CHAPTER XI
THE LAST 100 YEARS 1872 TO 1974
Vincent Jandel renewed the Order and restored the confidence of its members. His revival shaped Dominicanism until Vatican II, for the masters who followed him built on the foundations he had laid. Though there were some setbacks after his death, the Order continued to gain strength; its membership climbed from 3,474 in 1876 to 10,150 in 1963. Then, during the next ten years it dropped to 8,115.
The unsettled conditions that followed the Franco-Prussian War, the downfall of Napoleon III, and the rise of the Italian monarchy prevented the convening of a general chapter to elect a successor to Jandel. Joseph Sanvito, provincial of the Roman province, became vicar general and held office until 1879. Voting by mail, the electors then chose Joseph Larroca for master general (1879-1891) . He and three other Spaniards-Bonaventure Garcia de Paredes (1926-1929), Emmanuel Suarez (19461954), and Aniceto Fernandez (1962-1974) -- and two Frenchmen -- Hyacinth Cormier (1904-1916) and Martin Gillet (19291946)-spanned most of the century. But three masters drawn from other races introduced a welcome internationalism into the administration -- Andrew Früwirth, an Austrian (1891-1904), Louis Theissling, a Hollander (1916-1925), and Michael Browne, an Irishman (1955-1962) . These three were the first non-Latin Dominicans to hold the office since John of Wildeshausen died in 1252. Vincent de Couesnongle, a member of the province of Lyons, was elected in 1974.
The masters brought to their office a wide range of ability and experience; most of them were former provincials, including Paredes, whose resignation Pius XI demanded when he developed a puzzling inability to act. Theissling was the first master to visit the New World; he was followed by Gillet, whose encyclicals deal with cardinal points of the Order's life. Taking advantage of air travel, Suarez and Fernandez visited Dominicans all over the world. The administration of Suarez was highly personal. When he died in an automobile accident in 1954, he carried to the grave problems and plans known only to himself.
The masters developed their staff and channels of communication. Früwurth added a fifth assistant and founded the Analecta, the Order's official publication. The 1964 general chapter raised the number of assistants to eight, designating one for the United States, a second for Latin America, and a third for the provinces of Slavic countries. Besides the older officers of the curia (the procurator general, postulator of canonizations, and archivist), promoters were appointed for the missions, confraternities, sisters and nuns, and tertiaries. A syndic was put in charge of the Order's economic affairs. Cormier built a new generalate on Via San Vitale to replace the Minerva, which the Italian government had seized in 1873. Since 1936, the master and his curia have resided in Santa Sabina, purchased from the government by Paredes in 1929 together with the monastery of San Sisto e Domenico. Gillet located the Historical Institute, the Liturgical Institute, and the School for Novice Masters, agencies he created, at Santa Sabina. During the generalate of Fernandez, in 1969, the monthly bulletin, Informazioni Domenicane Internnzionali (International Dominican Inforn-tcation), began publication. It has become an important factor in the spread of knowledge about current affairs in the Order and in welding closer bonds of unity within the Dominican family.
Though only one general chapter met under Larroca, that of 1885, they have met regularly since 1891 with two exceptions, during World War II and in 1952. The Holy See permitted the postponement of the 195`3 chapter to allow more time for a proposed revision of the Constitutions. Other than European nations began to play host to the chapter in 1949, when it convened in Washington, D. C. Since then they have been held at Bogota (1965) , River Forest (1968) , and Tallaght, Ireland (1971) .
