Maryknoll Founding
Winchester Conference of 1904 Dan et al,


Cheap whiskey? You know better than that, Dan. Promoters never ever drank cheap whiskey! But, you are right about the research on the Winchester Conference. It's all a bit rusty now, Dan. But, when I was at Columbia U.more than 35 years ago, I looked into American expansionism leading up to the Spanish American War and the subsequent changes in attitudes that occurred politically, socially and culturally among Americans when, all of a sudden, we became an imperial power that owned colonies in the Caribbean, the Pacific and Asia for which we were the masters responsible for their well being -- the white man's burden to "our little brown brothers" as Howard Taft, the then secretary of State called them -- ignoring the fact that we promised the Philippines independence and then slaughtered them when they tried to take it.


I found that period really fascinating and had never heard much about it in the sem nor saw MKL's founding in that historical context. The war and its consequences brought about a major sea change in American history and affected the thinking of almost every American and all the American churches, both Catholic and Protestant. The research showed that the major Protestant churches immediately cranked up their foreign missionary efforts that had begun with the American Treaty Ports in China in the 1840's. Among Catholics, the Paulists, in particular, were very outspoken on the need to send American Catholic missionaries, especially to former Spanish colonies to replace Spanish friars. Teddy Roosevelt told Cardinal Gibbons (Fred Price's great friend and mentor) that he wanted American priests in the Philippines to replace the disloyal Spanish friars who were supporting Aguinaldo and the fight for independence, and to teach the Philippinos "American" Catholicism. Teddy called on Gibbons often for advise and dubbed him "the most useful citizen in America."


The usual stories we learned and the myths about the founding of Maryknoll never situated it in the context of these historic national events and their impact on American thinking. We were led to believe that Walsh and Price just happened to meet in Montreal in 1910 and voila that's how Maryknoll got started. But, that's not the way it happened. The call for sending American Catholic foreign missionaries began to appear in the catholic press right after the war. The Paulists, an American born society of mostly Protestant converts, who were the national or domestic missionaries to Protestant Americans, par excelance, began pushing for a foreign mission organization.


Then, Dan, the famous Winchester Conference in 1904 which you googled. I think, but do not recall at this juncture, that it was led by the the Paulist Father Elliot. (The same Father Elliot who, singlehandedly, brought down the wrath of the Vatican on the American Church for supporting the separation of church and state -- the quasi-heresy of Americanism -- in a biography of Paulist founder, Father Hector . But that's another story). What came out of that meeting and began appearing in Catholic newspapers and magazines was, in addition to calling for a national seminary, a strong call for an American Catholic missionary organization like Mill Hill (which had Brit missioners in the U.S. at the time) or the Paris Foreign Mission. I remember seeing 1905 correspondence between James A. and a Paulist (maybe again Father Elliot ?) where the Paulist was encouraging James A. to start something, now.


Also, by 1905, Cardinal Farley in New York and Archbishop O'Connell in Boston (James A. Walsh was his Propagation of the Faith Director) were toying with the idea of some sort of mission sending arrangement as were other church leaders and the catholic media. Gibbons was already on board, and had pushed the Jesuits to send U.S. priests to the Philippines (Contrary to MKL propaganda, the 1918 MKLers who went to China were not America's first foreign missioners.) The establishment of a foreign missionary organization looked like an hecho completo, a done deal in 1905. But, amazingly, no one put it together at that time. By the the time Walsh and Price put together a concrete proposal, it was no longer a new idea and, at the Bishops' Conference in 1911, it easily won the approval and support of the American bishops without discussion or opposition.


We know the rest of the story. But I think it is important to know that Maryknoll was born in America at a time America was flexing its muscles on the world stage and is American through and through. It's not a copy of the Mill Hills, the Paris Foreign Mission Socierty or other similar entities.


At a recent 39th Street House gathering, Dan, we discussed "The Imperial Cruise" by James Bradley. It covered Secretary of State, William Howard Taft's 1905 trip to Asia, including Japan, the Philippines, Korea and China. I would recommend it for those who want to get a feel for how the U.S. was dealing with (coping with?) its new imperial status.


This is fun stuff for me. I hope I don't bore you or other readers with it.


All the Best, Dan.


Pat



Pat: Either your stint in the development department occasionally led to discussions of the origins of the Society vis-a-vis the bishops and the local church while sipping cheap whiskey, or you have been doing your own research. I never heard of the Winchester Conference of 1904 but have googled it to verify and can confirm that the Villanova library has the conference papers in its holdings. Your discussion of feeder seminaries got me thinking some more about how Maryknoll grew in that period between the World Wars, gradually moving out from the East Coast and its large pool of Catholic prospects for funds and personnel. Minor seminaries really had to be as close to home as possible. A prepubescent early teen was at best a very fragile prospect. What West Coast parent would support sending such a lad all the way across the country to Clarks Summit, PA, for high school?


