United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Social Action Department

An inventory of the Records of the Social Action Department at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives

Historical Note

The National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC), officially defined as the annual meeting of the American hierarchy and its standing secretariat, was established by the bishops in 1919 as the successor to the War Council. The Administrative Committee was organized to conduct Council business between plenary meetings with headquarters established in Washington, DC, and a decision was made to rename the organization the National Catholic Welfare Conference. Following the Vatican II Council, the bishops reorganized the NCWC in 1966, transforming it into the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and its standing secretariat, the United States Catholic Conference (USCC). On July 1, 2001, the NCCB and the USCC were combined to form the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) consisting of the same staff continuing the work formerly done by the NCCB and the USCC.

One of the original departments of the National Catholic Welfare Council/Conference(NCWC), the Department of Social Action was established to promote the social thought of the Roman Catholic Church and to interpret, under the guidance of the bishops, applications of that thought to the complex social questions of the world. It operated primarily as a service department for Catholic lay organizations, the Catholic press, schools, religious, and laity. It also served as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of the most progressive thought in the field of social action. There was a special focus on industrial, international, and interracial relations as well as rural life, social work, and the study of communism. The principal tools in this effort were the papal encyclicals and statements of the American bishops on social and economic matters. Soon after its creation in 1919, the Social Action Department began to sponsor addresses and lectures, publish books and pamphlets, and conduct conferences and institutes.

John A. Lapp (1880-1961), who directed the short lived Chicago Office, 1920-1927, also directed a program in civic education that included the promotion of social surveys. Edwin V. O'Hara (1881-1956), later Bishop of Kansas City, was brought into the department in 1920 to head a Rural Life Bureau, and in 1923 he convened the meeting in which the National Catholic Rural Life Conference was born. Meanwhile, in 1922, the department founded the Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems (CCIP), which through its meetings influenced businessmen and industrialists, trade unionists, educators, and social workers; it was succeeded in 1958 by the National Catholic Social Action Conference, which assumed a broader scope. The prevalence of isolationist sentiment in America led the department in 1927 to create a secretariat for the Catholic Association for the International Peace (CAIP). A few years later, prompted by Pius XI's 1930 encyclical Casti Connubii, it established a Family Life Bureau.

The department's first three directors, Msgr. John Augustine Ryan, 1920-1945, Father Raymond Augustine McGowan, 1945-1954, and Msgr. George Gilmary Higgins, 1954-1967, were especially interested in industrial relations and did much to focus the attention of Catholic social action in this direction by both thoughts and deeds. In 1967, as part of the general re-organization of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, which changed its name to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB)/United States Catholic Conference(USCC), the Social Action Department became the Department of Social Development. After 1970, what was left of the Catholic Association for International Peace was merged with the department and is currently known as the Department of Social Development and World Peace with two divisions, Domestic Development and International Justice and Peace.

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Scope and Contents

Series one consists of general departmental files, 1920-1959, which include reports, 1920-1950, budgets and financial records, 1937-1943, personnel files and inter-office memoranda, 1925-1943, statements by the department as well as the bishops, n.d., and files on publications and pamphlet orders and other papers. The next three series consist of records of of various bodies sponsored by the department. Series two is the National Catholic Social Action Conferences, 1938-1939, which were the largest and most important meetings to that time on Catholic social teaching and its application to American economic life. Series three entails the Inter American Seminars on Social Studies, 1942-1946, which, supported by the U.S. government, involved bringing together leaders in the social, economic, and labor relations fields from throughout the Western Hemisphere to meet for discussion. The programs were arranged for and conducted by the Social Action Department. The first seminar met in Washington in 1942 and then journeyed across the country. The war kept the seminar from meeting again until 1946 when it met in Havana. The success of these meetings prompted the formation of the Inter American Social Action Confederation; and the Inter American Catholic Social Action Confederation, 1948-1952. Series four contains the Inter American Catholic Social Action Confederation which was affiliated with the NCWC and worked with the Pan American Union and the United Nations to address international social and economic problems. Meetings of delegates were held in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, San Salvador, and Mexico City.

Series five has files relating to the department's efforts in the area of Intercreedal Cooperation, 1937-1946. From the beginning, the department gave special emphasis to cooperation with other religious organizations working in the field of industrial relations, particularly the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The corresponding social action groups of these bodies worked together at various times to further the cause of social justice, usually through the issuance of joint statements, but also through meetings and conferences. Series six has the files of assistant directors, Fathers John Hayes and George Higgins, 1942-1945, with Hayes an obscure figure who left due to ill health while Higgins would succeed Father McGowan as Director of the department in 1954 and would become a widely recognized and respected 'labor' priest, both for his wide range of writing and for extensive mediation efforts. Series seven consists of the files of assistant director John Cronin, 1951-1960, the author of several works applying the social principles to Catholic teaching and who was largely responsible for the department's activities in the study of communism and interracial relations. Series eight, Organization Files, 1930-1955, has correspondence and reference material, filed alphabetically, on organizations and topics of special interest in which the department was involved or whose activities it monitored. These include the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists (ACTU), CUA's Commission of American Citizenship, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA), and the United Nations (UN). Series nine, Special topics, 1925-1953, contains correspondence and reference material, filed alphabetically, which were of interest to the department such as Father Charles Coughlin, Industry Council Plan, Legislation, Living Wage, Mexico, Papal statements, Protestant labor activities, and Strikes.