The Provinces
The creation of provinces in areas where there had never been one before added a further international note to the Order. These provinces enriched its life, broadened the representative base of the chapters, and broke the monopoly held by the Spanish, French, and Italian Dominicans since the sixteenth century. For the first time, provinces came into existence in Canada (1911), California (1912), Australia and New Zealand (1950) , Brazil (1952) , and South Vietnam (1967) . Suarez prepared for the erection of the latter province by opening novitiates at Hanoi and Saigon. The Dominican presence in North Vietnam came to an end after the 1954 Geneva agreements. Elsewhere new alignments broadened the spectrum. The province of St. Albert in the United States and St. Albert in Bavaria and Austria began their lives in 1939. Separated from Austria, Hungary regained independence at the same time. The Order created the province of St. Thomas in the Flemish-speaking areas of Belgium in 1958, re-established Mexico in 1961, and Portugal in 1962. The Philippine Dominicans became independent of the Holy Rosary province in 1967. Older provinces regained their rights. Colombia in 1.881, Germany in 1895, Peru, Argentina, and Betica in 1897, Bohemia in 1905, Sicily in 1906, Aragon in 1912, San Marco and Sardinia in 1934, and Naples in 1937. The general vicariate of Central Africa in Zaire (Congo), where the novitiate of Viadana was opened in 1953, the general vicßriate of St. Hippolitus in Mexico, constituted in 1971, and the general vicariate of South Africa in 1968, look to the eventual erection of provinces in those areas.
Though the provinces recorded a steady growth, once the difficulties of the last 100 years were superseded, some of them experienced a striking development. Holland greatly increased its membership and activities. Benefiting from Bede Jarett's vigorous leadership, England grew in numbers, made new foundations, and produced men who attained a position of respect and influence: Hugh Pope, Vincent McNabb, Gerald Vann. Record growth occurred in the United States. In 1880 there were but eighty Dominicans in St. Joseph's province and thirty in California. St. Joseph's had boosted its membership to 732 by 1938. After the province of St. Albert split from it in 1939, it still counted 545 men. It reached its peak enrollment in 1963 with 758 men, St. Albert's in 1967 with 569, and Holy Name in 1937 with 181. By 1974, St. Joseph's province had dropped to 543, St. Albert's to 425.
Some provinces suffered setbacks. The German Dominicans had just begun to rebuild, when Bismark's Kulturkam.p f of the 1870's closed their two houses. The French fathers and brothers were twice expelled by the Third French Republic, in 1880 and 1901. They survived by going into neighboring countries and founding houses there, especially in Belgium and Holland. They returned in the 1890's and again after World War I, when anticlericalism gradually subsided in France. The province of the Holy Rosary was temporarily crippled during the American occupation and the 1899 uprisings in the Philippine Islands. The Mexican and Spanish Dominicans suffered most severely. After the passage of the despotic Constitution of 1917, Mexico inaugurated a bitter persecution of the Church that eventually forbade the ministry of all priests and expelled all foreign clergymen. Spanish-Dominican houses had to be abandoned there. During the civil war that began in Spain in 1931, the Republican forces killed 245 Spanish Dominicans. The communist take-over in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia destroyed the provinces in the first two countries and restricted that in the third to work within priory walls. Though the province of Poland lost seven members and a tertiary in 1941, it has remained strong in numbers. James Devine of St. Joseph's province, Ludwig Paly of Germany, and Urban Martin of the Holy Rosary province lost their lives during the wars preceding the establishment of the Chinese Peoples Republic. The missions came to an end in China when the Republic destroyed the Church after 1946. Dominic Chang of St. Joseph's province died in prison in 1967. During the 1964 uprisings in Zaire (Congo) , twenty-six fathers, brothers, and sisters lost their lives.
The Nuns and Sisters
The nuns and sisters participated in the general restoration that took place in the Order during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. New Constitutions, promulgated in 1929, harmonized their laws with the Code of Canon Law. The most recent Constitutions, issued in 1971 by Fernandez, incorporated the principles and recommendations of Vatican II. They are especially noteworthy in being the first in whose drafting the nuns themselves played a major role. Attachment to the Dominican family and knowledge of one another is fostered among the nuns by printed bulletins published by five of the monasteries, three of them in the United States. An important extension of the Dominican contemplative ministry occurred when the nuns entered new foreign mission fields. Ten monasteries now dot the maps of Japan, Africa, Reunion Island, Pakistan, Greece, and Norway.
