U.S. Catholic Schools and the Religious Who Served in Them: Contributions in the First Six Decades of the 20th Century

This article, the second in a series of three articles surveying the contributions of the religious to U.S. Catholic schooling, focuses upon their contributions during the first six decades of the 20th century. Through this period, not only did the religious provide the personnel needed to support the tremendous expansion of Catholic schooling, they also stepped forward to provide diocesan and national Catholic educational leadership, pushed Catholic pedagogical theory beyond its traditional European roots, designed new religion curricula, advanced women’s equality, and upheld parental rights in educating their children. These contributions made it possible for Catholic schools to provide Catholic youth the moral and intellectual formation to lead the American Catholic community during the post-Vatican II decades