Vincent J. Lovett was a nonvoting member of the first National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company board of directors. A Kansas City priest, he had worked with the Denver "Register" (circa 1949) prior to attending St. Thomas Seminary. His first assignment in the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese was as secretary to Bishop O'Hara and assistant diocesan treasurer. In 1957, he was assigned to the diocesan newspaper to assist Robert Hoyt, the future editor of the "National Catholic Reporter". In 1959, Hoyt, Lovett, and Michael Greene removed the paper from the "Register" chain and established it as a purely diocesan product, the "Catholic Reporter". Hoyt was editor, Greene managing editor, and Lovett executive editor and business manager. The "Catholic Reporter" was very successful and drew subscribers from outside the diocese. Greene, Hoyt, and Lovett began to discuss the possibility of expansion into a national paper. In 1964, Greene recruited John Fallon and Frank Brennan to assist in the foundation of a national paper. The group approached Bishop Charles Helmsing, who approved the idea and gave permission for the national paper to share the staff and facilities of the diocesan "Catholic Reporter". On October 28, 1964, the new "National Catholic Reporter" published its first issue. Lovett served on the board of directors, but because the board's intent was to remain independent of Church hierarchy he did not have a vote. He continued to offer editorial assistance, but gradually devoted more time to the diocesan paper as Hoyt and Greene concentrated on the national edition. By July 1965, Lovett worked almost exclusively on the diocesan "Catholic Reporter", and he left the "NCR" board. He left the priesthood between 1968 and 1972.
MASSE, BENJAMIN L.
Benjamin L. Masse was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on June 17, 1905. His parents were Benjamin and Abbie (Burnette) Masse. He was educated at St. Norbert College and St. Louis University. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1925, and completed his B.A. at St. Louis in 1930. He earned an M.A. in 1932 and a licentiate in theology in 1939. He did postgraduate work at Marquette, Fordham, and Immaculate Conception in Montreal.
Masse taught literature at Regis College in Denver from 1932 to 1935. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in June 1938, and taught history at St. Louis in 1940-41, following the completion of his theology training. At Regis College, Masse had obtained and read the social justice encyclicals of Leo XIII and Pius XI. He lost interest in literature in favor of social issues.
In 1941, Fr. Masse was assigned to "America" magazine as associate editor. He became the New York-based magazine's chief economic policy and industrial relations writer even though he had no formal training in economics. In his career at "America", Masse contributed 517 signed articles, mostly in his "Social Front" column, and roughly 5,000 unsigned articles and editorials. From 1942 to 1955, he assumed additional responsibilities as executive editor of the associated publication "Catholic Mind". Many of his articles in "America" were reprinted in pamphlet form.
In 1948, Fr. Masse was invited to join the Columbia University Seminar on Labor. He also became a member of the Association of Social Economics and was honored with an LL.D. from Loyola University of Chicago in 1972.
Fr. Masse retired from "America" in July 1971. He was a columnist for "Long Island Catholic" in 1972-73, and then served as an assistant pastor at Holy Family Church in New Rochelle, New York. He died at Holy Family on September 28, 1978.
Fr. Masse published a book, "Justice for All", in 1964. He also edited "The Church and Social Progress" (1966), and "The Catholic Mind Through 50 Years" (1952).
MOHLER, DOROTHY
Dorothy Abts was born in Randolph, Nebraska, on September 23, 1908, the daughter of Anton and Christina (Lang) Abts. She graduated from the College of St. Teresa in 1929, and then entered the National Catholic School of Social Service at Catholic University, Washington, D.C. She received her diploma from the School of Social Service and a master's degree in sociology from Catholic University in 1931. She was then engaged in medical social work at Johns Hopkins Hospital until 1932, when she became a casework supervisor for Catholic Charities in Omaha, Nebraska.
In 1935, Abts left Omaha to join the School of Social Service faculty in Washington. She resumed her graduate studies and earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Catholic University in 1945. From 1946 to 1948, she was assistant director of the Green Bay Diocese Apostolate. In 1948, she rejoined the faculty of Catholic University with the rank of instructor. The next year, she was promoted to assistant professor and married Bruce Mohler, the director of the National Catholic Welfare Conference's Immigration Bureau.
Dr. Mohler was promoted to associate professor in 1959. Since 1976, Dr. Mohler has been editor of "Social Thought", a quarterly professional journal published by the National Conference of Catholic Charities. Dr. Mohler is a member of several professional societies, and served as a chapter secretary for the American Association of University Professors in 1963-64.
