( The last several years have witnessed an exciting expan...)
The last several years have witnessed an exciting expansion in Catholic theology, with more younger scholars being drawn to dedicate themselves to enriching the tradition for the 21st century and beyond. This volume celebrates the work of one such group, scholars who trained under Michael J. Buckley at Boston College. On topics as varied as secularity, Spanish mysticism, religious pluralism, and Catholic education, Fr. Buckley's rich influence as a teacher and mentor shines through. This book serves as both an introduction to much of the best original work being done in theology today, and a reminder of the legacy a great scholar can leave.
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John Joseph Curran was born on June 20, 1859 in Hawley, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the second son and fifth of ten children of John and Ellen (McKeon) Curran. Both parents had come from County Mayo, Ireland, in the late 1840's. The elder Curran, a coal miner, moved his family to Avoca, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, when young John was about seven.
He attended night school classes.
Deciding to enter the priesthood, he gave up his job for further schooling, successively in the local public schools, at Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pennsylvania, and at St. Vincent College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1882.
In 1869, he joined the miners in a strike for higher wages.
By the age of sixteen he had become a driver in the mines.
He was ordained to the priesthood on August 22, 1887, in St. Peter's Cathedral, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Curran remained for the next half-century engaged primarily in pastoral work in the anthracite coal-mining area.
His first assignment was as assistant pastor at St. Rose of Lima Church in Carbondale, Pennsylvania.
In 1895 he was directed to establish the parish of the Holy Saviour in Wilkes-Barre, where he remained until 1919, when he became pastor of St. Mary's Church in the same city. His philosophy as a pastor consisted of utilizing all he could of music and artistry of every kind in the church to brighten up the grimy life of the mining community. Above all, Curran gave his earnest support to the labor union of the miners, the United Mine Workers of America. His known support assisted John Mitchell, who became president of the U. M. W. in 1898, in winning to the organization many of the more recently arrived Catholic immigrant miners.
The expiration of the wage agreement reached in 1900 and a demand for union recognition brought on the more famous anthracite strike of May 1902. Curran had opposed it as unlikely to succeed, but once the men quit work he backed them. It was through his part in this celebrated struggle that Father Curran acquired more than local attention and won the friendship and admiration of President Theodore Roosevelt. Curran advised Mitchell and accompanied him into the coal fields. He repeatedly counseled the miners to avoid violence and defended their good name against adverse publicity. He tried unsuccessfully, even to calling on J. P. Morgan that summer, to soften the intransigence of the mine operators. His great stroke for public support came when he gave to the press the famous letter, written to a Wilkes-Barre photographer, in which George F. Baer, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, expressed his opinion that "the rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected . .. not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country. "
Curran apparently served also as an intermediary between Mitchell and President Roosevelt in the negotiations which helped to bring about the White House conference and the eventual agreement to arbitrate the dispute. Roosevelt later wrote appreciatively of the pastor as the man in Wilkes-Barre, the center of the strike, who had "helped me most", and in 1910 he inspected the mine fields as the guest of his "old and valued friend, " Father Curran.
Throughout his career Curran continued to champion the cause of the miners. In a magazine article in 1916 he argued their case in favor of the "check-off" system of collecting union dues. In 1923 he assisted Gov. Gifford Pinchot in settling another strike. In the course of a subsequent struggle he called on President Coolidge for the presidential vigor of a quarter of a century earlier.
Besides his support of labor, Curran was long an advocate of temperance, serving for many years as treasurer of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America and favoring Catholic participation in the prohibition movement; he himself was associated with the Anti-Saloon League. In 1930 Curran was made a papal chamberlain with the title of Very Reverend. This recognition in his last years was dampened somewhat by a local union struggle in which he became involved.
He supported, after its creation in 1933, the United Anthracite Workers of Pennsylvania as against the United Mine Workers, believing the new organization to be more apt to promote the real interest of the miners. The inter-union fight led to local violence in 1936, and the strain proved too much for the almost seventy-seven-year-old prelate, who collapsed that spring and died before the year was over.
He was buried in the parish cemetery of St. Mary's.
In 1900, when the anthracite miners went on strike for higher wages, Curran played a part in securing a successful settlement by acting as a channel of communication. He had exercised an influence toward continuing the tradition of friendliness between the Catholic Church and organized labor in the United States.
( The last several years have witnessed an exciting expan...)
In the economic crisis of the early 1930's he advocated positive governmental action and gave energetic support to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Quotes from others about the person
"He is a first-class type of priest, the kind of priest needed in a democracy. '' (Theodore Roosevelt)