Before the French Revolution there were about 180 monasteries; in 1895, 150, including those of the Third Order Rule; in 1949, 213 with 5,633 nuns. The 1966 census lists 216 monasteries (91 of them in Spain), 5,550 nuns and 154 extern sisters, nine federations affiliating 132 monasteries, and 22 monasteries of the Third Order Rule with 1,043 sisters. The 20 monasteries in the United States of the Second and Third Order have an enrollment of 509 nuns (1974) .
During the past 100 years, the Dominican sisters have become the most numerous branch of the Order, outnumbering the fathers and brothers almost eight to one. In 1895, there were about 20,000 sisters in fifty-five congregations. Fifty-four years later, there were 129 congregations, enrolling 40,444 sisters. In 1966 this number had risen to 46,310 and the congregations to 136. Two of the most recently founded are in Vietnam. In the United States there are 29 congregations and also provinces and foundations of Dominican sisters from other countries. In 1974 the total number of sisters was 14,385.
In addition to their educational ministry, Dominican sisters have founded orphanages, hospitals, and residences for the elderly, terminal cancer patients, and working women. They also provide home nursing care for the poor. In the twentieth century, the sisters entered actively into foreign mission work. Apart from their native lands, they are present in ninety-six countries; however, not all of these are in mission territory. In America, Mother Mary Joseph Rogers founded the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic for foreign mission work exclusively, and many other American congregations have accepted mission territories. Since Vatican II, the sisters have diversified their ministries. Some have participated more directly in preaching the word of God, giving retreats either alone or with one of the fathers. Others are engaged as co-chaplains on college and university campuses.
To tighten the family bonds that unite the sisters and strengthen their ministry, the mothers general in the United States organized a leadership conference in the 1940's that meets annually. In 1972, the provincials and representatives of the fathers and brothers joined them. The mother general and novice mistresses of Germany have met occasionally since 1951.
A new form of consecrated life came to birth in Marseilles in 1937 when Fr. Perrin organized Caritas Christi, a secular institute. The statement of purpose of Caritas Christi --"to form and give to the Church contemplative and apostolic laywomen, in all walks of life..." clearly shows its Dominican orientation.
The Third Order gained new impetus during the anniversaries of the Order in 1916 and of St. Dominic in 1921. It received an updated Rule in 1923, and more recent ones in 1964 and 1968. International congresses and a revised organization, giving members more participation in decision-making, have strengthened the spirit of the tertiaries. The estimated strength of the Third Order in 1936 was 100,000 members, in 1966, 130,090. Noted tertiaries during the last hundred years were Benedict XV, Sigrid Undset, the authoress, Martin Grabmann, the noted medievalist, and Bishop James A. Walsh, founder of Maryknoll. The Society of the Divine Word, founded by Arnold Janssen in 1875, followed the Third Order Rule until 1884.
Intensification of Life and Ministry
The enlightened leadership of masters and chapters, helped by instructions from the popes, intensified and deepened the Order's life and ministry. In 1891, Leo XIII commanded the Order to end the private life and restore the common life in all houses. Though the Order had often tried to achieve this end, and again met obstacles and delay, by 1907 it had virtually eliminated the private life. A strengthened community life, a deeper sense of brotherhood, and a more effective ministry resulted. Several attempts made by the chapters from 1885 onward to establish filiation of friars to the province, rather than to an individual house, met success in 1913 when Pius X put his authority behind provincial affiliation. This change gave the flexibility demanded by modern conditions in the deployment of personnel.
The publication of the Code of Canon Law in 1918 made a revision of the Constitutions necessary. Commissions prepared a draft text that was anted upon during the chapters of 1924 and 1926. Called to elect a master after the resignation of Paredes, the 1929 chapter took no action, a failure that interrupted the threefold procedure required for the passage of laws and threatened to delay the production of a final text indefinitely. To solve this problem, the Holy See decided that the text established at the 1932 chapter would have the force of law. The Constitutions so adopted marked a radical break with earlier versions. A fivefold division, conforming to the five books of the Code, supplanted the traditional twofold division. Obsolete laws were dropped, and those still operative were embodied in the constitutional text. Thus the three-century-old distinction between the "major text" of the Constitutions and the "minor text" of the ordinances of chapters was eliminated. Once again, the Order had a unified body of law.