MOLLOY, PATRICK J.
Patrick J. Molloy was born on March 16, 1914, in or near University City, Missouri. The son of Michael and Mary Ann (Mc- Donough) Molloy, he entered St. Louis Preparatory Seminary in 1928. He completed studies for the priesthood at Kenrick Seminary and was ordained in June 1940 by Archbishop (later Cardinal) John Glennon. Fr. Molloy's first assignment was as assistant pastor at St. Peter's Church, Kirkwood, Missouri.
About 1943, Molloy and several others of the clergy of the St. Louis archdiocese wrote a letter to Archbishop Glennon asking for his assistance in securing the admission of a black student into a Catholic women's college. The Archbishop was not receptive of this proposal, and promptly transferred Molloy to another parish. However, towards the end of his tenure, Glennon did permit Molloy to integrate the school at Visitation parish in St. Louis. Molloy also served as a religion teacher, coach, and athletic director at the all-black St. Joseph High School from 1941 to 1948.
After a series of brief parish assignments, Molloy was made pastor of Most Blessed Sacrament parish in St. Louis in 1957. He was transferred to St. Stephen Protomartyr parish in 1970, and is presently its pastor. Molloy was honored with the title of monsignor in 1961 by request of Cardinal Joseph Ritter, in recognition for his human rights work. Msgr. Molloy has served on the St. Louis archdiocesan human rights commission, the mayor's human relations council, and the archdiocesan board of consultors. He is a past president of the archdiocesan school board.
RICE, CHARLES OWEN
Charles Owen Rice was born on November 21, 1908, in New York City. His parents, Michael and Anna Rice, were Irish immigrants. After the death of his mother about 1913, Charles was sent to Ireland to live with his grandmother. He stayed in Ireland until about 1920. Meanwhile, his father had moved to Pittsburgh, and so upon his return to the United States, Charles went to Pittsburgh also. He graduated from Duquesne University with a B.A. in 1930, and began studies for the priesthood after a brief visit to Ireland. He received an M.A. from St. Vincent's Seminary in 1934, and was ordained a priest in June of that year.
Fr. Rice's first assignment was as assistant pastor at St. Agnes Church in Pittsburgh from 1934 to 1940. He also took graduate courses in psychology at Pitt from 1936 to 1938, wrote columns for the diocesan newspaper "Pittsburgh Catholic" from 1936 to 1953, and involved himself heavily in labor union work. Rice founded a labor school in 1939, attended conventions of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations), and served as Pittsburgh area chaplain of the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists. He would occasionally serve as an arbitrator in labor disputes.
In 1937, Rice founded the St. Joseph House of Hospitality, a shelter for homeless men. He left St. Agnes Parish to devote more time to the shelter in 1940. He resided at the shelter from 1940 to 1951, and continued as director until 1952. In 1942-46, Rice worked in the Pittsburgh Rent Office as rent control administrator. From 1945 to 1949, he directed the Labor Relations Institute at Duquesne University in addition to managing his shelter. Rice also did some radio broadcasting starting in 1939, originally intended to publicize and support St. Joseph House. He later branched out into other topics and had various radio programs until 1971.
In 1952, Rice left the Hospitality House and returned to parish work as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Natrona, PA. In 1958, he was transferred to Immaculate Conception Parish in Washington, PA. In 1961, he became director of Catholic social services for Washington and Greene counties of Pennsylvania. He held this post until the late sixties. In 1964 or 1965, he was honored with the title of monsignor. Soon afterward, he was transferred to Holy Rosary Parish in Pittsburgh.
Msgr. Rice ran unsuccessfully for the Pittsburgh City Council in 1971. He became pastor of St. Anne's Parish in Castle Shannon, PA, in 1976. He retired in 1986, and resides at St. Anne's as pastor emeritus. He served on the Pittsburgh diocesan board of consultors from 1959 to 1971, and from 1976 to his retirement.
SCHAEFER, MARY CATHERINE
Mary Catherine Schaefer graduated from Trinity College in 1927. At the time, her family resided in Cape Charles, Virginia. In February 1928, she was hired as secretary to Rev. John Ryan of the National Catholic Welfare Conference Social Action Department in Washington. Ms. Schaefer worked for the Social Action Department until 1946. At the same time, she became active in the Catholic Association for International Peace. She edited at least two CAIP pamphlets in 1935-36, one of which was a compilation of papal peace messages entitled "A Papal Peace Mosaic" (1936).
