About This Issue
Frankly, I can't recall that I have ever stopped to think about how colonial Catholic music and ritual had developed. I love music of all kinds, have a spouse who is a music teacher, and I think I have an historical orientation; but I had never even reflected in an historical developmental way on this dimension of the American Catholic experience. Even if your own context is not quite the same as mine, I think you will find that freshness and insight in our lead article by Robert R. Grimes, S.J. of Fordham University, who lucidly takes us through the history in which the emergence of this music is embedded.
James Garneau, of the Pontifical College Josephinum, explores the public and personal relationship of Richard Cardinal Cushing and J. Edgar Hoover, as seen in the pages of the FBI file that was kept on the cardinal. The results are quite interesting.
Raymond H. Potvin of the Catholic University of America offers a mature and wise description and reflection of Franco-American parishes of New England, past, present and future. His article contains insights for the experiences of other groups and national parishes.
Nine book reviews cover a wide range of recent scholarship, and our reviewers perform their task with substance, vigor and courtesy.
By all means, read Co-editor Margaret McGuinness's "One Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words," which explains our front and back covers. They come from Stained Glass in Philadelphia, and for it, I simply want to add my own public congratulations to Saint Joseph's University Press. The book is a unique achievement. Its execution is magnificent. Bravo!
Rodger Van Allen, Co-editor