USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 19
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Boston Council of Social Agencies .- It remained for the Boston Coun- cil of Social Agencies, which came into being in 1921, to bring about an exchange of experience and team play between the diverse agencies of the city. The Council of Social Agencies is both a federation of federations and an organiza- tion of separate societies. The Council is supported by assessments on mem- ber agencies, by some gifts, and by grants from the Permanent Charity Fund. It is important to note that the Council is a functional federation. It has nothing to do with the financing of local agencies.
Finance .- The raising of money! It is always a problem. There are several funds the interest on which assists in balancing the budgets of certain of the societies, but the sums so distributed form but a small part of the totals required. Some two hundred and thirty cities in the United States have adopted what are called financial federations, whereby methods of joint financing on the part of agencies are adopted. In 1922 the question of a "community chest" for Boston was brought to the front and a committee was appointed by the Boston Chamber of Commerce to study the matter. During 1923-24 and 1924-25 figures were assembled and several meetings held with representatives of the agencies of the city. In 1925 the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce reported in favor of joint financing but the majority of the agencies declined to accept the recommendations. Therefore, Boston has no "chest." Loyal to particular philanthropies in the past, the present-day citizen has registered his preference for going directly to the organizations which he has chosen to sponsor.
No attempt is made here to list in full the trust funds which have been left to be expended by private trustecs or have been given for specific purposes to the agencies of the city. It is important, however, to make a statement in regard to two funds - the Permanent Charity Fund and the Twentieth Century Fund.
Permanent Charity Fund .- The Permanent Charity Fund was estab- lished in 1915 by the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. The Trust Company acts as trustee of the fund. The entire net income of the fund is paid to the "Committee of the Permanent Charity Fund, Incorporated" for distribution among such charitable objects and purposes as the Committee believes to be most deserving of assistance. This Committee is composed of seven citizens of Massachusetts familiar with charitable needs. No holder
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
or seeker of political office can be a member, and no person is eligible whose religion is the same as that of two other members. The appointments for terms of five years are made as follows:
One by the Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts.
One by the First Judge of Probate of Suffolk County.
One by the Chief Justice of the Municipal Court of the City of Boston.
One by the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth.
Three by the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company.
This fund was brought into being on the assumption that many persons desire to make gifts to charity or to leave money in trust for charitable purposes, but are in doubt as to the proper means of doing so effectively. Furthermore, it is usually impossible for them to foresee the charitable needs of the future. The advantages of the plan are: Flexible application of the income, safety and stability of the principal and the ability to gather up bequests and donations of all sizes and translate them into practical assistance to the community.
On June 30, 1929, the total of the Permanent Charity Fund was $4,827,104.80. From the interest of this fund one hundred and fifteen organizations received appropriations. During its twelve years of existence $2,454,028.37 has been disbursed.
The Twentieth Century Fund, Inc., was established by Edward A. Filene of Boston in 1919. The purpose of the fund is stated is follows: "The improve- ment of economic, industrial, civic and educational conditions. It shall be within the purposes of such corporation to use any means to such ends as may from time to time seem expedient to its members or trustees, including study, investigation, research, publication, publicity, instruction, the organization of charitable or educational activities, agencies and institutions and the aid of any such activities, agencies and institutions already established." It has been the general practice to contribute chiefly to organizations in the economic field. The fund has been concerned with the charitable and educational fields only when they happen to be allied with such projects. It is not the purpose of the trustees to use the fund money for the alleviation of poverty, but to help bring about such economic conditions as will tend ultimately to eliminate poverty. A policy of prevention rather than cure.
BOSTON AS AFFECTED BY STATE LAW
Although Boston is independent of the state in many of her lines of effort, she nevertheless receives untold benefits as the result of state law and the functioning of state departments. Of nothing can our citizens be more proud than of those statutes which have placed Massachusetts in the forefront among the states of the Union in social legislation.
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SOCIAL WELFARE
Massachusetts has led all the states of the Union in the following achieve- ments since 1880:
1880. First State to have statutory probation for criminal offenders.
1886. First State to require reports of industrial accidents.
1886. First State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration.
1890. First State forbidding night work in factories by women.
1890. First State Library Commission.
1898. First State Tuberculosis Hospital.
1906. First State to require medical inspection of school children.
1907. First State to have Savings Bank Life Insurance.
1907. First State Hospital for Crippled Children.
1912. First State to have a Minimum Wage Law.
1913. First State Clinics for Mental Hygiene.
1924. First State Clinics for Detection of Tuberculosis in School Children.
1926. First State Cancer Clinics.
1926. First State Cancer Hospital.
This record proves that we are still forging ahead as did the founders of the Colony when in 1647 they passed the first compulsory school law.