In 1946, Schaefer was transferred to New York City, where the NCWC was setting up a United Nations observer office. The major purposes of the office were to make church positions known at the U.N., and to inform the U.S. bishops of happenings there. The Vatican established its own observer mission in 1964, and the two offices cooperated when needed. The NCWC office concentrated its efforts in the U.N. economic and social council, and eventually received consultor status to the American delegation to this council. In 1972, the office was disbanded, and Ms. Schaefer retired.
STEPAN, ALFRED CHARLES JR.
Alfred Charles Stepan, Jr. was born in New York City on April 17, 1909. His parents were Alfred Charles and Charlotte (Corbett) Stepan. He graduated from Notre Dame with a B.A. in 1931, and later studied at Northwestern University and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He started his own business, the Stepan Chemical Company, in Northfield, Illinois, in 1932. He married Mary Louise Quinn in February 1934.
In 1956, Stepan received copies of three papers that had been presented at St. Louis University the previous year from former Notre Dame president Fr. John Cavanaugh. Stepan was most impressed by Msgr. John T. Ellis' "American Catholics and the Intellectual Life." Stepan agreed with Ellis' contention that American Catholics despite their large share of the U.S. population had yet to make significant contributions to American intellectual life, and decided that Ellis' work needed to be published. He enlisted the aid of fellow Notre Dame alumni Arthur Conrad and Neal Harley for the project. The three originally planned to publish all the papers given them by Fr. Cavanaugh, but later decided that the impact of Msgr. Ellis' work would be lessened by including the others. Conrad arranged for Bishop John J. Wright of Worcester, Massachusetts, to write a preface for the collected papers, but was unable to contact Bishop Wright when it was decided to publish Ellis' alone. Stepan then revised Bishop Wright's remarks to cover only the Ellis paper. The paper was published by the Heritage Foundation, and Notre Dame alumni clubs arranged for its distribution at the 1957 National Catholic Education Association meeting in Milwaukee. Copies were also sent to major houses of religious teaching orders such as the Dominican Sisters. The paper made quite an impact, as Stepan and his associates expected, including coverage in "Time" magazine.
Mr. Stepan received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1963, and served on the Board of Trustees.
STRANGE, BERNARD
Bernard Strange (b. June 8, 1906, Bramble, IN) was ordained a priest for the Indianapolis diocese in 1934. After a year as assistant pastor at St. Joan of Arc parish in Indianapolis, he was assigned to St. Rita parish, where he would spend the next 38 years. At the time of his appointment, St. Rita's was a "colored" parish with a segregated school.
Father Strange spent much of his active ministry as a civil rights campaigner, and was perhaps most noted for his leadership in the effort to desegregate Indianapolis' Catholic schools in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Strange was supported in this effort by Bishop Joseph Ritter (later Cardinal Archbishop of St. Louis). Father Strange later served as membership chairman for the Indianapolis chapter of the NAACP, and participated in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s march on Washington. Fr. Strange was transferred to St. Francis de Sales parish in 1974, and retired in 1976. He died in Indianapolis on September 24, 1987.
Archives holdings on Fr. Strange consist of an audiotaped interview conducted circa 1975. Sound quality is fair to good.
SWANSTROM, EDWARD E.
Edward E. Swanstrom was born on March 20, 1903, in New York City. His parents were Gustave and Mary (Cronin) Swanstrom. He graduated from Fordham University with a B.A. in 1924. He then studied for the priesthood at St. John's Seminary in Brooklyn. He was ordained a priest of the Brooklyn diocese on June 2, 1928. Fr. Swanstrom earned a diploma from the New York School of Social Work in 1933 and a Ph.D. from Fordham in 1938. His doctoral dissertation concerned the problems of waterfront laborers in Brooklyn.
Swanstrom was curate at St. James Pro-Cathedral in Brooklyn from 1934 to 1960. He took on additional responsibilities as assistant diocesan director of Catholic Charities from 1933 to 1943, assistant executive director of Catholic Relief Services from 1943 to 1947, and finally as executive director of CRS from 1947 to 1976. Catholic Relief Services was originally intended as a temporary effort of the U.S. bishops to assist World War II refugees and POWs, but by 1955 the organization became permanent, and assisted victims of natural disasters as well as victims of war. In its earlier years, CRS concentrated on resettling refugees and sending supplies of food, clothing, and medicine to areas of need. Later, CRS began efforts to foster economic development in the areas it serves, particularly in the Third World.
