ‘number of which appeared on June 5 of that year, with Bernard Doran Killian as its editor. His successors in that position, until the paper died in 1893, included Dr. J. V. Huntington, William Denman, Mrs. M. A. Sadlier, Dr. Henry J. Anderson, O. A. Brownson, Lawrence Kehoe, and D. P. Conyngham. Archbishop Hughes started, in 1859, as his personal organ, “The Metropolitan Record”, which ceased publication in 1873. During all this time John Mullaly was its editor.
In 1872 “The Catholic Review”, a paper combining the ideals of progressive modern journalism under the direction of a man who had had practical newspaper training was begun by Patrick V. Hickey (b. in Dublin, Ireland, February 14, 1846; d. in Brooklyn, New York, February 21, 1889). For a time it met with success as a high-class weekly, and, to meet the demand for a cheap popular paper, Hickey printed also, in 1888, “The Catholic American” and the “Illustrated Catholic American”. After his death, the Rev. J. Talbot Smith edited “The Review”, which ceased to exist in 1899. Mr. Herman Ridder founded “The Catholic News” in 1886, and it is notable that the historian Dr. John Gilmary Shea closed his long and splendid career as its editor, February 22, 1892. The “News” attained a very large and widespread circulation as a medium of entertaining and instructive reading matter for the masses under the business management of Henry Ridder and the editorial direction of Michael J. Madigan.
Several attempts have been made to establish a paper in the Diocese of Brooklyn, notably the “Catholic Examiner”, in 1882, and the “Leader”, in 1884. Both were short lived. In June, 1908, the “Tablet” was started. In February, 1909, it was made a diocesan organ and purchased by a company made up of diocesan priests. Albany had a “Catholic Pioneer” in 1853, followed by several other ventures with brief existences. The “Catholic Sun” of Syracuse, in 1892, succeeded the “Catholic Reflector” of the early sixties and the equally short lived “Vindicator” and “Sentinel”. The “Sun” is also circulated as the “Catholic Chronicle” in Albany and the “Catholic Light” in Scranton, Penn. The Newark, New Jersey, “Monitor” was begun in September, 1906. Buffalo, New York, also had several experiences, beginning with D’Arcy McGee’s “American Celt”, in 1852, and culminating in the “Catholic Union and Times”, the “Union” starting in 1872, and being combined later with the “Times”, founded in 1877 by the Rev. Louis A. Lambert, at Waterloo. For most of the years of its progress the editor was the Rev. Patrick Cronin (b. in Ireland, 1835; d. at North Tonawanda, New York, December 12, 1905), a forceful and able writer and a recognized leader among the Irish-American element in the United States.
The Catholic papers of Philadelphia start with the Hogan schism (see Henry Conwell), the “Catholic Herald and Weekly Register” being issued November 30, 1822, by E. F. Crozet to support the rebellious priest. To offset its influence and assist Bishop Conwell, the “Catholic Advocate and Irishman’s Journal” was started February 22, 1823. In August, 1822, the “Erin”, a national paper, was first issued. These were followed in 1833 by the “Catholic Herald”, which had a stormy existence under the editorial management of a convert, Henry Major, who was a professor in the diocesan seminary. Disappointed in his ambition, Major relapsed to Episcopalianism, though he repented in his last illness. He was a bitter antagonist of Orestes A. Brownson in the controversies that were carried on during the fifties by the editors of the Catholic publications of that period. Another “Catholic Herald” was issued June 22, 1872, by Marc F. Vallette, and had a brief existence. The “Catholic Standard”, started June 6, 1866, was suspended February 20, 1867, but resumed publication on June 22 of the same year. Its first editor was the Rev. Dr. James Keogh; others were Mark Wilcox, George D. Wolf, and F. T. Furey. In 1874 Hardy & Mahony became its publishers, and December 7, 1895, it combined (under the title of “Catholic Standard and Times”) with the “Catholic Times”, a rival which had the Rev. Louis A. Lambert as editor, and the first number of which was dated December 3, 1892. Its news, editorials, and correspondence are regarded as authoritative, and frequently quoted by the secular Press. A monthly, the “Irish Catholic Benevolent Union Journal”, with Martin I. J. Griffin as editor, began in March, 1873; had its title changed in March, 1894, to “Griffin’s Journal”, and suspended in July, 1900.