The Constitutions of 1968, adopted in compliance with the instructions of Vatican II, represent a more deeply rooted renewal and updating, bringing the Order into conformity with the spirit and needs of the twentieth century. Returning to the Order's traditional collegiality and subsidiarity, and respecting the findings of modern psychology and the democratic spirit of the times, the new Constitutions laid greater responsibility on the shoulders of each member for the well-being and action of the Order. It is significant that this approach to the new era in the Church, inaugurated by the Council, was the work of a world-wide questionnaire, a congress of provincials, a commission representative of many provinces, and a general chapter that met in Chicago, one of the newest great cities f the oldest democratic Republic in the world. The Constitutions received final confirmation at the general chapter of 1974.
The Order has always considered the liturgical life a fundamental part of its contemplative vocation; its leadership has consistently been attentive to the performance of the sacred rites. During the past century, as new editions of the liturgical books were needed, the master general provided for their preparation, publishing several editions of the missal, breviary, and the other choir books. The liturgy was also enriched by prefaces of St. Dominic and St. Thomas. The feasts of many newly beatified Dominicans were added to the calendar, more during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries than throughout the rest of the Order's history. Though there were now too many feasts, some of them were most welcome, those of Albert the Great, Margaret of Hungary, and Martin de Porres. Also, the Holy Father proclaimed Albert and Catherine of Siena doctors of the Church.
The revisions of the Roman liturgy by Pius X and Pius XII necessitated changes in the Dominican liturgy. The adaptation of the rubrics of Pius X to the Dominican Rite, made by Bruno Hespers and approved by the Congregation of Rites, went into effect in 1923. Especially significant were the substitution of the Psalter of Pius X for the ancient monastic psalter and the removal of the obligation to recite the Office of the Blessed Virgin on weekdays. The duty to recite the Office of the Dead weekly became a constitutional, rather than a canonical, obligation, except for the four anniversaries. Since 1968, this Office obliges only when one of the brethren dies and in the house of his assignment. The restoration of the Easter Vigil and the revision of the Holy Week ceremonies were binding on the Order and had a stimulating effect on the brethren. The 1960 revision of the Roman liturgy was incorporated into the Dominican liturgy under Michael Browne. The liturgical changes introduced by Vatican II were so sweeping that pastoral reasons and the impossibility of publishing Dominican liturgical books in all the vernaculars made the acceptance of the Roman, and the abandonment of the Dominican liturgy imperative.
Other events deepened the Order's life. The renewal of its consecration to the Sacred Heart by Früwirth, and its consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by Suarez during the general chapter at Washington in 1949, strengthened devotion to Christ and his mother. Though World War I impeded the world-wide observance of the 700th anniversary of the Order's foundation in 1916, the house of studies in Washington celebrated it with scholarly and liturgical activities. Pope Benedict XV signified the event by publishing an encyclical emphasizing the Order's evangelical and doctrinal mission and praising its work. He issued a second letter in 1921 on the anniversary of Dominic's death, praising him and lauding his genius. Other significant centenaries were those of Thomas in 1874 and 1974, of Albert in 1880, Catherine of Siena in 1947, Antoninus in 1950, Hyacinth in 1957, and Dominic in 1971. The 700th anniversary of the death of Thomas in 1974 was celebrated throughout the world of scholarship. More than fifteen universities and colleges in America honored Thomas and his contributions to the advance of learning.