THE FUTURE
In 1980 what will be the story? One can predict an even more beautiful city with city planning come to its own. What the results of the immigration restriction acts will be, only time can tell. Already much of the picturesque quality of the foreign-born colonies has lessened, but overcrowding in tenement areas is not what it was in 1914. As the result of our Americanization efforts, there is hope of an ultimate American type which shall amalgamate the genius of the peoples from many lands. The great national experiment of Prohibi- tion - will it succeed? Will temperance be brought about by force of law? That is a question for future years to solve. Much still remains to be done to decrease crime and to rehabilitate the criminal, but we are on our way. Can America conquer unemployment? There is encouragement in the fact that, as never before, science is applying itself to the problem.
As a kind of guarantce for the eventual fulfillment of a social progranı, more thought is now given to the qualitative values of life. In housing we are demanding action. In education we are demanding the development of inde- pendent personal power. There is a striving to make more universally available the refinements of art, music, the drama, the best in literature. The old idea of master and man is giving way to thoughts of co-partnership in industry. Our credit unions, co-operative banks, life insurance plans are training the average man to an appreciation of money valucs. Moreover, difficult as have been the years since the World War, years during which every institution has been challenged, we are emerging to a saner outlook, shorn of some of the hypocrisy of the past - therefore better able to build forward. The next ycars will not be easy. It is harder to work for qualitative results and real democracy than for conditions of health and decent physical living, but with the gains of the last fifty years as a foundation the next period is full of promise.
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CHAPTER VIII RELIGION
PART I - THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN BOSTON, 1880=1930 By the Reverend EDWARD J. CAMPBELL
One hundred years ago the Catholic Church in Boston and New England was so small as to be almost insignificant. One bishop and three priests minis- tered to a scant congregation of three thousand Catholics, scattered along the New England seaboard from Damariscotta to New Bedford. This year, 1930, when Boston is celebrating the Tercentenary of its founding, sees the Catholic Church, in what was but a portion of the Diocese of Boston a century ago, presided over by a Cardinal Archbishop, ministering with more than a thousand priests to over a million people in almost four hundred churches.
This remarkable growth and development of the Catholic Church in this community in such a comparatively brief space of time is a phenomenon per- haps unique and unprecedented in the history of modern religion. To those who trust to merely human wisdom in explaining the prodigies of history this dramatic emergence of the Catholic Church from early obscurity to its present status must forever remain inexplicable, but to us of the Catholic faith, who rely upon the promises of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is but another example of the mustard seed development prophesied of His Church by Her Divine Founder nineteen centuries ago.
The last volume of Winsor's Memorial History traced the history of the Catholic Church in Boston from the beginning up to 1880, and showed how the tiny mustard seed was planted and nourished and became a mighty tree through the episcopates of the gentle Cheverus, the sturdy Fenwick, the learned Fitzpatrick, and the wise and saintly Williams. The present volume takes up the story of the last fifty years and will endeavor to show how the mighty tree achieved ripe maturity and full fruition in an era of unprecedented progress and prosperity under the leadership of Boston's first Cardinal Archbishop.
In 1875 Boston was made an archiepiscopal see and Bishop Williams was appointed its first archbishop with the dioceses of Springfield, Hartford, Provi- dence, Burlington and Portland as its suffragan sees.
The Church in Boston entered upon a new era of expansion. Missions and parish churches were erected with astonishing rapidity. More religious orders were introduced into the diocese,- the Redemptorists, the Oblates, the Italian Franciscans and the Marists; the Xaverian Brothers, the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, of St. Anne, of St. Joseph, of St. Francis, of St. Dominic, the Grey Nuns, the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the Sisters of Notre Dame and the Montreal Brothers of Charity.
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As Ireland had sent thousands of its children to America during the years of famine, now Canada gave to the United States many of its children, who ventured to seek in the new country opportunities unavailable in their own land. This migration attained large proportions and was responsible for the large settlements of French Catholics who sought and secured employment in the inills and factories of the northern and central parts of New England.
The normal growth of the Catholic native population obtained steady increment from this migration. In 1875 there were 800,000 Catholics, six bishops and 450 priests in New England.
Some years later the American Protective Association fomented the mis- understanding between Catholics and their fellow citizens. The members of this organization projected into the deliberation and administration of local affairs the century-old vilification of Rome and the Holy Father. Not even at this late date could the Catholic citizen feel that he shared the rights of his country upon a parity with his non-Catholic fellow citizen.
In dignified and commanding language, Archbishop Williams expressed the feelings of the Catholics of Boston as they witnessed the periodic reper- cussions of the Puritan will to extirpate Catholicity in New England. On the silver jubilee of his episcopacy Archbishop Williams said:
"The gentleman who spoke alluded to the times that have passed over us, unpleasant times, not those of olden years before my time of episcopacy. I allude especially to those of the last years, when so much was done to irritate the Catholics of Boston, so much was done to make them revolt against all their principles and not turn the left cheek when the right was struck, yet they remained firm, and tonight here in this grand assemblage on this day of the anniversary, I am glad to say publicly that I am proud of the Catholics of Boston for the last two years. It is not the accusations that were made against us, not the revilings even, not even the insults that I find fault with, but the attacks which were made on the virtue of our ladies in religious societies.
