In 1933 Noll was a member of a committee, appointed by the U.S. Bishops, that proposed the formation of the Legion of Decency. Concern over the moral content of motion pictures led the Legion to adopt a rating system for movies. This series includes correspondence, newsletters that published movie ratings, and newspaper clippings on and publications of the Legion. Correspondents include Patrick Scanlon of the Brooklyn Tablet; Joseph A. Luther, S.J., P.S. Harrison, who published the Harrison's Report, a movie rating service (copies of his newsletter are also included in this series); theChicago Council of the Legion of Decency, who published the movie ratings for the Legion; and Bishop Bernard J. Shiel of Chicago.
In 1936 Noll began to raise money, under the auspices of Our Sunday Visitor, to build a statue in front of the Washington offices of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. The construction of the statue, which would depict Christ as the "Light of the World," was part of Noll's national campaign against communism. The statue, sculpted by Eugene Kormendi of Notre Dame, was completed in 1949.
Papers include correspondence, sketches of proposed statues, newspaper clippings on the campaign, and financial records of the fund, which are interfiled with the correspondence. Correspondents include members of the campaign's honorary board such as Dorothy Day, Henry Ford, Al Smith, and many other business and religious leaders and senators and members of congress; Eugene Kormendi and the Roman Bronze Works of Corona, New York, the foundry that cast the statue; R.L. Polk Company, the direct mailing company that supplied mailing lists; the security company that administered the investment of the fund; NCWC staff; and individuals and organizations who donated money, including the Daughters of Isabella, the Knights of Columbus, and the Catholic Daughters of America.
Financial reports, minutes, donor records, and manuscripts ofarticles by Noll concerning fundraising campaign for the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Noll served in various capacities on the committees that raised money and administered the fund for construction of the church. Although the cornerstone stone was laid in 1920, the church was not completed until 1959.
Correspondence, proposals, press releases, and newsletters from the Bureau of Information established by the NCWC circa 1950 and directed by Msgr. Thomas J. McCarthy. Noll was one of the bishops who lobbied for the establishment of this bureau as a means of counteracting false information about the Catholic Church. Included are correspondence from a forerunner to the bureau, the National Catholic Bureau of Information, which was sponsored by Our Sunday Visitor and directed by Robert R. Hull; a proposal for the establishment of the news service prepared by John V. Hinkel who was Director of Public Information for Notre Dame; copies of the Bureau's "Information Bulletin", a newsletter that published press releases on messages from the Vatican and the American bishops, the activities of anti-Catholic groups, and other current events of special interest to Catholics; copies of the "Wedding Ring", another Bureau newsletter that included features on marriage and family life written by Edgar Schmiedeler OSB; and the published proceedings of two seminars, sponsored by the Bureau in 1953 and 1956, for Catholic editors.
Noll was ordained in 1898 and assigned as pastor to Kendallville, Indiana, in 1900; he was transferred to a parish in Huntington in 1910, where he remained until he was named bishop of the Fort Wayne Diocese in 1925. In 1953 Noll was elevated to archbishop. This series brings together papers that are not directly related to any of Noll's activities that helped to define the other series in his papers. Although a few of the documents do relate to his duties as pastor and bishop, they do not constitute the official records of Noll's parishes or the Fort Wayne Diocese. Diocesan affairs are also discussed in OSV correspondence filed in box 1 of this collection.
Included are general correspondence with editors of national publications, Catholic lay organizations, and a wide range of civic and political leaders concerning Noll's publications, the portrayal of Catholics in the national media, and the Catholic Church in Mexico in the 1920s; correspondence with bishops and officials of other dioceses concerning the disbursement of funds from the American Board of Catholic Missions during Noll's tenure as treasurer, circa 1928-1950; correspondence on Catholic apologetics, anti-semitism, and anti-Catholic groups with readers of Noll's pamphlets and columns; correspondence with the American Apostolic Delegate, A.G. Cicognani, and other Vatican officials concerning Noll's publications, his fundraising, and other activities; correspondence with Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt (and Eleanor Roosevelt), and Harry Truman concerning Noll's pamphlets, the Public Works Administration, and aid to Yugoslavia after World War II; correspondence, newsletters, and other publications from the National Council of Catholic Women and the National Council of Catholic Men; letters and newspaper clippings relating to Noll's silver and golden jubilees and his elevation to archbishop; letters to Francis Fink, Noll's nephew, at the time of Noll's death; and two copies of an unpublished biography of Noll, written between 1975 and 1977 by Clifford Stevens.