Missions
The impetus Jandel gave to the resumption of mission work gained strength as provinces recovered and reactivated their mission fields. In 1876, only nine provinces were sending personnel to mission countries, among them the province of the Holy Rosary that committed most of its 335 members to the Asiatic missions. As provinces became stronger they re-entered older fields or accepted new ones. In 1922, the Order was present in 20 mission countries, in 1947 in 33, in 1958 in 40. In 1930, 470 Dominicans worked in the missions. The number had increased to 1,175, including fifteen bishops, by 1966. Eighteen provinces manned fields in 1949; in 1965, twenty-four. St. Joseph's province sent out its first missionaries in 1923 after it accepted the territory of Fukien, China. When that mission closed in 1946, it entered Pakistan and Peru, and, for eight years, conducted the seminary in Nairobi. St. Albert's province took territories in Nigeria and Bolivia, the province of the Holy Name, a mission station in Mexico. We have mentioned the mission activity of the nuns and sisters in another place.
To direct its missionary effort, the Order promulgated mission statutes from time to time, the last in 1958, and since 1946, designated one of the assistants of the master promotor of the missions. Recent masters have encouraged the missionaries by going among them on visitations. The Order mounted exhibits at the Mission Exposition at the Vatican in 1924 and 1925, and in Barcelona in 1929. It held a Dominican Mission Congress at Madrid in September, 1973. The provinces have kept alive interest in the missions by publishing periodicals that carry accounts of the mission fields and describe the customs and traditions of the people among whom they work. The Holy Rosary province founded the first of these, the Correo Sino-Annamita, in 1863. The greatest setback experienced by the missions occurred after 1946, when the Peoples Republic of China closed all the missions.
The Intellectual Mission
The academic and intellectual life of the Order, which had been badly injured by the events of the nineteenth century, was again on a solid footing when Jandel died. The 1852 code of studies regulated the program in the houses of studies that were founded or reactivated as the renewal proceeded. Cormier published a revised code in 1907. The 1935 code, issued by Gillet, brought the curriculum into conformity with the requirements of the Deus scientiarurn Dominos, an apostolic constitution of Pius XI regulating studies in seminaries and universities. Taking cognizance of new trends in the sacred sciences, Fernandez published a modernized code in 1965. The general chapter of 1974 gave it final approval, calling on the provinces to supplement it by planning their curriculum of studies in accordance with the needs of their countries.
There have been some notable gains in the academic field since 1872. After 400 years, the English Dominicans returned to Oxford, establishing a house of theology, and, ten years later, to Cambridge. The American provinces built and organized fully accredited houses of studies at Washington in 1905, River Forest, Illinois, in 1922, Oakland, California, in 1932, and Dubuque, Iowa, in 1956. During the past ten years these schools have entered into cooperation with nearby academic institutions, such as the Washington Consortium of Theology Schools. The Washington faculty became a pontifical faculty of theology in 1941, a privilege also accorded to the studium at Salamanca, Spain. The faculty of Philosophy at River Forest was recognized as a pontifical faculty in 1943. In 1919, the province of St. Joseph's founded and has continued to staff Providence College, Providence, R.I., one of the larger liberal arts colleges in America. A high percentage of its graduates have entered professional fields. Dominican sisters in the United States conduct seventeen colleges for women. The fathers and sisters have also entered the field of secondary education, administering and staffing many high schools. They have improved their professional competence by earning degrees, attending summer schools and spiritual institutes. Individuals hold teaching posts in institutions conducted by other agencies. Since 1959, the Dominican Educational Association has fostered the educational interests of the fathers and sisters.
Reorganized by Cormier in 1909, the College of St. Thomas in Rome moved to Via San Vitale and changed its name to Collègio Angelico. It entered its present buildings on the Esquiline in 1932. John XXIII raised it to university rank in 1963, naming it the University of St. Thomas in Rome. The new status was warranted by the development of its faculties. It added a faculty of philosophy in 1882, of canon law in 1896, and became a pontifical academy in 19(16. Since 1950, it has founded institutes of spirituality and social sciences. The rectorship of Thomas Zigliara, Albert Lepidi, and Sadoc Szabó brought the school to a high degree of excellence. Its enrollment climbed steadily from 120 in 1909 to over 1,000 during the 1960's. The University of Santo Tomàs in Manila also witnessed the addition of faculties and a great increase in student body, which stood at 24,000 in 1956. After 1890, Dominicans manned the theology faculty and supplied some professors for the philosophy faculty of the University of Fribourg. The fathers of the province of France have staffed the Syro-Chaldean seminary of St. John at Mossul, Iraq, since 1877.
