The Catholic Laity in an Era of Turmoil

Together with my co-editors, Mary Beth Fraser Connolly and Christopher Denny, I am pleased to announce that Fordham University Press will be publishing our Empowering the People of God: Catholic Action before and after Vatican II. Composed of eleven essays dealing with a wide range of topics ranging from the Catholic Club of New York City and postwar Italian-American Catholic Action to the Extension Lay Volunteers and the National Council of Catholic Women, our volume has already received very positive feedback from the readers assigned by Fordham.

A panel discussion by some of our contributors is scheduled for next year's American Catholic History Association meeting:

Outgrowing Catholic Action? Transforming the Parochial Identity of American Lay Apostolates in the Vatican II Generation

Sunday, January 6, 2013: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
New Orleans Marriott, Preservation Hall, Studio 1

Chair: 

Patrick Hayes, Redemptorist Archives of the Baltimore Province, Brooklyn, New York

Papers:
 

John Courtney Murray’s Justification for American Lay Catholic Movements
Christopher Denny, Saint John's University

Azzione Cattolica in an American Setting: The Society of Saint Charles-Scalabrinians and Catholic Action
Mary Elizabeth Brown, Marymount Manhattan College

Relevant Transformations: The Young Women of the Extension Lay Volunteers, 1961–71
Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello, Salem State University

Reaching Out to the People of God: The Implications of Renewal for the Sisters of Mercy in Parochial Education
Mary Beth Fraser Connolly, Valparaiso University

Comment: 

Leslie W. Tentler, Catholic University of America