"The revilers attacked the clergy, but to that we were less sensitive, because we are men. But when they attacked women who had devoted their lives to virginity, spouses of Christ, and kept up the attack: when placards were placed on our walls and not torn down by the authorities of the city - then it was almost time to resent the injuries. And yet you remained quiet. For this I give you credit, and for this I am proud today. It was a time, indeed, for everyone to mutter and gnash his teeth as he went through the streets. . We know. that if one-tenth of what had been said and done against us had been said and done by us against any sect in the city or country, it would not be twenty-four hours before there would be bloodshed."
The inevitable result of persecution for the Church in Boston was similar to the effect of persecution in other lands. The Church under the grace of God not only survived, but emerged from the persecution stronger
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than cver. The incessant attacks of the enemies of the Church acted as a boomerang by revcaling the true nature of the Church to representative non- Catholics. As the Church shone forth in the full resplendence of her divine mission and her Christian teachings, the encinics of the Church raged, but still the Church thrived. They might revile her doctrines, denounce her principles and persecute her members, but still her influence grew.
In 1891 the material growth of the Church in Boston was thus summarized by Bishop Healy of Portland:
"Twenty-five years ago, and the Diocese of Boston of which you, Archbishop Williams, became the head, presented 109 churches, 119 pricsts, two colleges, two orphan asylums, two hospitals, three acade- mics with 207 pupils, 5,400 pupils in 11 parochial schools, and a small temporary church as a procathedral. On this twenty-fifth anni- versary, omitting the great diocese of Springfield, with its 162 priests, 107 churches, and the 50 churches and 53 priests of the Providence Diocese, which are found in what was then the Diocese of Boston, we count 161 churches and such churches as no other diocese in America can show,- cathedrals elsewhere can scarcely equal them,- 352 priests, 97 students for the priesthood. Academies, schools, convents have so increased in number that we count of academies 16, of con- vents 46, parochial schools with nearly 30,000 pupils, 1,000 teachers, 10 asylums and seven hospitals."
The Church in Boston entered upon an cra when societies were assuming importance for the social and fraternal advancement of the Catholic citizen. These societics sought to promote a higher spiritual activity among their mem- bers. Through the guidance and instructive advice of Archbishop Williams the following socictics were organized: The Catholic Union, the Catholic Alumni Sodality, the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and St. Jean Baptiste Association.
Under the grace of God, Archbishop Williams presided over the Catholic Church in Boston for a longer span of years than any of his episcopal predeces- sors. When death came to him in August, 1907, Archbishop Williams had completed more than sixty years in the pricsthood and forty years in the episco- pacy. Through troubled times he passed, yet from every vexatious difficulty he emerged nobler and more beloved than before. Calm in the knowledge that the Church would grow, whatever the obstacles placed in her way, he bided his time and by stimulating the spiritual forces of the people of the diocese he preserved public peace when less restrained administration might have incited bloodshed. He contented himself with the assurance that once the spiritual powers of the faithful were quickcned the material structures for their services would come inevitably. His foresight was justified by the gradual recession of the obsolescent Puritan exclusivencss. Through all his life he stood crect and he walked straight. He became all things to all men that he might serve Christ.
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Jurisdiction over the Archdiocese of Boston passed into the capable hands of Archbishop O'Connell immediately upon the death of Archbishop Williams. The youngest possessor of the exalted dignity of the archiepiscopate, Arch- bishop O'Connell by his native ability and his vast experience at Rome, in Japan and at Portland was qualified admirably to bring to a glorious close the first hundred years in the history of Catholic Boston.
Marked mutations had been inade in the policies followed by the succes- sive incumbents of the episcopal chair in Boston. These changes in policy had been made possible by the changing conditions of the populace. Puritan monop- olization had given way to Catholic representation in the affairs of local govern- ment. Proscriptive laws had been rescinded. The indefatigable zeal and prudence of Fenwick, Fitzpatrick and Williams resulted in the dawn of more propitious days. Their patience under outrage had been rewarded. Their perseverance in developing and strengthening the Church had merited and gained the firm entrenchment of the Church in Boston. It remained for Archbishop O'Connell to consolidate the advantages that had been gained and to lead the faithful people of Boston to the full enjoyment of religious liberties.
Catholic education immediately engaged the limitless activity of Arch- bishop O'Connell. The diocese had instituted its system of parochial schools. Many parishes had establishments of the highest educational standing. Higher education was in need of encouragement and development, and higher Catholic education in Boston received the required stimulation from the Archbishop.
