So - another edition of the newsletter, Initiatives, showed up yesterday. And so did a second mailer, this one a fundraising solicitation (can one land on a mailing list without them?) Perhaps the National Center will be pleased to learn that I got past the first milestone: I opened the envelope. And was surprised to encounter a familiar name - in fact, one we all know. I post herewith a photo of the letter. Tell me if it jumps off the page for you as it did for me.
Well, Teresa Mambu Rasch didn't ring any bells for me. But one name on the advisors list certainly did!
ReplyDeleteNational Center for the Laity has been around for decades. Bill Droel was the chair for many years. It grew out of the very active lay movements in Chicago...Catholic Council on Working Life, YCS, YCW, CFM, CISCA, etc. Many of them were part of Interracial efforts of mid-century. There is a review of a book about them on dotCWL (does not mention the NCL, which I think emerged in the late 60s [could be off on that]). Tom Blackburn may know more.
ReplyDeleteThe review [full disclosure: I am the reviewer].
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/minorities-within-minorities
OMG!! I see I am an advisor! Small world, indeed.
DeleteThat's funny!
DeleteI learned a lot from your review, so I doubt think I know more. When Deacon Jim mentioned it, I thought the NCL might be the remains of the National Association of Laymen (later Laity), the first two conventions of which I covered. Lots of really nice people. Michael Novak keynoted the first convention in Minneapolis. As I recall, he ran through a long list of short-lived and quickly suppressed lay associations before finding some grounds for hope.
DeleteBut, all y'all, when Margaret was growing up Chicago was where the Catholic action was (as shown by the list of initialed organizations she mentions).
I think that the National Association of Laymen was a Michael Novak and William Simon operation. The National Center for the Laity and its predecessor initials would never have held a meeting outside of Chicago. Why would they? Minneapolis? Never.
DeleteTom: Amazon tells me that a copy of the meeting and text edited by Matt Ahmann is on the way. I'm looking forward to what they talked about back then.
DeleteMargaret: No, Novak & Simon (the Burke and Bannon of their day?) did gin up something later, but the NAL was an association of groups that had spontaneously arisen in Minneapolis, Cleveland, New York (they were the "conservatives" at the first convention) and some other places. There was a young woman named Weber from Milwaukee at the first convention. Couldn't be the Weber on the Advisors list with you, could she?
DeleteAn engineer from Minneapolis named Dennis (last name eludes me) was the first president, and one (or both) of the Caldwells from Shaker Heights was the second. Mayor Carl Stokes, first African-American elected mayor of a major city, spoke at the second convention in Cleveland, theme: Let the Son (sic) Shine In. The first time a bar tender ever bought me a drink was across the street from my hotel there. (I had had dinner, and just as I hit the door a downpour came crashing around us, so I went back in and had a beer. He waved off payment because of the circumstances. Nice guy. I like Cleveland. Stokes was good, too.
Don't know Weber. Know the two McGarveys (siblings); Kathleen was a CWL intern when I was editor and she was a law student at Columbia. Bill is everywhere in NYC...multi-careered...singer, writer, schmoozer (NYC specialty) though he is from Philadelphia. Met the McGarvey parents once...lovely people...
DeleteIncluded in the alphabet soup that Margaret listed is CFM. Assuming that is Christian Family Movement, it's still pretty big around here - in fact, a couple of nearby parishes claim to be among the largest parishes in the country for CFM. We have it at our parish, too, and although I think it's not as big as it was 20 years ago, it seems to still be doing well. But I am not sure in what sense it is a movement these days - it's more of a faith-sharing group, from what I can tell looking in from the outside.
DeleteCFM was the second great thing that happened to us.
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