American Catholic History

Knute Rockne did more than anyone to put Notre Dame football in the map. He and his buddy Gus Dorais made the forward pass a major part of offensive schemes in 1913. He went on to be the head football coach at Notre Dame from 1918 through his tragic death in 1931. During that stretch he compiled a record of 105-12-5, with five perfect seasons and three national championships. He still holds the highest winning percentage of a major college coach. He was born in Norway in 1888. His father was a carriage maker who came to the United States in 1891 to show his innovations at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The rest of the family came over after the fair in 1893 when Knute was 5. He played football with friends, but only one season in high school, only getting into one game. He joined the team and played tight end at the University of Notre Dame when he enrolled there in 1910. While there, he and his buddy, Charlie "Gus" Dorais, who played quarterback, developed plays that featured the forward pass — which was only recently legal in organized football, but was hardly used by offenses. Their success with deep throws in their November 1, 1913 upset win over Army changed football forever. Rockne was born and raised Lutheran, but the witness of his players going to Mass, of their own volition,  and what he saw as the strength their faith brought them, brought him to become Catholic in 1925. One of those players was Clem Crowe, who was team captain in 1925, and who is a great grand-uncle to our co-host, Tom Crowe. The picture in our show art is of Rockne and Crowe standing together observing practice. Rockne died tragically in a plane crash in 1931.

Dorothy Day co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement and spent her life advocating for the poor and downtrodden. But her path didn't start in the Catholic Faith. Raised with no particular religion, she developed a deep sense that she needed to help the poor, workers, and the downtrodden early in life and took part in activism beginning in her late teens. She became a socialist and lived a bohemian lifestyle, living with a series of lovers. One prevailed upon her to have an abortion. Eventually she had a profound conversion experience and became Catholic after her daughter was born. A few years later, while writing for Commonweal, she met Peter Maurin, and they co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933. The Catholic Worker newspaper spread across the country and dozens of Catholic Worker houses opened. But her activism brought her into tension with the Catholic hierarchy often. She also spent time in Cuba where her coverage of the Castro revolution left many wondering. She was controversial, but she was a devout Catholic who truly worked to help the poor in the best ways she knew how. Her cause for canonization is open, making her a Servant of God.

 

One of the most controversial and complex Catholics of the 20th century, Dorothy Day went through a phase of atheism, she had an abortion, and a daughter, and she eventually found love in Christ and became a devout Catholic. With Peter Maurin she co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement and worked tirelessly for the disadvantaged.

Pilgrims have come to Holy Hill for centuries, seeking peace, solace, and miraculous cures. They have found all three. Nowadays the Basilica of Our Lady, Help of Christians rises above the trees high atop Holy Hill, offering the sacraments, but long before the Carmelites began their ministry on this site in the late 19th century, Jesuits sanctified the site and dedicated it to Our Lady. But the story of how the property came into the hands of the Church, and how it became a major place of pilgrimage, are also interesting.

George Herman "Babe" Ruth was born in Baltimore in 1895. He was one of eight children, but only he and one sister survived childhood. His parents both had to work, and his father kept a saloon. He had little supervision and grew up skipping school, hanging out in his dad's saloon, and generally getting into trouble. This was all before he was seven. At seven his parents accepted they could not rein him in, so they put him in St. Mary's Industrial School. There he was taught baseball and the Catholic faith by the Xaverian Brothers, especially Brother Matthias Boutlier. In 1913 the St. Mary's team played a travel ball game at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he was spotted by big leaguers. He signed to the minor league Baltimore Orioles in February 1914, but by July he had been picked up by the Boston Red Sox. With the Red Sox he established himself as one of the most dominant pitchers of the day, but in his seven years with the Red Sox he and the team realized he had even greater potential as a hitter, so they moved him to first base and then to the outfield so his bat could be in the lineup every day. He was sold to the Yankees in 1919 (yes, due to Broadway debts, but no, not for No, No Nanette). In New York he became The Babe of legend. To this day he holds or is in the top 15 of nearly every offensive category, as well as a number of pitching categories. He is widely regarded as the greatest baseball player ever.

But his off-field antics and lifestyle were nearly as notable as his on-field accomplishments. He got married in 1914. His wife, Helen, was also Catholic and she tried to help him live a good stable life. But he was incapable of controlling his appetites. He lived life hard and fast — women, booze, and partying were too tempting for him to resist. Helen died tragically in a fire in 1929, and Ruth married again in just three months — though he was no more faithful to his second wife, Claire. 

But Ruth never forgot what the Xaverian Brothers had done for him, nor what his Catholic faith meant. He gave generously to charity, organized barnstorming tours for charity, helped raise money to rebuild St. Mary's Industrial after it suffered a devastating fire, played sandlot baseball with neighborhood kids, and spent many hours signing every baseball, hat, and scorecard offered him, no matter what. 

He retired in 1935 which allowed him to spend even more time raising money for charity until throat cancer took his life in 1948. He died with the Sacraments, and with a Miraculous Medal — sent to him by a seventh grader who said the whole class was praying for him — pinned to his pajamas. 

The Babe lay in state in the rotunda of Yankee Stadium for two days before Francis Cardinal Spellman offered his requiem Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral. More than 100,000 stood in the rain to line the route to Gate of Heaven Cemetery.

George Washington relied on multiple Catholics during the Revolutionary War. One of the most important was his dear friend Lt. Col. John Fitzgerald , who served as an aide de camp in some of the most crucial moments of the war. During the winter in Valley Forge he helped to root out the Conway Cabal, which was an effort among some to discredit Washington and get him replaced as commander-in-chief. But Fitzgerald's relationship with Washington extended before and after the War for Independence. They had been friends for years before the War, when Washington was a planter at Mount Vernon and Fitzgerald was a merchant in Alexandria. It is likely that Fitzgerald met his wife through Washington. And after the war they worked together closely on many business and government matters. One of the most enduring is the Basilica of Mary in Old Town Alexandria, which was the first Catholic Church established in Virginia. The effort to build the first St. Mary's church began in Fitzgerald's home, at a St. Patrick's Day dinner, and the first donation was made by George Washington, who was in attendance. Fitzgerald died less than two weeks before his old friend and commander, George Washington, and he is buried on his wife's family's former estate, which is, fittingly, directly across the Potomac from Mount Vernon, where Washington's remains lie.