Bishop Michael O’Connor, of Pittsburg, founded (March 16, 1844) “The Pittsburg Catholic“. Its manager and proprietor was J. F. Boylan, with whom was associated a printer named Jacob Porter, a convert. On June 30, 1847, Porter and Henry McNaughton bought the paper with which Porter retained his connection until 1889. He died in his eighty-third year, January 14, 1908. An early editor was the Rev. Hugh P. Gallagher, president of the Pittsburg seminary, born in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1815, and ordained priest in 1840. In 1852 he went to San Francisco, where he started the “Catholic Standard” the following year. He died there in 1883. The “Catholic Observer” of Pittsburg dates from 1899. The “Emerald Vindicator” began at Pittsburg, May, 1882, moved to Norfolk, Virginia, in August, 1888, suspended in July, 1889. During the seventies, under Bishop Mullen’s patronage the “Lake Shore Visitor” was published at Erie, Pennsylvania, for several years.
Bishop Fenwick, feeling that a journalistic organ was needed in Boston, started “The Jesuit, or Catholic Sentinel”, the first number of which was dated September 5, 1829. “The rapid increase and respectability of Roman Catholics in Boston and throughout the New England States”, says the prospectus, “loudly calls for the publication of a Newspaper, in which the Doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church, ever the same, from the Apostolic Age down to our time, may be truly explained, and moderately, but firmly defended.” Objection having been made that the name “The Jesuit” was prejudicial to the increase of circulation. Bishop Fenwick, after four months, allowed the title to be changed to “The Catholic Intelligencer”, but in a short time went back to the original style. This did not improve conditions, and, on December 27, 1834, another title, “The Irish and Catholic Sentinel”, was announced; during 1835, however, the paper was called “The Literary and Catholic Sentinel”, and on January 2, 1836, evolved into “The Boston Pilot”, a name subsequently changed to “The Pilot”. The first editors were George Pepper and Dr. J. S. Bartlett, and the printers aid publishers Patrick Donahoe and Henry L. Devereux. Patrick Donahoe (q.v.), who became connected with “The Pilot”, in 1835, by the withdrawal of Devereux, assumed the ownership of the enterprise, which in the course of a few years grew into a most important paper of national circulation and influence, advocating Catholic and Irish interests. The editors under whose direction this success was attained were Thomas D’Arcy Mc-Gee, the Rev. J. P. Roddan, the Rev. Joseph M. Finotti (q.v.), John Boyle O’Reilly, James J. Roche, and Katherine E. Conway. Over the pen name of “Laffan”, Michael Hennessy, of the editorial staff of the New York daily “Times” (b. at Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, September 8, 1833; d. in Brooklyn, New York, July 23, 1892), contributed for years weekly articles on Catholic and Irish historical and genealogical topics that had a very wide popularity. The Rev. John P. Roddan was a Boston priest educated at the Propaganda, Rome, and on his return home made pastor at Quincy, Mass., where, in addition to his pastoral duties, he edited “The Pilot”. He was a friend of Orestes A. Brownson, and wrote many articles for his “Review”. Boyle O’Reilly’s connection with “The Pilot” began about 1870, and continued till his death in 1890. On the failure of Patrick Donahoe‘s bank and publishing house in 1876, Archbishop Williams came to his rescue and purchased a three-fourths interest in “The Pilot” for the benefit of the depositors in the bank. O’Reilly held the other fourth, and was given the business as well as the editorial management. In 1890 the venerable Patrick Donahoe, who had bravely gone to work to rehabilitate his fortunes, was able to buy back “The Pilot” and resumed its management, which he held until his death, March 18, 1891. In June, 1908, Archbishop O’Connell bought “The Pilot” from the Donahoe family and made it the official diocesan organ of the diocese and a distinctively Catholic journal.
