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The Pan-American Mass, 1909–1914: A Rejected Contribution to Thanksgiving Day

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

James F. Vivian
James F. Vivian
Affiliation:
professor of history inthe University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota.
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Extract

The Right Reverend Monsignor William T. Russell, pastor of Saint Patrick's Church in Washington, D.C., since 1908 and reputedly one of the finest preachers in the country, agreed to an unusual interview during the spring of 1912. Five other clergy, including a rabbi, likewise participated in separate sessions with the same Protestant minister. The resulting six semiautobiographical accounts appeared as a weekly series in Collier's magazine at midyear. Unlike the companion pieces, however, the article devoted to Msgr. Russell appeared at a particularly timely moment. On the one hand, the Pan-American Thanksgiving Day celebration, although just three years old, seemed well on the way toward becoming an annual observance that neither the president of the United States nor the Latin American diplomatic contingent could slight idly. Yet, on the other hand, the article heralded a major Protestant protest that would call the entire basis of the celebration into public and even political question. Upon assuming the presidency in 1913, an unsuspecting Woodrow Wilson would find himself inadvertently drawn into an interdenominational dispute over the special Catholic service. Embarrassed to the point of privately admitting a clumsy mistake, Wilson eventually yielded to the critics and finally withdrew his support from an implied experiment in the cultural extension of a famous holiday.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , September 1982 , pp. 321 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1982

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References

1. MacFarlane, Peter G., “William T. Russell—Preacher of the Three Americas,” Collier's, 11 05 1912, pp. 18–19;Google Scholar Russell to Joseph P. Tumulty, 15 April 1913, Woodrow Wilson Papers, reel 271, case 407, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (unless otherwise noted, this information will apply to all references to Wilson's correspondence).

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3. MacFarlane, p. 19.

4. Ibid.

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35. Memorandum, 12 May 1912, and Taft to Russell, 6 and 7 November 1912, Taft Papers, reel 460, case 316.

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