February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Given the strength of anti-Catholic sentiment still prevalent in the United States, it was an extraordinary moment for Irish America. Within a few months Coughlin would become one of the most widely known and influential voices in the Depression-ravaged nation. His weekly broadcasts on the economy and social policy would play a key role in popularizing the idea that only radical policies could overcome the economic crisis — a sentiment that paved the way for the New Deal a few years later. Unfortunately, Fr. Coughlin had a dark side that would later emerge and overshadow these earlier, impressive years.
Charles E. Coughlin was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1891, the descendant of immigrants from County Cork. His father worked on the boats and waterfronts of Lake Ontario but earned enough to ensure his only child a solid education. Coughlin entered the seminary and was ordained in 1916. His first joined the faculty at Assumption College in Sandwich, Ontario, where he taught English, Greek, and history.
In 1923, he requested a transfer to regular parish duty and was sent to nearby Detroit. After three years of itinerant parish work, he was chosen to organize a new parish, the Shrine of the Little Flower (named for the recently canonized St. Therese), in Royal Oak, a suburb near Detroit. The parish consisted of just 32 families and it struggled to remain financially solvent. Worse, it faced bitter denunciation from evangelical Protestants and the local chapter of the KKK burned a cross in front of the church.
The resourceful Coughlin decided to turn his troubles to his advantage. He arranged to have a Detroit radio station broadcast a speech in which he related his struggle against bankruptcy and bigotry. It aired in Sunday, Oct. 17, 1926 over station WJR. Speaking from the altar of his humble church, the 34-year-old Coughlin delivered a rousing address denouncing religious hatred and the KKK. Possessing a powerful baritone voice and years of experience as a public speaker, he proved an instant hit. When letters of praise poured in from all over Michigan, WJR gave Coughlin a regular Sunday time slot, making him the first “radio priest.”
Coughlin’s weekly addresses became more popular every week. In January 1927 he conducted the first-ever mission and novena on the air and mail poured in from two-dozen states. Coughlin quickly organized these followers into his Radio League of the Little Flower. Their $1 dollar per year contributions to help keep Coughlin’s parish solvent and defray the cost of his broadcasts brought in $500,000 by 1929, allowing Coughlin to built a massive Shrine of the Little Flower, replete with his own radio broadcast studio.
Then came the Great Depression. By 1930 a quarter of the nation’s workforce was unemployed and thousands of businesses and banks in tatters. While the nation’s political leaders struggled to comprehend the magnitude and meaning of the crisis, Coughlin strode into the national spotlight. He switched from speaking on purely religious topics to addressing social issues and became a fiery populist orator unafraid to denounce those whom he deemed responsible for the economic turmoil: greedy bankers, heartless industrialists, and cowardly politicians.
Although Coughlin in these early years enjoyed wide appeal among Protestant and Jewish Americans, the foundation of his following was Irish Catholic. In the decades leading up to the Great Depression, millions of Irish Catholics had climbed steadily up the socioeconomic ladder into the middle class. Because this status was so recently won, they were among the hardest hit in the wake of the Crash of 1929.
Coughlin’s stock among Irish Americans rose even further with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Coughlin’s vague pronouncements about government programs to boost employment and a major reform of the banking system seemed prophetic when FDR rolled out the New Deal agenda. But FDR was wary of the fiery priest and though he met with him on several occasions, kept him at arm’s length. Coughlin in turn enjoyed his role as populist too much to throw his unconditional support to FDR and the New Deal. Indeed, by 1935-36 he became increasingly critical of the president’s reform agenda and eventually formed his own third party, the Union Party to challenge FDR in 1936.
By this time Coughlin had begun to express growing admiration for fascist governments of Hitler and Mussolini and a not-so-subtle anti-Semitism in his incessant denunciation of “international bankers.” He also faced greater scrutiny at home due to the arrival of a new archbishop who was not pleased with his high-profile forays into politics. In 1938, as Hitler’s anti-Semitism became more overt, so too did Coughlin’s. In addition to uttering more explicit anti-Jewish statements, Coughlin encouraged the formation of paramilitary organizations under the name Christian Front. Many chapters, especially those in the New York area, engaged in anti-Jewish campaigns such as boycotting Jewish-owned businesses.
The outbreak of World War II, coupled with Coughlin’s rapidly shrinking audience, led to the demise of his radio program in 1940. Two years later, his newspaper “Social Justice” ceased publication and Fr. Coughlin retreated into permanent obscurity. He retired in 1966 and died in 1979.
HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
Oct. 5, 1968: In one of the first major clashes of “The Troubles,” a march by 500 members of The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in Derry is attacked by the RUC.
Oct. 6, 1891: Home Rule leader Charles Stewart Parnell dies.
Oct. 8, 1904: George M. Cohan’s musical “Little Johnny Jones” opens in Hartford, CT. It becomes an instant success with the hit song “Give My Regards to Broadway.”
HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
Oct. 4: 1889: Olympic rowing champion and father of Grace Kelly, John B. Kelly, born in Philadelphia.
Oct. 5, 1923: Militant priest Philip Berrigan born in Virginia, Minn.
Oct. 7, 1935: Author Thomas Keneally born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.