About this Issue
Our lead article, "The Parochial Enterprise: Financing Institutional Growth in the Brick-and-Mortar Era" is contributed by Thomas F. Rzeznik (Seton Hall University). Its focuses on developments in Philadelphia where the pace and scale of parish growth and institutional development required a new level of coordination, maturity and professionalism. Rzeznik's graceful narrative offers new insights into this era.
Thomas A. McCabe (Rutgers University – Newark) in "The Duke, Divine Comedy, and Discipline at St. Benedict's Prep, 1905-1972," takes an historian's look at the oft-discussed topic of discipline in Catholic education. He shows that while discipline has always mattered at places like St. Benedict's, the nature of it has changed over time, often in surprising ways.
Eric Vanden Eykel (Marquette University) in "Scripture in the Pastoral Letters of the Provincial Councils of Baltimore" shoes a shift in the way scripture is employed in the 1843-1849 letters from the 1829-1840 letters and offers three ways for understanding this shift.
Our review symposium concerns On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, The Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York by James T. Fisher (Fordham University). Four distinguished reviewers (James P. McCartin, David J. O'Brien, Laura Murphy, and Paula Kane) offer their perspectives on this highly-anticipated book, and the author replies.
Our cover essay, "Katharine Drexel: the Formation of a Saint" is contributed by Lou Baldwin, author of a well-regarded biography of his subject. His essay focuses on St. Katharine's family background and development.
Please note the page which follows this one, with three 2010 Catholic Press Awards. The Best Review Award is a first for American Catholic Studies, but I think it won't be the last as the reviews in this issue demonstrate. And don't miss our usual collection of recent dissertation abstracts.
Our contributors make working on this journal a joy.
Rodger Van Allen, Co-editor