Boston College had opened its doors to Catholic young men some years earlier. Its original hopes had been more than fulfilled. A rapid increase in enrollment made the original buildings inadequate. Larger quarters were required. From Archbishop O'Connell Rev. Thomas I. Gasson, S. J., the President of Boston College, received every aid and encouragement. A charm- ing site was selected on the outskirts of Boston, in Newton. A new Boston College was in the making. Work was begun on the construction of the first of the group of beautiful buildings now overlooking the twin reservoirs. Plans were adopted to provide for the higher educational needs of the young men of Boston not alone for the immediate present but for many years to come.
The Diocesan Seminary likewise benefited by the executive acumen and the thoroughness of its Archbishop. Since eighteen hundred and eighty-four, the diocese had rejoiced in its Seminary, through whose instrumentality priests of the archdiocese had been trained for their sacred work. A long hiatus had occurred during each seminary year. The summer months proved an unwel- come interruption in the process of training by which characters were developed and vocations fostered. Any adjustment of this situation called for the expendi- ture of additional finances at a time when timidity might have counseled the conservation of resources. With no hesitancy where the training of priests for the diocese was concerned, Archbishop O'Connell instituted the Seminary Villa, through which the seminarians were enabled to dedicate themselves to ecclesiastical studies during all the months of the year. The Villa at Brighton approximated the success of the Villa at Rome, as supervised by Archbishop O'Connell during his rectorship of the North American College. Little inter-
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ruption marked the progress of seminarians in their ecclesiastical studies. The policy of maintaining a villa for the seminarians was prolific in good results.
Later years have seen the villa system conducted on a more expansive scale. The Villa at Brighton has given way to the Villa in New Hampshire. Situated on the northern shore of Lake Winnepesaukee, the present Villa is located on a sixty-acre estate and holds seventeen buildings suitably arranged to house the present-day seminarians, who spend there a substantial part of each summer.
The charitable institutions of the diocese also benefited through the intro- duction of the principle of co-ordination. For years separate establishments had been functioning to relieve the needy and the afflicted. The charitable resources of the diocese had not been dispensed with an efficiency desirable amid conditions where constant demands were draining the means at the disposal of the separate institutions. Noble projects for humanitarian service fell short of the expectations of their original promoters because of unregulated and ineffi- cient methods. Before sensible improvement in the status of the charitable institutions could be attained, organization and co-ordination must find place in the management.
A great step forward was taken in the administration of charity when Archbishop O'Connell appointed a Diocesan Director of Charities, and initiated an orderly and sound process of charitable ministration. One by one the con- ditions peculiar to each charitable institution were analyzed. Resultant efficiency displaced irregularity. Co-ordination supplanted sporadic and independent effort. The diocesan institutions began to function with a new and impressive efficiency .
A transformation had been effected in the appearance of the diocesan institutions during 1907, the first year of Boston under Archbishop O'Connell. The beginning of the year 1908 provided an occasion for Catholic Boston to turn in retrospection upon the past century and review the stupendous changes through which the diocese had passed in one hundred years.
The announcement of the centenary year was made in all parishes on the twenty-third of September, in the following letter of Archbishop O'Connell:
"The year of Our Lord 1908 is a year of special significance to this diocese and to the whole metropolitan province of Boston, for it marks the centenary of its foundation. In April, 1808, New England was detached from the primatial see of North America and Boston was raised to the dignity and distinction of a separate episcopal see, suffragan still to the mother see of Baltimore, but having its own center of jurisdiction and authority in this our well-beloved city.
"From that day the history of its progress is a story so replete with special blessings from the hand of God that today it is hard to realize that in one hundred years the missionary district with its four priests, its two churches and its population of one thousand, which hailed with joy two years later their first bishop, has grown by leaps and bounds into a province, the territory of which remains the same as that of the first see, but with seven bishops, over eleven hundred churches and
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more than two million people, and itself a metropolitan see among the largest and the most important in the world.
"How little the exiled French missionary, Chevcrus, treading the narrow lanes of the little seaport town called Boston, dreamed that within a century the center of his labors would grow to be the seat of an archbishop, with a population, the majority of which is Catholic, and the dignity and importance of which ecclesiastically would far outrank the great sec of Bordeaux, where he ended his days as a prince of the Church. No romance could be more fascinating than Boston's Catholic history, no story more filled with incidents fraught with deepest interest."
The structural growth of the Church in Boston between 1808 and 1908 is an index to the numerical growth of the Catholics. Churches were constructed because congregations wished a structure in which to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Boston in 1808 had been Puritan. Boston in 1908 was largely Catholic. In 1808 the territory now comprising the Archdiocese of Boston was served by a few priests and had but one church. One hundred years later it rejoiced in an archbishop, a bishop, about six hundred and thirty priests and two hundred and sixty churches.
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