Dan Maloney



Maloney & Associates
1516 Brummel Street
Evanston, Illinois 60202
(847) 864-0097
(312) 218-9447 (cell)



From: "pmurphy49@aol.com"
To: maloneydj@sbcglobal.net; Interchange-Maryknoll@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Interchange;1574] Digest for Interchange-Maryknoll@googlegroups.com - 2 Messages in 1 Topic


Dan,


Thanks for your "golden days of yesteryear." I worked with J David on two occasions, one year each. The first was when JD replaced Jim Corneen as head of the Denver House in 1966 and Jim happily went back to Bolivia. The second time was when I was assigned to the Chicago House in 1969 as part of a desperate effort to try to recruit students for the falling admissions to GE. Dave was the head of the Chicago House at that time. In both those years, he was a pleasure to live with. Always a kind word, an upbeat attitude and a very hard worker. May he rest in peace.


In those years, Dan, and subsequent time Dave and I spent together in Caracas and in Manila, I never remember him talking about "The Greg" as others such as Dave Stang, Wayne King, yourself and many others did. I wonder why… . I was also forewarned by you Greg guys that MKL's Lou Smith, who taught at the Greg and came to the Venard in the summer of 1956 to teach Latin, was ferocious. Forewarned, we fought back and actually got along.


Your note, Dan, made me think back to that "feeder system" where MKL sems went to local diocesan minor seminaries in Cincinnati, St. Louis, S.F. -- and even Buffalo, with MKL providing faculty. It was probably a better idea than to set up our own houses of training. Over time, I think it could have kept us closer to the diocesan guys than having our own separate system and could have better preserved the notion that MKL was the US bishops' foreign missionary wing.


Coulda, woulda, shoulda. It did not turn out that way. History marched on and the road was not taken at the turn of the 20th Century when the US was busy grabbing what was left of the Spanish empire and the Catholic University was being set up in DC -- first, not as a university but as a national seminary, then later as a university with a national seminary attached, as the Paulists and bishops of some smaller dioceses suggested but was resisted by archbishops with well established seminary systems in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc.


So following the trends of the times, Walsh and Price (the latter being part of the national seminary discussion following the Winchester Conference in 1904) ended up setting up their own independent system that, over time and successive generations of bishops, lost the sense of being that missionary arm of the American church. I know MKL is trying to rekindle these connections, but, unfortunately, history did move on. The national seminary was never set up. Maryknoll grew strong in the earlier days with support from the original generations of bishops. But times changed and we are where we are. I find all of this very interesting and helpful in understanding our own personal histories.


All the Best, Dan, in 2013. Pat



-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Maloney
To: Interchange-Maryknoll
Sent: Sat, Dec 29, 2012 11:05 pm
Subject: Re: [Interchange;1574] Digest for Interchange-Maryknoll@googlegroups.com - 2 Messages in 1 Topic


Here's a personal remembrance of Dave Sullivan from those "golden days of yesteryear" -- the early days in the seminary.


Dave (aka J. David) Sullivan, distinguished member of the class of 1960, had Hoosier credentials as a native of Indianapolis. So, when he entered the seminary as a Maryknoll recruit, he began his high school studies at St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. This was a quaint arrangement much like the one in St. Louis and Mountain View at the time. Unlike St. Louis and Mountain View, and even though the Maryknoll house was right there on the property of St. Greg's, the six or so Maryknoll students lived at the seminary 24/7. Also resident were diocesan candidates from other Ohio dioceses beside the local Cincinnati candidates. Thus, a future bishop of Cleveland as well as a future archbishop of Cincinnati, were members of the class. These personal connections became helpful in Dave's post ordination tours in the Maryknoll Development world in the Midwest, as Pat Murphy has pointed out.


After junior year of high school at St. Greg's, we moved on to the Venard for our senior year and fuller integration into the Maryknoll world. Going to the Venard from Indianapolis and Cincinnati meant being just that much further from home. Thus, it was that on the first "visiting Sunday" in October 1950 our mothers boarded trains and travelled a lot of miles for a few hours of visiting with their homesick sons. It was thus that Dave and I discovered that both of our fathers worked for the same railroad company, the New York Central System. As dependents of railroad employees, we enjoyed free travel on the New York Central and reduced priced tickets on other lines like the Delaware, Lackawana and Western between Buffalo and Scranton. The New York Central System was tailor-made for travel in those years to Maryknoll houses of training in Cincinnati, Scranton, Glen Ellyn, Bedford and Ossining. And, then, to boot, the pass was also good on the Hudson Division of the New York area commuter lines, which came in handy on those few and far between New York days. "All aboard!" Those were the days ....


Dan Maloney



Maloney & Associates
1516 Brummel Street
Evanston, Illinois 60202
(847) 864-0097
(312) 218-9447 (cell)



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John Donahue Dec 28 06:39PM -0600



Holly Brown at the Council Secretariat shared this obit of J. David
Sullivan ('60) who served in the Philippines. In Paradisum...


Tom McGuire Dec 28 07:43PM -0700


Thank you John. I appreciate knowing more about the career of a man who had a great influence in my life after ordination. Tom McGuire