Father Marie Joseph Lagrange, one of the pioneers of modern Catholic Biblical studies, founded the Biblical School of St. Stephen's in Jerusalem in 1890. He gave great prestige to Catholic scholarship and almost single-handedly lifted Catholic Biblical studies out of mediocrity. The School publishes the Revue biblique and Etudes bibliques, has trained a continuous series of Scripture scholars, notably Louis Vincent, Felix Abel, and Roland de Vaux, and has made exceptional contributions to exegesis, ancient and Oriental history, and the archaeology of the Holy Land. Since 1920, the French School of Archaeology has been established there. In a related field, Vincent Scheil, who held the chair of Assyriology at the Institute of Higher Studies, Paris, from 1895 to 1933, gained eminence as an orientalist because of his work in Egypt and Iraq. He edited the sixteen volumes that deal with French excavations at Susa. The fourth volume contains the first publication of the Code of Hammurabi.
The French province also made an important contribution to ecumenical studies when it established the Istina Institute at Paris for Russian studies and the Oriental Institute for Arabic studies at Cairo. Henry St. Johns in England and Yves Congar in France, who also began the important Unam Sanctam monographs, were pioneers in the ecumenical field. In the 1940's, Felix Morlion of the Belgian province turned to another modern interest founding the University Pro Deo in Rome, which addresses itself to modern techniques and problems, especially in the field of communications.
Almost fifty Dominicans participated in the sessions of Vatican II as bishops and theologians. The contributions of Marie Dominic Chenu, Yves Congar, and Edward Schillebeeckx to the Council are well known.
The praise that the popes from Leo XIII to John XXIII have heaped on St. Thomas and his teaching filled Dominicans with spirit and enthusiasm. Seeing in the works and doctrine of Thomas a potent force for the renewal of Christian life, Leo issued his encyclical Aeterni Patris, reorganized the Roman Academy of St. Thomas, and established the Leonine Commission for the publication of a critical edition of the works of Thomas. Speaking of the "purest streams of wisdom flowing inexhaustibly from the precious fountainhead of the Angelic Doctor," the encyclical calls for the renewal of philosophical thought in the Church on the basis of Thomism, a system it perceives as an effective antidote to nineteenth-century Liberalism. In 1880, Leo declared Thomas patron of Catholic schools. Benedict XV praised the Order for giving to the Church the Angelic Doctor and for never having deviated to the slightest degree from his teaching. The Leonine Commission was soon entrusted to the Order. Its work is very difficult because of the thousands of Thomistic manuscripts, but it has published many volumes and expects to complete the edition in fifty years. Since the publication of a Spanish vernacular edition of the Summa theologiae in 1880, similar translations have been begun or completed in German, English, French, and Japanese. A new English translation, a collaborative work of English, Irish, and American Dominicans, is nearing completion.
The period from 1789 to 1891 were lean years for Dominican literary productions; the volume and quality of writing only began to improve when the Order's academic organization had been restored. Before 1891, the books published were mostly textbooks; after that date there was a marked increase in the number and quality of popular and scholarly books produced. The authors are too many to catalogue. Their writings are found in their books and in journals and periodicals. Much of the fruit of the Order's intellectual effort is found in the 320 scientific, cultural, and popular periodicals it publishes or edits.
