Apologia for an American Catholicism: The Petition and Report of the National Catholic Welfare Council to Pius XI, April 25, 1922

The article that follows is a discussion of a document of some importance in American Catholic history, one that has not yet received consideration by historians. The Petition and Report of the National Catholic Welfare Council to Pius XI of April 25, 1922, is a protest by American bishops against a decree of suppression issued by the Consistorial Congregation of the Vatican, the effect of which would have been to destroy the newly organized Welfare Council.l The question of identity has been central to the development of American Catholicism. A church shaped by its European heritage, composed of a diverse immigrant population, struggling to become settled in a widely pluralistic society, could not avoid the task of examining its character and of forging some identity which would both bind together its membership and establish it as an American institution. Conflicts over the task of Americanizing Catholicism marked church leadership in the United States throughout the nineteenth century. Among other things, the problem eventually led to efforts to create organizations which would foster Catholic unity and identity. Two of the most prominent examples of such organizations on a national level were the Knights of Columbus and the American Federation of Catholic Societies, both of which were composed of Catholic laity. The national imperatives of World War I provided the rationale which finally drew American Catholics into a national organization under the formal leadership of the American archbishops-the National Catholic War Council.2 The inspiration for the War Council came largely from the Paulist John J. Burke and his associates; it successfully united Catholics in support of the American mobilization effort and won for Catholics a new degree of acceptance from the federal government and the American public. These achievements persuaded Council supporters led by Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore of the importance of continuing the national organization on a permanent basis. As a result of their efforts the National Catholic Welfare Council was formed in September 1919. Its structure was that of a national episcopal organization, and its membership was open to all of the American hierarchy. As the Welfare Council struggled for stability in the post-war years, it found itself challenged strongly from within the American hierarchy. Certain bishops felt that the existence of the Welfare Council was a threat to episcopal control within 1. Unless otherwise identified, all material used in this article is taken from "The Petition and Report of the Seven Bishops of the Administrative Committee of the National Catholic Welfare Council to His Holiness Pope Pius XI," a copy of which may bo found in the archives of the Catholic University of America (E7-1) along with copies of the original decree of suppression and the revocation of suppression that followed the bishops' petition. 2. The story of the National Catholic War Council and its implications for American Catholicisim are detailed in Elizabeth McKeown, "War and Welfare: A Study of American Catholic Leadership, 1917-1922," Ph. D. diss., Divinity School of the University of Chicago, 1972.