In 1960, Swanstrom was appointed auxiliary bishop of New York by Pope John XXIII. He also served as pastor of St. Andrew's Church in New York City from 1965 to 1973 while remaining executive director of Catholic Relief Services.
With American involvement in the Vietnam War, CRS began substantial operations in southeast Asia. Swanstrom and CRS were heavily criticized by the Catholic Peace Fellowship for concentrating their efforts in South Vietnam. In 1967, it was alleged by the CPF that CRS' single largest food distribution program was being used by the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments as a pay program for South Vietnamese militiamen and their families. If so, said the CPF, Catholic Relief Services was merely an agent of American governmental policy rather than an impartial provider of needed services to the people of Vietnam. Bishop Swanstrom replied that aid to North Vietnam was probably against U.S. law, and that there was no assurance that CRS aid would not be used for military purposes. He made several trips to Vietnam from 1956 to 1968 to oversee CRS operations there.
Bishop Swanstrom retired on March 20, 1978, and still resides in New York. He holds honorary degrees from Catholic University, Iona, and St. John's. He was named an assistant at the papal throne in 1977. He is the author of two books: "The Waterfront Labor Problem: A Study in Decasualization and Unemployment Insurance" (1938 dissertation), and "Pilgrims of the Night: A Study of Expelled Peoples" (1950).
THORMAN, DONALD J.
Donald J. Thorman was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on December 23, 1924, the son of Harry and Adolphine Thorman. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1942 to 1946. After his discharge from the Marines, Thorman attended DePaul University, graduating in 1949. He earned a master's degree in sociology from Loyola University of Chicago in 1951, and served as a sociology instructor at Loyola until 1954. He married Barbara Lisowski in 1952. Thorman began doctoral work at Fordham University, but dropped out and returned to Chicago when his brother-in-law became terminally ill.
Upon returning to Chicago, Thorman took the job of managing editor for the magazine "Voice of St. Jude" (now "U.S. Catholic") while continuing to teach at Loyola. This was not his first editorial position, as he had been an editor with "Christian Family" magazine in 1949. Thorman left "Voice of St. Jude" in 1956 to take up graduate studies at Notre Dame and work at Ave Maria Press. He served as managing editor of "Ave Maria" magazine from 1956 to 1962.
After a short stint as director of development and publisher for the Spiritual Life Institute in 1962-63 and two years as an independent public relations/management consultant, Thorman became publisher of the Kansas City-based "National Catholic Reporter" in December 1965. The "Reporter" quickly made a name for itself as a Catholic paper fiercely independent of the Catholic hierarchy. Editor Robert Hoyt printed articles dissenting from official church teaching on a number of subjects, including birth control and priestly celibacy. Bishop Charles Helmsing of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese objected strenuously to what he considered irresponsible liberties with church doctrine, and issued an "official condemnation" of the paper in October 1968. The Bishop requested that the word "Catholic" be dropped from the masthead. The affair led to the rejection of the Bishop's request by the "NCR" board and the resignation of board president John J. Fallon, who considered the paper's editorial policy too much attuned to controversy.
In a 1969 speech, Thorman indicated that while the "NCR" would remain a decidedly liberal publication, it would be less sensational: "We won't turn right-wing, but we have to stay abreast. When we were raising a lot of issues, that's what our readers liked. Now they want some help in finding answers -- articles that tell how Catholics are meeting problems instead of articles that stir things up."
In 1971, Robert Hoyt left the "NCR" and Thorman replaced him as editor while retaining the title of publisher. Thorman expanded the activities of the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company to include audiocassettes and newsletters, and so managed to keep the paper financially healthy despite a nearly 50 percent loss in circulation from the 1960s peak of over 90,000 subscriptions. Thorman became president of the publishing company in 1975 and closely supervised the operations of the "NCR" until his death from complications caused by hepatitis on November 30, 1977.
Thorman was honored by DePaul University with an Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1972 and an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 1976. He wrote four books: "The Emerging Layman" (1962), "The Christian Vision" (1965), "American Catholics Face the Future" (1968), and "Power to the People of God" (1970). He was also a co-author of "The Layman and the Council" (1964).
There are no biographical sketches for the following people: