Background

John Joseph Burke was born on June 6, 1875 in New York City, the fifth of nine children (four boys and five girls) of Patrick and Mary Catherine (Regan) Burke. Both parents were of Irish birth, the father a blacksmith whose earnings scarcely met the needs of his family. Two of the other children also followed religious callings, an older brother of Burke, Thomas Francis, becoming superior general of the Paulist Fathers.

Education

Burke received his education in the public schools of New York City, at St. Francis Xavier College in that city (A. B. , 1896), and at the Catholic University of America in Washington, from which he received a licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1901.

Career

Meanwhile, in 1899, he had been ordained in the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (Paulist Fathers). From 1904 to 1922 he edited the Catholic World, a leading Catholic magazine; in maintaining its literary traditions he developed a lasting interest in American literature. Concurrently he reorganized the Paulist Press, an important publisher of Catholic pamphlets.

Burke's most important work came during the first World War.

American entry into the war emphasized the need for some sort of central organization to mobilize the church's resources.

Neither the Catholic lay societies nor the clergy themselves had any effective nationwide coordinating authority or clearing house. Burke, who early in the war had founded the Chaplains' Aid Association to supply chaplains with equipment for conducting services, took the leadership in meeting this lack.

With the approval of the hierarchy, he called a meeting of clergy and representatives of lay societies at the Catholic University of America in August 1917, at which the National Catholic War Council was formed. The Council was at first administered by the fourteen American archbishops, but this arrangement proved unwieldy and was supplanted by an administrative committee of four bishops (later known as "the Bishops' Committee") headed by Bishop Peter J. Muldoon of Rockford, Illinois.

Under Muldoon's active supervision, Burke himself directed all Catholic war work other than that of the Knights of Columbus. Rejecting the idea of an exclusively Catholic effort, Burke worked for interdenominational action. In 1918 he successfully opposed the effort of the Y. M. C. A. to launch two separate War Work Fund campaigns, one to be supervised by the Y. M. C. A. and the other to represent the combined interests of the Catholic War Council, the Salvation Army, and the Jewish Welfare Board.

Instead, he persuaded John D. Rockefeller, Jr. , to support a United War Work Fund campaign--a move which foreshadowed later united community chest drives.

In March 1918 Burke also succeeded in forming an interdenominational "Committee of Six, " under his chairmanship, which served as an advisory committee to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker on religious matters in the armed forces. In recognition of his services in this capacity he received the Distinguished Service Medal (1919).

At the war's end Burke found himself with an organization able to mobilize Catholic resources but without a peacetime program. His organization of a bureau of immigration to aid in the Americanization of immigrants indicated his desire to continue the Council. With the assistance of Bishop Thomas Joseph Shahan, rector of Catholic University of America, Burke persuaded the American hierarchy, meeting in Washington in September 1919, to prepetuate the organization as the National Catholic Welfare Council, after 1923 known as the National Catholic Welfare Conference. Burke served as its general secretary from December 1919 until his death.

The National Catholic Welfare Conference has been described as a "permanent secretariat" for the bishops of the United States--"a free mutual cooperation between diocese and diocese, through a common central headquarters. " On a voluntary basis, it coordinates Catholic activity in a variety of fields and represents Catholic opinion on legislation and other matters. In the postwar years the most significant work of the N. C. W. C. was as a spokesman for Catholic social views. The basic principles were early established.

In February 1919 the four-member "Bishops' Committee" issued what became known as the "Bishops' Program of Social Reconstruction. "

In 1922 he stepped down as editor of "The Catholic World" and became General Secretary of the War Council's successor, the National Catholic Welfare Council. This forerunner of today's United States Conference of Catholic Bishops served as the "public face" of American Catholicism and spoke out on a number of important issues of the day.

Though the program roused considerable conservative opposition within and outside the church, Burke worked effectively in its defense. Later, during the early 1930's, he had much to do with a series of pronouncements issued by the American Catholic bishops reiterating these principles and applying them to the current depression.

This was at the time of the serious conflict between the revolutionary regime in Mexico and the Catholic Church, when church buildings had been closed and services suspended. Working closely with the Apostolic Delegate in Washington and with the American State Department, Burke in 1928 conducted preliminary interviews with President P. E. Calles at Vera Cruz and Mexico City which helped to lay the groundwork for the eventual restoration of religious worship in 1929.

He died in Washington in that year of a heart attack and was buried in the crypt of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City, the "mother church" of the Paulist Fathers.

Achievements

• Burke was the main force behind the creation of the National Catholic War Council. In 1911 he helped to found the Catholic Press Association. In 1927 the Holy See gave Burke the honorary degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology and in 1936 raised him to the rank of Domestic Prelate. On one occasion Burke played an important unofficial diplomatic role. In the 1920's he served as an "unofficial" diplomat for the Vatican, making clandestine trips to Mexico to seek better church-state relations in that country. In recognition of this service he was named a monsignor in September, 1936, the only Paulist to ever hold that distinction. At the NCWC he worked with the United States government to coordinate the assignment of military chaplains and, for his efforts, was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1919.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ According to the Principles of the Theology of St. Thomas
  • St. Teresa of Jesus of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel; embracing the Life, Relations, Maxims and Foundations written by the saint, also, a history of St. Teresa's journeys and foundations

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Catholic prayer book for the army and navy

    (Paperback by Chaplains' Aid Association (1917).)

  • The writer in Pennsylvania, 1681-1981

Religion

In his religious affiliation John Joseph Burke was a Roman Catholic.

Views

Drawn up by the Catholic University moral theologian John A. Ryan, it advocated, among other points, the maintenance of wages at their wartime level, a legal minimum wage, social insurance, public housing projects, the continuation of the War Labor Board to moderate labor disputes, a recognition of labor's right to bargain collectively, and high excess profits and inheritance taxes.

Membership

He was a member of the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (Paulist Fathers) and of the Catholic Press Association.

Connections

He was never married.

Father:

Patrick Burke

Mother:

Mary Catherine (Regan) Burke

References

• Never look back: The career and concerns of John J. Burke