Charles Coughlin: American Catholic

Authors

  • Derek Finn Reed College

Keywords:

Charles Coughlin, the Great Depression, social justice, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XI, Bishop Gallagher,

Abstract

Charles Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest and national media figure in America during the 1930s. To some he was a populist, to others a demagogue, but to his devoted radio listeners he was a fearless teller of truth and a voice of the dispossessed in Depression-era America. Coughlin’s early political agenda gave voice to the poor in a Catholic social activist tradition derived from papal encyclicals.  He viewed Franklin Roosevelt as the main national champion of this cause but Coughlin soon became disillusioned with the New Deal. He allied with other populists and attempted a third party challenge to Roosevelt’s presidential bid in 1936. Coughlin’s descent into open anti-Semitism resulted in the end of his broadcasting career at the onset of the Second World War and tarnished his reputation for generations to come. Father Coughlin was an apparent study in contradictions: he was for the working man and vocally anti-union, anti-Communist and anti-capitalist, and a populist who relished proximity to national politicians. When viewed through a traditional American political and cultural lens Father Coughlin’s actions can be confusing but they make more sense when viewed in a Catholic context. Catholic anti-communism and historical anti-Semitism informed Coughlin’s anti-union and anti-Semitic positions. He sincerely believed in the ideals of social justice but only within the narrow confines of Catholic papal orthodoxy, which included a moral aversion to capitalist excess. Charles Coughlin was personally militant and mercurial but he was not a political radical. He was at once a conservative Catholic and an American populist.

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Author Biography

Derek Finn, Reed College

I am originally from Ireland and have lived in Portland, Oregon for the past 11 years. I work as an engineering manager with a semiconductor company. I have under-graduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering and have been in the Reed graduate studies program for two years.

References

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Published

2017-05-26

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