Series ten consists of files, both professional and personal, of Father Raymond Augustine McGowan, 1920-1954, Assistant Director and Director, whose influence was evident in almost every sphere of activity in the department and researchers in any area of the department's wide ranging activities would benefit from a review of this material. McGowan (1892-1962), was assigned as a writer on social and economic matters to the National Catholic War Council in 1919 and was shortly thereafter appointed assistant director of the Social Action Department under Msgr. John Austine Ryan. He became director on Ryan's death in 1945, retiring in 1954. To promote an effective system of labor, management, and government cooperation in American economic problems, he founded the Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems (CCIP) and subsequently organized conferences on industrial problems throughout the country. In addition to CCIP, he founded the Catholic Association for International Peace (CAIP) and the American Catholic Social Action Confederation. His assignment in 1933 to the NCWC's Latin American Bureau occasioned extensive travel in Latin America, and his concern for the problems he encountered there gave impetus to his work for the improvement of inter American relations. In 1943 President Roosevelt appointed him to an advisory committee to study changes in the organic law of Puerto Rico. The decision was taken to retain the original organization of the correspondence files consisting of several alphabetical and often overlapping runs as follows: 1920(1928-1932)1932, 1929(1932-1933)1934, 1929(1934-1935)1936, 1932(1936-1937)1937 and 1938-1954. These records contain correspondence with individuals such as Patrick Henry Callahan and Francis Haas, organizations such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and about topics such as radio's Catholic Hour and Latin America. In addition, there are copies of McGowan's articles, notes, reviews, and speeches, 1920-1952.

Father McGowan's files are followed by series eleven, the Field Secretary, 1920-1957, primarily records of Linna E. Bressette. Among many progressive activities, she conducted a social study of the plight of Mexican workers in the U.S., was involved in the organization of diocesan councils of Catholic women, conducted conferences on the Negro in Industry, organized priests' institutes on the encyclicals, served as consultant to the industrial and social action committees of the National Council of Catholic Women, and organized and directed the Institutes on Industry and Catholic summer schools for wage earning women. These records are divided as follows: personal, 1933-1951; financial, 1930-1957; general correspondence, 1920-1950; organizations and topics, 1922-1951; the Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems (see also later series of this name), 1923-1957; Institutes in Industry and Social Action Chairman, 1931-1951; Labor Schools (see also later series of this name), 1938-1949; Work with Priests (see also later series of this name), 1938-1949; interfaith conferences (see also earlier series on intercreedal cooperation), 1931-1940; Credit Unions, 1938-1949; Seminars for Spanish Speaking, 1920-1951; Encyclicals, 1931-1951; and publications and printed material, 1920-1929 and 1943-1953. Series twelve is the Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems (CCIP), 1922-1951, consisting of correspondence relating to the various meetings across America, 1922-1949, and similar material, including financial, of the Interracial Secretary, 1923-1951. Founded by the newly established Department of Social Action and promoted upon the initiative of Bressette,, the CCIP was conceived as an association to discuss and promote the study and understanding of industrial problems. At the first meeting in 1923, and at subsequent meetings, the conference's principal activity was to discuss but not vote on questions of industrial policy. Attendance was drawn primarily from representatives of labor, education, and social work; few employers participated although some, such as Patrick Henry Callahan, assumed an active role. The conference was an important means of disseminating Catholic social teachings but eventually it became evident that its interests were too limited to assimilate the widening types of Catholic social action. In 1957, the CCIP gave way to a successor organization of broader scope, the National Catholic Social Action Conference, for which the department also provided the secretariat, and records from this entity, both correspondence and reference material relating to their meetings, make up series thirteen, covering 1956-1957.

Series fourteen, consists of records, mostly correspondence and course material, relating to the department's work with labor schools, 1936-1946. Organized in an effort to give workers training in the principles of sound trade unionism based upon Christian principles, the department encouraged the growth of labor schools throughout the country. In these schools, consideration was given to such topics as ethics of labor, history of labor, the encyclicals, labor relations, trade union practices, economics, public speaking, and parliamentary law. Series fifteen, Work with Priests, 1937-1946, contains material relating to meetings and study clubs which reflects the department's work in encouraging priests to be active in the field of industrial relation. They were not just to run labor schools but also serve to spread Christian teaching as applied to social and economic questions. This was done most importantly through the founding of social action schools for the clergy beginning in 1937. The purpose of the schools was to study the encyclicals, investigate the facts of industrial and labor conditions, and to review the principles and methods of priests' participation in economic questions.

