About This Issue
Joseph Mannard, of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, returns to the pages of American Catholic Studies with our lead article featuring the Reverend Charles Ignatius White. Born in Baltimore in 1807 and ordained in Paris in 1830, he was a leading member of the Catholic press in antebellum America, who with his translation of Mission and Duties of Young Women (1858) and his writings, promoted a Catholic version of true womanhood.
Thomas W. Jodziewicz, of the University of Dallas, tells us of the always interesting Bishop John England of Charleston and his 1826 address in the chamber of the House of Representatives in the United States Capitol. There, in the presence of President John Quincy Adams, England's apologetic, responded to earlier anti-Catholic remarks by Adams with an address that emphasized the compatibility of Catholicism and American political tenets.
Eileen Flanagan, of Neumann University in Aston, Pennsylvania, in "Establishment of the Poor Clares in the United States: Ecclesiastical Conflicts – Vocational Challenges," explains how rejections by Archbishop John McCloskey, John Baptist Purcell, and James Frederic Wood for foundations in New York, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia, respectively, challenged but did not thwart the Poor Clare's mission.
Father Clifford J. Stevens, a priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha and a graduate of Boys Town, contributes our cover essay, "Father Edward Flanagan and the Founding of Boys Town: Omaha, Nebraska (1917-1925)." Some may be familiar with the film "Boys Town" with Spencer Tracy in an Oscar-winning performance, but you will learn, as I did, from the essay and wonderful photos.
Our selection of dissertation abstracts appears in this issue along with a fine collection of book reviews. We continue to be grateful for all our contributors and readers.
Rodger Van Allen, Co-editor