The Bread of the Strong: Lacouturisme and the Folly of the Cross, 1910-1985

279 Pages·2015·39.95 MB·English

by  Jack Downey

The Bread of the Strong
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catholic practice in north america
series co- editors:
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Associate Director of the Francis and Ann
Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, Fordham
University
John C. Seitz, Assistant Professor, Theology Department,
Fordham University
This series aims to contribute to the growing fi eld of Catholic
studies through the publication of books devoted to the historical
and cultural study of Catholic practice in North America, from
the colonial period to the present. As the term “practice” suggests,
the series springs from a pressing need in the study of American
Catholicism for empirical investigations and creative explorations
and analyses of the contours of Catholic experience. In seeking to
provide more comprehensive maps of Catholic practice, this series
is committed to publishing works from diverse American locales,
including urban, suburban, and rural settings; ethnic, post- ethnic,
and transnational contexts; private and public sites; and seats of
power as well as the margins.
series advisory board:
Emma Anderson, University of Ottawa
Paul Contino, Pepperdine University
Kathleen Sprows Cummings, University of Notre Dame
James T. Fisher, Fordham University
Paul Mariani, Boston College
Thomas A. Tweed, University of Texas at Austin
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The Bread
of the Strong
lacouturisme and the folly
of the cross,
1910–1985
Jack Lee Downey
fordham university press
New York 2015
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Copyright © 2015 Fordham University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Downey, Jack Lee.
The bread of the strong : Lacouturisme and the folly of the Cross,
1910–1985 / Jack Lee Downey. — First edition.
pages cm — (Catholic practice in North Ame rica)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8232-6543-5 (hardback)
1. Pacifi sm— Religious aspects— Catholic Church— History—20th
century. 2. Catholic Worker Movement. 3. Day, Dorothy,
1897–1980. 4. Catholic Church— United States— History—20th
century. 5. United States— Church history—20th century.
6. Lacouture, Onésime, 1881–1951— Infl uence. 7. Hugo, John,
1911–1985— Infl uence. 8. Catholic Church— Québec (Province)—
History—20th century. I. Title.
BX1407.P24D69 2015
267'.182— dc23
2015002944
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
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for Mom & Dad
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Contents
Ac know ledg ments ix
Introduction: Conversion and Catholic Pacifi sm 1
1 Canadien Identity, Nationalism, and Muscular Catholicism 20
2 Onésime Lacouture and Conversion in the White Desert 53
3 Onésime Lacouture and the “Return to the Gospel” 80
4 Mackerel Snappers in the US Industrial Era 117
5 John Hugo and the Retreat’s Southward Migration 139
6 Dorothy Day, Anti- triumphalism, and a Personalist Approach
to Voluntary Poverty 169
Epilogue: To Affl ict the Comfortable and Comfort the Affl icted:
Catholic Worker Pacifi sm as a Form- of- Life 201
Notes 211
Bibliography 247
Index 263
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Acknowledgments
Whenever I think about questions of method and scholarship—w hich,
honestly, is not incredibly often— I am reminded of a paraphrase of the
great American Catholic historian John Tracy Ellis that Tom Shelley,
another great American Catholic historian, recounted during a graduate
seminar some years back: “You can’t be a good historian unless you like
reading dead people’s mail.” I have been very lucky to have a constellation
of resources and support align to allow me the space to do the archival
research and analysis that formed the backbone of this project, and which
has brought me great joy, along with no small amount of anxiety, during
the past few years. And I am happy to have the opportunity to (briefl y)
express my gratitude.
Pride of place easily goes to my parents, whom I love very dearly. Of
all the undeserved privileges I have experienced by virtue of having been
born their child, I think the greatest has been a kind of presumption of
ge ne tic moral integrity by those who know them— that I would be good
because they are good. And although I have done my best to obliterate this
preconception over the years, I have received the benefi t of the doubt
many more times than I have earned.
I have been very lucky to have basked in the glow of some brilliant and
kind souls. To all my teachers, thank you. I am most profoundly grateful
to Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo for caring for me and personifying compas-
sionate wisdom. My mentor James T. Fisher has been a wonderful guide
and friend— along with the rest of his clan, Kristina Chew and Charlie. I
am very grateful to Robert Orsi for having played matchmaker between
me and Jim and for being another great teacher. Along with Jim, Mark
Massa, SJ, and the incomparable Maria Terzulli gave me a welcoming
home at Fordham University’s Curran Center for American Catholic
Studies. There is a litany of people who made my experience at Fordham
remarkable, but in a par tic u lar way Reg Kim, Mara Brecht, Catherine
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x acknowledgments
Osborne, Jim Keane, Catherine Petrany, and Kyle Haden, OFM, have been
precious conversation partners and friends who kept me more or less
afl oat.
Tom Banchoff and Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Reli-
gion, Peace, and World Aff airs were very hospitable in supporting my
research on the tail end and allowing me to tag along with some of their
tremendous work. My current colleagues at La Salle University have been
outrageously generous, fun, and inspiring. Margaret McGuinness, Anthony
Paul Smith, Jordan Copeland, Julie Regan, and Maureen O’Connell—
and the entire rest of our department . . . I couldn’t ask for better friends
to work with. And considering that the ac know ledg ments section is an
exercise in sentimentality, I should say that I am deeply appreciative of
all of the students I have gotten to learn with, who have made my life bet-
ter, even when they are making fun of me directly to my face.
Much thanks to Angela Alaimo O’Donnell and John Seitz, co- editors
of the Catholic Practice in North America series at Fordham University
Press, under the auspices of which the present work is being published,
as well as to Fred Nachbaur, Will Cerbone, and everyone at Fordham
University Press. I owe a special debt of gratitude that may be impossible
to pay to the two anonymous reviewers of my original manuscript, whose
comments and suggestions have been invaluable in the pro cess of form-
ing this book.
I have been blessed with a life- giving activist community, especially
my Ruckus Society family (but also plenty of others) who challenge, com-
fort, provoke, and inspire. Jack Hill has helped me try to keep it together
for almost my entire life, and he has gotten help from many other dear
ones, like Stuart DeVan, Sarah Dunagan, Adam Blasavage, Rose Hodwitz,
Robby Diesu, Hayfa Abichahine, and John Watterberg. There are scores
of others who deserve better than to be glossed over like this but, you
know, sorry: I appreciate you more than my word count allows me to
express. Finally, my everlasting thanks to Omi Hodwitz for keeping me
from wasting away throughout this project and introducing me to the
zany animal kingdom of cat, python, and fi sh cohabitation, interspersed
with visits from bunnies, possums, raccoons, all manner of birds, and the
occasional fox.
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