When Orestes A. Brownson became a Catholic he attended the church in East Boston of which the Rev. Nicholas O’Brien was pastor. Father O’Brien in 1847 persuaded Brownson to join him in the publication of “The Catholic Observer”. He soon proved his unfitness for the management of the paper, which suspended after two years’ existence. In 1888 a number of priests organized a corporation which began the publication of “The Sacred Heart Review”. Under the direction of Msgr. John O’Brien it attained a great reputation for enterprise and literary merit. Another Boston paper, “The Republic”, was started in 1881 by Patrick Maguire, but more as a political, than a strictly Catholic organ. In Connecticut Bishop Fenwick was even earlier with his journalistic venture than he was in Boston, for the “Catholic Press” was begun in Hartford, on July 11, 1829. In its office he started the first Sunday school, July 19, 1829, and there, too, Mass was offered up for the few Catholics composing the pioneer colony. The “Press” did not long survive, and its successor did not arrive until 1876, when the “Connecticut Catholic” was begun. Twelve years later Bishop Tierney purchased this paper and made it, as the “Catholic Transcript”, official diocesan property, with the Rev. T. S. Duggan as editor. In Rhode Island the Providence “Visitor” dates from 1877.
The “Catholic Mirror” was established at Baltimore in 1849, and, as an expression of Southern opinion and the diocesan organ, had, in its early years, considerable influence. After the War, however, its prestige waned, and, in spite of several efforts to keep it alive, it suspended in 1908. Kentucky‘s first Catholic paper, the “Catholic Advocate”, was founded in 1835 by Ben. J. Webb, then foreman printer of the Louisville “Journal”, encouraged in the scheme by the Rev. Dr. Reynolds and the Rev. Dr. Martin J. Spalding. It took the place of the “Minerva”, a monthly magazine, founded in 1834, and edited by the faculty of St. Joseph‘s College, Bardstown. In the old “Advocate” many of the most valuable papers written by Bishop Spalding first appeared. In May, 1858, it was succeeded by the “Catholic Guardian”, started in Louisville by the members of the local Particular Council of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which had a fair success, but was forced to suspend by the Civil War in July, 1862, The “Catholic Advocate” was revived later as the “Central Catholic Advocate”, and in 1896 the “Midland Review” was started to rival it. There was not room for both so the new absorbed the old journal; but, in spite of the fact that the publication was high-class, it died after a checkered existence of five years. Its editor was a versatile writer of both poetry and prose, Charles J. O’Malley, who left the “Angelus” magazine of Cincinnati to edit the Louisville paper. When he found that his field there was too limited for any practical success, he took the editorial management. of the “Catholic Sun” of Syracuse, N. Y., whence he went to Chicago to take charge of the “New World”, in which position he died March 26, 1910. He was born in Kentucky February 9, 1857. In the period before the Civil War, the “Advocate” and the Baltimore “Mirror” were important and influential factors in Catholic affairs. The Louisville “Catholic Record”, a diocesan organ, dates from 1878.
Other Southern papers are the New Orleans “Morning Star”, established in 1867, and of which two poets, the Rev. Abram J. Ryan and James R. Randall, were at times editors; “The Southern Catholic“, begun in 1874 at Memphis, Tenn., suspended, and followed by the “Catholic Journal”. In Missouri “The Shepherd of the Valley” started at St. Louis in 1832 with a convert, R. A. Bakewell, as its editor. It suspended in 1838, was revived in 1851, and lasted three years longer. Bakewell, who died in 1909, created much trouble by his editorials, which were used for years as anti-Catholic ammunition by the Native American and know nothing politicians. It was the time of O’Connell’s Irish agitation for repeal of the union with England, and the Revolutionary movement of 1848, and he also antagonized the Irish-American element. Although the Catholic constituency, to which their publications appealed, was mainly Irish, many of these convert editors went out of their way to offend Irish susceptibilities. Bakewell’s denunciations of Thomas Francis Meagher, John Mitchell, the Rev. Dr. Cahill, and other popular Irishmen enraged “my Irish constituents”, he tells Brownson, in a letter dated January 7, 1853. Brownson, in an article in his “Review” of July, 1854, on Native-Americanism raised a storm by the manner in which he referred to the Irish element. After it was printed, Father Hecker, founder of the Paulists, wrote to him: “The Irish prelates and priests have become mighty tender on the point of Nationality. Your dose on Native-Americanism has operated on them and operated powerfully, and especially at the West. They felt sore, and let me add also weak from its effects… The truth is, I fear, that there may before long come a collision on this point in our Church. The American element is increasing steadily in numerical strength, and will in time predominate; and at the present moment, on account of the state of the public mind, has great moral weight, and this in itself must excite unpleasant feelings on the other side.” The “Western Watchman” of St. Louis, Missouri, edited and controlled by the Rev. D. S. Phelan, may be called the last of the old style personal organs, and has been running a strenuous course since 1865. In 1846 a predecessor, the “Catholic News Letter”, began an existence of three years, and in 1878 a stock company was formed which combined an existing weekly, the “Catholic World”, until then published in Illinois, with the “Church Progress” as a rival to the “Watchman”. For several years Conde B. Pallen held the position of editor of the “Progress”.
The Cincinnati “Catholic Telegraph”, established in 1831, now the oldest surviving Catholic publication of the United States, enjoyed during the early years of Bishop Purcell’s administration a national reputation under the editorial direction of his brother, the Rev. Edmund Purcell, the Rev. S. H. Rosencrantz, and the Rev. J. F. Callaghan. Bishop Gilmour, of Cleveland, was a strong advocate of the value of a Catholic paper, and, beginning in 1874, spent a considerable amount of money, time, and personal effort in trying to establish the “Catholic Universe” in his cathedral city. Manly Tello was the editor during its early years. The “Catholic Columbian” of Columbus started in 1875, and the “Record” of Toledo in 1905.
The best known and most widely circulated Western publication is the “Ave Maria”, a scholarly literary weekly, founded by Father Sorin of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, at Notre Dame, Indiana, in 1865. For the first issues the editor was Father Gillespie, C.S.C., and his sister, the well known Mother Mary St. Angela Gillespie (see Maria Gillespie), was a frequent auxiliary. In 1874 the Rev. Daniel E. Hudson, C.S.C., took charge. An early venture in Chicago was the “Western Tablet”, in 1852, under the editorial direction of a convert, M. L. Linton. Another editor was James A. Mulligan, more famous as the colonel of the 23rd Illinois volunteers of the Civil War (the Western Irish Brigade). He was born at Utica, New York, June 25, 1830, and went to Chicago in 1836. He studied law before becoming an editor. His heroic defense of Lexington, Ky., in September, 1861, where, with 2800 men, he withstood an army of 22,000, made him a popular hero. He died, July 26, 1864, from wounds received two days before at the battle of Kern town, Va. The “Western Tablet” did not survive, and it had several ill starred successors until the “New World” appeared in 1892. Three years later the “Western Catholic” was printed at Quincy, Ill. The “Michigan Catholic” of Detroit dates from 1872. In October, 1869, the “Star of Bethlehem” was established as a monthly at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by the St. Louis Brothers. Two years later they sold the paper to the “Catholic Vindicator”, which had been established in November, 1870, at Monroe, Wis., by Dr. D. W. Nolan and the Rev. John Casey. The “Catholic Vindicator” and “Star of Bethlehem” were consolidated, and established in Milwaukee, November, 1871. In November, 1878, Edward A. Bray and the Rev. G. L. Willard, having purchased the “Catholic Vindicator” from Dr. D. W. Nolan, changed the name to the “Catholic Citizen”. In 1880 H. J. Desmond undertook its editorial management.
Other Western papers are the “Catholic Tribune”, Dubuque, Iowa (1899); “Intermountain Catholic“, Salt Lake City, Utah (1899); the “Catholic Bulletin”, St. Paul, Minn. (1911); “True Voice”, Omaha, Neb. (1903); “Catholic Register”, Kansas City, Mo. (1899); “Catholic Sentinel”, Portland, Oregon (1870). In San Francisco, Cal., the “Monitor” is one of the veterans dating as far back as 1852. Later enterprises are the “Leader” of the same city (1902); the “Catholic Herald” of Sacramento (1908); and “Tidings” of Los Angeles (1895).
Magazines and Periodicals.—The first Catholic magazine was the “Metropolitan, or Catholic Monthly Magazine” issued at Baltimore, Md., January, 1830. It lived a year. Another “Metropolitan” began in February, 1853, but also failed to make a permanent impression. In January, 1842, the “Religious Cabinet”, a monthly, edited by Rev. Dr. Charles J. White and Rev. James Dolan, was started in Baltimore. After a year its title was changed to the “United States Catholic Magazine”, which lasted until 1847. The Rev. Dr. White and Dr. J. V. Huntington were its most noted editors, and the contributors included Archbishop M. J. Spalding, Bishop Michael O’Connor, the Rev. Dr. C. C. Pise, and B. N. Campbell. In New York the “Catholic Expositor”. edited by the Rev. Dr. Charles C. Pise and the Rev. Felix Varela, lasted three years (1842-44). Father Varela was also instrumental in the publication in New York, by C. H. Gottsberger, of the “Young Catholic‘s Magazine” in March, 1838; it was suspended in February 1840. The “National Catholic Register”, a monthly, the first issue of which appeared at Philadelphia, in January, 1844, did not last long.
When Father Hecker started the “Catholic World”, in 1865, its editor for the first five years was John Rose Greene Hassard (q.v.), and the publisher Lawrence Kehoe (b. in Co. Wexford, Ireland, July 24, 1832; d. in Brooklyn, New York, February 20, 1890). To the latter was due much of the early success of the magazine and of the Catholic Publication Society. Under the patronage of the Christian Brothers the “De La Salle Monthly” was begun in 1867. Its name was later changed to the “Manhattan Monthly” and the Irish patriot and poet John Savage was for a time its editor. The “Young Crusader” of Boston (1868), “Catholic Record”, Philadelphia (1871), “Central Magazine”, St. Louis (1872), “Donahoe’s Magazine”, Boston (1878), follow in the list of failures. The “Rosary Magazine,” begun by the Dominicans in New York, in 1891, was transferred to Somerset, Ohio. The Sisters of Mercy have published, since 1908, at Manchester, New Hampshire, “The Magnificat“. In April, 1866, the Rev. B. Sestini, S.J., founded the “Messenger of the Sacred Heart” at Georgetown, D.C.; thence it was moved to Woodstock, Md., next to Philadelphia, and finally to New York, in 1893. Later, in 1907, the “Messenger of the Sacred Heart” was devoted entirely to the interests of the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart, and the “Messenger”, a separate magazine of general literary character, was issued. The latter publication, in April, 1910, was changed to a weekly review, “America“, which, by authority of the General of the Society of Jesus, was made the joint work of the provincials of the Society in North America. It took immediate rank as an exponent of Catholic opinion with a national scope and circulation. The Rev. John J. Wynne, S.J., was its founder and first editor-in-chief. The Catholic University, Washington, publishes two magazines, the “Catholic University Bulletin” and the “Catholic Educational Review” (1911), and nearly all the Catholic colleges and the academies have monthlies edited and compiled by the students.
For historical work Philadelphia has two quarterly magazines, “American Catholic Historical Researches” and “Records of the American Catholic Historical Society“. New York has one, “Historical Records and Studies”, of the United States Catholic Historical Society. When the reading circle movement began, Warren E. Mosher (b. at Albany, N. Y., 1860; d. at New Rochelle, N. Y., March 22, 1906), who was one of the founders of the Catholic Summer School, started the “Catholic Reading Circle review”. This title was later changed to “Mosher’s Magazine”, but the periodical did not survive its founder. The “Catholic Fortnightly Review”, of Techny, Ill., edited by Arthur Preuss, and the “St. John’s Quarterly”, of Syracuse, N. Y., edited by the Rev. Dr. J. F. Mullany, are personal organs of the editors. “Benziger’s Magazine”, New York, 1898, and “Extension“, Chicago, 1907, are illustrated monthlies. The “Ecclesiastical Review”, Philadelphia (1889), supplies a varied and interesting quantity of professional information for the clergy. An attempt was made to offer from the same office in “The Dolphin“, a similarly important publication for the laity, but it failed to attract the necessary support. Another failure, for a like reason, was made in New York in the “New York Review, a journal of Ancient Faith and Modern Thought”, issued bi-monthly from St. Joseph‘s Seminary, Dunwoodie, June, 1905—May-June, 1908.
The first quarterly review established in the United States was the “American Review of History and Politics”, founded by a Catholic, Robert Walsh, at Philadelphia, and of which two volumes were published (1811-12). Walsh was born at Baltimore, Md., in 1784, and educated at Georgetown College. He was a man of great literary ability, and died United States consul at Paris, February 7, 1859. The first and most important Catholic quarterly was “Brownson‘s Quarterly Review”, which Orestes A. Brownson began in January, 1844, at Boston (moved to New York, 1855), after his conversion. He suspended its publication in 1864 “because he was unwilling”, he said, “to continue a periodical which had not the full confidence of the Catholic hierarchy”. It was revived in 1873, and finally ceased publication in October, 1875, with the statement: “I discontinue the Review solely on account of my precarious health and the failure of my eyes.” The first number of the “American Catholic Quarterly Review” was issued at Philadelphia, in January, 1876, and the Rev. James Andrew Corcoran (q.v.), George D. Wolf, and Archbishop Patrick John Ryan are notable as its editors. The “Globe Review”, of Philadelphia, edited by the erratic William Henry Thorne, had a short career of violent iconoclastic character.
Special Organs.—The fraternal organizations have their special organs—as, for example, the “National Hibernian” (Washington, 1900), of the Ancient Order of Hibernians—which devote their pages to the interests of the social organizations which they represent. The German Catholic Press, led by two influential dailies, has made much more substantial and practical progress than its English contemporaries. Prominent among the editors who contributed to these achievements were Dr. Maximilian Oertel (q.v.) and Edward Frederic Reinhold Preuss (b. at Konigsberg, Germany, July 10, 1834; d. at St. Louis, Missouri, July, 1904). There are sixty-nine Polish papers printed in the United States, twenty odd being thoroughly Catholic, and the others ranging from neutrality to violent anti-clericalism. Of the nine dailies four are distinctively Catholic. The oldest paper is the “Gazeta Katolicka”, founded by Father Barzynski. He also founded, in 1889, the “Dziennik Chicagoski” (Chicago Daily News), the controlling interest in which is owned by the Resurrectionist Fathers. There are eighteen Polish papers printed in Chicago, four of them dailies, and of the eighteen seven are Catholic. The Bohemians have a number of prosperous periodicals including 1 daily, 1 semi-weekly, 2 weeklies, and 1 monthly and 1 bimonthly. (See also Bohemians in the United States; French Catholics in the United States; Germans in the United States.—The Press; Italians in the United States. Religious Organizations; Poles in the United States.)
THOMAS F. MEEHAN