The World and Work of Father John J. Burke: A Mystic in Action

The World and Work of Father John J. Burke: A Mystic in Action is a full-length biography of one of the most significant, yet little-known, American Catholic public figures of the twentieth century. Burke was a successful editor and general secretary (chief administrative officer) of the National Catholic War Council and its successor the National Catholic Welfare Conference, which is the present-day United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), one of the most influential institutions in North America.

Burke was pulled into public service to address a variety of issues threatening American culture as the nation moved away from industrialism toward the progressive era, into World War I and then the ＂roaring twenties.＂ He challenged the Klu Klux Klan’s attempt to dominate education and public curricula, and sought protection of parochial schools against state and federal legislation promoted by anti-Catholic organizations; Burke confronted immigration in a time that sought to exclude races and peoples deemed alien and undesirable; He discussed the emerging medium of motion pictures and their influence on public morality and civic personality; Notably, he questioned Margaret Sanger’s descriptions and lobbying of socio-anthropology and the push for birth control and abortion; Burke was a prolific commentator on the Great Depression and New Deal, especially in light of Catholic social justice; He was also deeply involved in international efforts on behalf of Haitians under American occupation to end to the church-state conflict in Mexico.

While historical in nature, the biography contains prolific elements of American studies. It situates Burke within his time and considers his life through the themes of spirituality, religion, Americanism, public morality, social justice, education, and diplomacy. Moreover, Burke’s founding of the War Council and its continuation in modified form under his direction as the Welfare Conference (now USCCB) gave a new and enduring shape to the American Catholic Church as it influenced new measures that would become universal law in the Church in 1983. Burke also engaged Protestantism and its paradoxical distance from principles of the American founding, spurring fascinating political-philosophical debate that is important for all scholars of the American founding. Slawson illustrates Burke’s mark on both American and Catholic culture as immense and enduring--and his manner intriguing.

Relying heavily on Burke’s candid correspondence, Slawson gives readers a portrait of Burke that is as spiritual and intimate as it is operational. The accomplishments of this figure are, Slawson means to illustrate, not as towering as the aspects of his interior life and friendships that made him complicit in such a full life, and in this centering of soul he did not allow the burden of expectation any weight. In other words, any other man would have been crushed by the work entrusted to Burke, which makes this biography a truly remarkable read for personal inspiration as much as it is a masterpiece of historical research.

Douglas J. Slawson has a Masters of Divinity from DeAndreis Institute of Theology and a doctorate in history from The Catholic University of America. His book The Department of Education Battle, 1918-1932: Public Schools, Catholic Schools, and the Social Order (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005) won the Cushwa Prize for the Study of American Catholicism. He taught American and European Church history for eleven years at St. John’s Seminary in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and at St. Thomas Theological Seminary of the Archdiocese of Denver.