Series sixteen is the Catholic Association for International Peace (CAIP), 1926-1970, an organization of U.S. Catholics that sought to educate people about their obligations to world peace by the application of the principles of Christian teaching to international life. The CAIP was established and held its first meeting at The Catholic University of America during Easter Week, 1927. Its members included not only experts in the application of Catholic teachings on international order, but also others who were interested in learning and promoting those principles. The Social Action Department provided the secretariat and the CAIP's principal efforts were directed to meetings, with published proceedings, and to the publication of study committee statements and papers on special topics prepared by individual authors. The CAIP was abolished after 1967 and replaced by the International Justice and World Peace office. Records include correspondence and printed material organized as follows: Conference files, 1926-1949; Statements, 1927-1966; Publications, 1928-1967; and files of committee member and past president William V. O'Brien, 1949-1970. Additional CAIP records are on deposit at the Center for Migration Studies at Staten Island, New York.

Series seventeen is the Rural Life Bureau, 1930-1938, which was founded within the department in 1920 under Edwin O'Hara, later bishop of Kansas City. The bureau sought to use both natural and supernatural means to enrich the spiritual and material well being of rural people. O'Hara later founded the National Catholic Rural Life Conference which was based in the mid-west, first at St. Paul, Minnesota, then at Des Moines, Iowa. This conference, whose archives are housed at Marquette University, eventually made the NCWC Rural Life Bureau obsolete. Extant material includes financial records, correspondence, surveys, and publications. There is some Rural Life material mixed in with series eighteen, Family Life Bureau, 1929-1974. The latter was inspired by the 1930 papal encyclical Casti connubii and established in 1931 to coordinate the development of family programs and projects nationwide. Associated with the bureau were family life directors from archdioceses and dioceses across the country. Activities focused on meetings, field services, and publications regarding numerous aspects of marriage and parentage. Records consist primarily of correspondence divided into General Administration, 1929-1953 and the meetings of the Catholic Conference on Family Life, 1931-1953, as well as publications divided between those of the bureau, 1931-1974, and those by other organizations, 1933-1955. Additional records of the Family Life Bureau are on deposit at the Center for Migration Studies at Staten Island, New York (see also CAIP above), while those of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference are located at the Special Collections and Archives of Marquette University.

The remaining three series, numbers nineteen through twenty one, are Oversize, 1922-1957, 1970; Publications and Printed Material, 1920-1969; and Photographs, 1936-1952, n.d. The Oversize material, mostly legal sized or equivalent, consists of files and printed material relating to the Papal encyclicals, including translations, transcripts of the congressional testimony of Arthur Goldberg regarding the Taft-Hartly Act, CCIP meetings, and reports of the 1970 Committee on Society, Development and Peace. Some watercolor paintings were removed and some financial records listed previously are now missing. The Publications and Printed material contains numerous pamphlets, booklets, manuals, newsletters, and news releases regarding a wide variety of issues and events, largely social and economic. Subjects range from labor and communism in the 1930s to poverty and racial minorities in the 1960s, and much more. There is a mixture of material published by the department as well as other organizations. Of particular interest is The Yardstick, Catholic Tests of the Social Order, a regular news commentary originated by Father McGowan in the 1930s which continued until 2001 by his successor Msgr. George Higgins. The McGowan years, 1933-1944, are present here and duplicated in the Higgins Papers, which naturally contain the Higgins columns from 1944 to 2001. Another noted publication was the Social Action Notes for Priests, 1941-1968, available in part on microfilm and with both bound and loose issues. Finally, the Photographs have various items pulled from various series, including General Department Files, Inter American Seminars, and the Field Secretary. In some instances, an entire file was transferred to the photo series, in others a photograph was photocopied with the former, moved to the photo series, and the latter retained in the file of origin. In general the photographs present a mix of events and portraits of notable individuals.

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Arrangement

The Records of the Department of Social Action consists of 21 series:

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

There are access restrictions for 25 years from date of record creation or living persons.

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Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Donated by the United States Catholic Conference in 1972 and 1993.

Processing Information

The SAD records were originally stored in forty odd transfer cases and were, for the most part, in considerable disorder. Some of this disorder may be traced back to the department's office filing practices; the files of the field secretary contain numerous letters complaining about lost letters and misplaced files. Disorder may have been furthered at the time of transfer to storage and during the course of a subsequent microfilming project. In any case, efforts have been made during the current processing effort to provide improved physical and intellectual access and preserve what order was evident in their original state.

Processing begun in 1989 by Antonio Gonzales, continued by Timothy McCook in 1991, and completed in September 2001 by William John Shepherd. Data Entry, 1999-2001, by Amy Agnew, Mary Beth Fraser, Michelle Hunsicker-Blair, Rebecca Hurley, Jennifer Jukes, Katherine Schmidt, and William John Shepherd. EAD markup completed in January 2006 by Jordan Patty.

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Related Material

The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives:

George G. Higgins Papers

John A. Ryan Papers

Records of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops

Other repositories:

Rural Life and Family Life records at the Center for Migration Studies at Staten Island, New York

National Catholic Rural Life Conference at the Special Collections and Archives of Marquette University

Catholic Association for International Peace (CAIP) at the Special Collections and Archives of Marquette University

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Index Terms

Subjects:

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Bibliography

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Detailed Description of the Collection