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).
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