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This project started in 1992. Originally, its purpose was to learn more about the history of the Catholic Religious Emblems program. Naively I thought that others would have already published some
material on the history of Catholic youth in the USA, if not on Catholic Scouting. To my dismay, I found that there was a complete absence of research in these areas, as well as US Scouting in general.
Since my initial research into the religious emblems program was also turning up material of a larger scope, I decided to expand my research goals. However, other matters intervened that would set the project aside.
Before the birth of my son in February 2002, I'd decided to return to the project. Parenthood had other plans. However, I prevailed and sat down to write. I had a filing cabinet full of material and
a bookcase full of books, so I thought I was prepared. But as soon as I turned my attention to a prominent figure in Catholic Scouting's past, I ran into problems.
With the exception of only a couple
of individuals, written biographies, or even autobiographies are rare. With this individual there is no published account of his life where I could turn. Fortunately, there were numerous articles in the New York Times, but that is where I stumbled.
I knew this person had some serious allegations lodged against him; alleging that he worked for the German government during both World Wars. However, in my initial research phase, I had assumed
that these were unfounded allegations. When I began to compose my thoughts, I realized that I did not have enough evidence on hand to dismiss the allegations.
In September 2003 I started a more
in-depth research of this individual. This entailed requesting his file from the FBI, contacting historians who specialize in German-American history, reading books on the German-American Bund, German espionage, Hitler,
reviewing civil and criminal case files, and trying to recall my college German to read dissertations on Nazism. It's August 2004 and I'm awaiting material from my last FOIA request to the US Justice Department. I hope to
be able to finish this chapter by October.
In the meantime, I decided to add a chapter on European Catholic Scouting, at least through the Second World War. I made this decision for two reasons. One,
from my research I felt that the hardships encountered by European Scouting would provide a balance with the problems faced by Catholic Scouting in the US. Reading about Scouts/Scouters being sent to concentration camps,
simply for wearing a scout uniform, if they were not executed, makes whatever problems encountered by Catholic Scouting in the US seem trivial.
The second reason is that in reading issues of the New York Times,
the front page headline of the Pope banning Catholic Scouting in Italy came to me as a surprise. Why did the Pope disband Scouting? Why did not the Romanist bishops in the US not ban Catholics in their dioceses from
joining Scouting? This seemed like a good enough reason to explore this issue.
While I am awaiting some additional material to arrive from some university archives, I'm tackling a chapter on Bishop
Sheil and the Chicago CYO, as both were intimately involved with Catholic Scouting in the 1920's. After that is finished, I will turn to Bishop Kelley.
I'll update this page when I start another section. I hope to have the book completed by next year.
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January 2005
I've finished the chapter on Chicago (Sheil & Campbell). I'm almost finished with the chapter on European Catholic Scouting. I talked with the DOJ regarding my July '04 FOIA request. Seems they
requested a file from "another section" in October. They were still waiting for it to arrive and suggested that I contact them every couple of weeks to check on their progress. Unfortunately, while they are required by
law to fulfill a FOIA request within a maximum of 30 days, my only recourse to accelerate the process in going before a federal judge. Needless to say, I don't have any plans to do so, unless they refuse to release
the 60-year-old files for reasons of "national security."
In the meantime, I am literally exhausting any potential sources of information regarding this individual.
I've found a couple of German-language dissertations on the subject and have been able to contact the authors to see if they had any suggestions.
I will be starting the chapter on Bishop Kelley and hope that I will receive the files from the DOJ in the next couple of months.
February 2005
Still waiting for the DOJ to get back to me. In the meantime, I sent another FOIA to the FBI on this individual. Hopefully I'll get both by the end of this month.
Due to various reasons, I was not able to write as much as I wanted last month. The chapter on
European Catholic Scouting is taking a little longer than expected, as I'm having to do some more research on Mussolini, Austria, and other areas not directly related to Scouting. It'is interesting, but time consuming.
I have finally come to the conclusion that I will not go beyond 1980 in my book. One goal I have always
had in this process has been to be as objective as possible in my writings. If you've read the books put out by BSA (Murray, Peterson, etc.) and others, they're discounted by serious historians for the obvious
positive spin given all events, and any negative events are not even mentioned.
My involvement with the NCCS started in 1980. From then on, I attended committee and board
meetings, and took part in many votes dealing with policy. Having played a leadership role in the revisions of
all the emblem programs in the 80's/90s -- not to mention the Light of Christ -- it would be difficult to switch from a third person narrative in the first 80-90% of the book to the first person. While I'll probably write
about this period in the future, I will not include it in this book.
As I was not there when Ridder and Barnabas went to Farley in 1912, or when the first Philmont
Conference got funding from the KC's in the 70's, I'm able to offer not only an objective, but more importantly, a balanced view of events.
My intention is not to simply regurgitate facts, date, names, places, etc. If you are interested in that, take
a look at the chronologies I put together. What I'm doing for the book is taking all of these "facts" and placing them in context. For example, saying the Catholic Church was opposed to BSA because of its
affiliation with the YMCA is fine. However, unless you know why the Catholic Church was so hostile to the YMCA, it will not make much sense to you. Or that Pius XI banned Catholic Scouting in Italy. That's a fact, but why?
I've also been forcing myself to offer conclusions, as I see it. Given the amount of material I have gone
through that the average reader has never read, or any intention to read, I think I am required to synthesize eavrything that I've read and offer my interpretation/conclusion. Actually, this has held up the book, as I've
yet to make up my mind on a couple of topics. So, I'm still reading and thinking.
The book will be heavily documented. Just about every chapter I've completed so far has over 100
footnotes. So if someone disagrees with an interpretation I make, they'll be able to read all the same material I read, so they can decide if the facts justify my conclusion.
Until next month . . . . YIS!
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