The Ministry
Even during the most difficult periods since 1789, Dominicans remained faithful to the traditional forms of their ministry, especially preaching. Since the days of Lacordaire and Jandel,
these apostolates have displayed new vigor and life. Dominicans did a great volume of preaching in their churches, on bands of missionaries and retreat masters, and during religious weeks and workshops. Preachers of note appeared in every province. To be singled out are the preachers in the cathedrals of Notre Dame, Cologne, and Munich, of the radio Catholic Hour in America, and individuals like Ignatius Smith, Bede Jarrett, and Vincent McNabb. A feature of preaching in the American provinces was the vigorous propagation of the Holy Name and Rosary devotions, begun by Charles Hyacinth McKenna, the apostle of the Holy Name and Rosary. Under the direction of Michael Ripple, national director of the Holy Name Society, a huge national congress of the Society was held in Washington in 1924. It raised the membership of the Society to more than a million and a half. The provinces of Aragon, Hungary, Malta and Australia have also propagated the Society. The Rosary encyclicals of Leo XIII and later popes and the apparitions at Fatima greatly stimulated Rosary preaching. The books Dominicans published on the Rosary between 1885 and 1925 tripled. Rosary crusades were preached in France and elsewhere during the 1930's and 1940's, particularly during World War II. Michael Browne founded the Rosary Center at Fatima in 1957, and the general chapter ordered the appointment of a promotor of the Rosary in every province. Rosary congresses were held at Fatima in 1954 and at Toulouse in 1959. The culmination of these preaching activities was a congress of Dominican preachers, held in Rome on the occasion of the centenary of St. Hyacinth in 1957. In 1972, John Burke founded the Word of God Institute, centered in Washington, D.C., to promote more effective and more biblical preaching. The Institute sponsored the first national congress on the word of God in September of that year.
The Order also contributed prelates to the Church-cardinals, archbishops, and bishops. There were one cardinal and thirty-six bishops in 1973. Dominicans have served in the Roman congregations and as papal delegates and nuncios. Archbishop John T. McNicholas became one of the leaders of the American hierarchy during his tenure in the see of Cincinnati from 1925 to 1950. Bishop Louis Scheerer, who opened the Pakistan mission of St. Joseph's province in 1956, died there in 1966. He also worked for many years in China.
Modern wars saw Dominicans serving as chaplains and soldiers in the ranks. Some of them were imprisoned or lost their lives, among them Peter Craig of St. Joseph's province, who was killed in action in Korea in 1951. The chaplaincy in Ohio State Penitentiary was held by Dominicans after 1893 and in the prisons of Washington after 1925. From late in the last century, they have been chaplains at the Soldiers Home of the United States in Washington. Francis Stratmann became an apostle of peace. Becoming convinced during World War I that war was simply not the Christian solution to world problems, he spoke out against militarism, war, and the atrocities of war. His lifetime dedication to the gospel of peace and his writings, especially The Church and War (1928) and War and Christianity Today (1956); made him a key figure in the German Catholic peace movement. He suffered for his convictions, going to jail and into exile under Hitler. He died in December, 1971.
The Order's ministry diversified after 1919. Dominicans entered the fields of theatre, film, radio, and television, notably Norbert Wendell, who conducted a television program in New York for many years. Stanislaus Gillet engaged in an apostolate among the actors of the French theatre. Urban Nagle and Thomas Carey founded Blackfriars Guild and Theatre in New York, and Gilbert Hartke inaugurated the highly successful Speech and Drama Department of Catholic University of America.
The general chapter of 1901 urged the brethren to be attentive to the material as well as the spiritual needs of their neighbor. Accordingly, Dominicans sponsored a number of social activities. Fathers Rutten and Perquy founded a school in 1923 to train workers professionally. Five years later, Ambrose Croft organized the first social week in Ireland. In Spain, where the fathers worked for the moral and economic betterment of working men, Fr. Gajo was executed during the 1936 Civil War for his Christian social activities. In recognition of his humanitarian work in founding villages for refugees, Henry Pire, a Belgian father, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958. Dominican interest in social problems is further evidenced by Joseph Lebret's movement and publication, conomie et humanisyne, established at Evreux, Fridolin Utz's foundation of the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Fribourg, and French Dominican interest in the Worker-Priest movement.
INDEX -- NEXT