Forever Amber - a Film Banned in Philly by Cardinal Dennis Dougherty

Wikipedia Commons - Public Domain USA (copyright not renewed) 

Trying to find his pastoral letter, its exact wording, around June 1934 having Catholics in the AD of Philadelphia boycotting all cinema to make it more decent by the absence of Catholics therein, I ran into old Denny's tirade against Forever Amber being banned at the FOX theater downtown. I can't find proof of his ever rescinding his 1934 fatwa. So why the shout out again in 1947 to the faithful?

No mention of the 1934 Fatwa against the ethnic types in Hollywood in his seemingly incomplete Wikipedia biography. 

I researched and there is no anti-Semitic angle that might have stirred his little pee-pee, so I guess the theme of the novel and movie Forever Amber of a woman not knowing her place in the world and sleeping her way to the top of Charles II royal court is a disturbing fact to challenge his worldview of boys only having that right of sleeping their way to the top (of the Vatican's hierarchy) I would imagine. 

Where's a good old fashioned Republican cloth coated "Religious Liberty Task Force" when you need one? LOL

Inquirer 22 Nov 1947

Philly High School Possibly Named in Tribute to Father Coughlin and His Approval of German Actions at Kristallnacht

I had to wonder when I randomly ran into this looking at some other matter, what happened to the local girl's high school in Philly, when its name got changed from its original designation of "Northeast Catholic High School for Girls" to "Little Flower High School". Something and things along the timeline from October 1938 when building permits were issued in the original designated name to dedication on August 27th 1939, five days before the invasion of Poland and the beginning of war in Europe.

There was already in place a tradition of West Catholic High for Boys first followed by West Catholic High for Girls. Only four blocks apart near University City in west Philly.

Little Flower as the compliment female school to Northeast Catholic High School for Boys was three miles apart. (The Northeast still the edge of the burbs and farms in pre-War Philadelphia County). 

The working name on Little Flower may have been N.E.C.H. for girls but looking at the timeline I have to wonder about Dennis Dougherty and his still standing fatwa on the Ethnic Group the "ran Hollywood" still in place forbidding all Catholics in the AD of Philly from attending the cinema which he never rescinded. (Thank the Catholic Gawd that the good cardinal had a movie projection setup to view Hollywood movies in private in his 45-61 room (depending on estimates) mansion of his quaint home base surrounded by 10 acres on City Line Ave. in Philly. )

October the building permits:

And then Kristallnacht in November 9-10 and America's most powerful media voice of Father Charles Coughlin getting more racist to up his ratings the closer Europe crept toward War.

Charles E Coughlin

For years, Coughlin had publicly derided “international bankers,” a phrase that most of his listeners understood to mean Jewish bankers. In the days and weeks after Kristallnacht, Coughlin defended the state-sponsored violence of the Nazi regime, arguing that Kristallnacht was justified as retaliation for Jewish persecution of Christians. He explained to his listeners on November 20, 1938 that the “communistic government of Russia,” “the Lenins and Trotskys…atheistic Jews and Gentiles” had murdered more than 20 million Christians and had stolen “40 billion [dollars]…of Christian property.”

In a series of articles published in Social Justice during 1938, Coughlin lambasted “Jewish” financiers and their control over world politics, culminating with a story recounting his own version of the infamous 20th Century forgery, the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purported to be minutes of meetings of Jewish leaders as they plotted to take over the world.

As Europe crept toward War. 

Philadelphia Inquirer 28 Aug 1939

On same page as LF dedication photo below.

Following two major radio stations in NYC, dropping Coughlin's broadcasts after his praise of Kristallnacht, followed by protests making the national papers of pro-Coughlin supporters outside NY radio staions, somewhere in that timeline between beginning of Construction of Northeast Catholic High School for Girls in October 1938 and the Dedication of Little Flower High School for Girls in August 1939, Cardinal Dougherty did a name change on the high school, perhaps out of sympathetic views shared with the American Papal Nuncio Cicognani and Father Charles Coughlin the head of the Radio League of the Little Flower, and his shrine in Michigan to Saint Therese of Lisieux, a recently canonized 24 year old ? "Doctor of the Church". 

Coincidence or devotion.

Wikipedia Commons

Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica

Charles Coughlin

Philadelphia Inquirer 28 Aug 1939

It is possible that Cardinal Dougherty was indeed devoted to the worship of the Little Flower saint but more likely he had to hedge a bet or a loan to Coughlin to build his cash cow shrine in Michigan, with the radio transmissions drying up with contributions. Better to have a local Wink. Nod. Michigan shrine reminder in Philly to back up offshore tax free loans to Royal Oak?

Saint Joan of Arc Church - Harrowgate - Philadelphia

photo: John Malloy

The man who baptized me or more accurately the man who was founder and pastor of my parish in Philly was a fanatic of sorts. He started out life as an Episcopalian, changed Christian registration to R.C. when in the seminary and went on to start a new R.C. parish. The parish was sort of in between a lot of other established parishes and the land in between those other churches began to be developed, houses built, and there was a need for a new church, school etc. in the first decades of the twentieth century in that part of Philly. 

Let me call this man Father Ed. He was of the old “God is to be feared” school of beliefs. He was an Old Testament kind of guy. 

He was dead by the time I reached first grade. I have heard stories about him. One from a home inspector who related the story about being an altar boy in my parish and being five minutes late for mass. Father Ed ranted into him at the end of service about how you can’t be late for God. The priest also made the boy serve everyday for a year at 6:00 a.m. mass as punishment. That priest made an impression on that guy but I don’t think that Father Ed made a friend.

Then, as it happens sometimes in life, a lady knocked on the door and said that she had been raised in our house and asked if she might get a quick nostalgic view inside. She then got into some stories about the neighborhood. The one story I remember most was about Father Ed. 

There was a Russian tailor in our neighborhood. He also did dry cleaning and his store was a block away from our house. We did business with the man. In the story of the visiting lady we finally understood why some of our neighbors took their dry cleaning three blocks away and not use the local guy. The Russian was also a Jew and a good tailor I might add. My parents, for working class, were flaming liberals. Being Jewish did not matter to them. That and my father liked to haggle. 

The lady went on to say that as a child, she and her friends used to taunt the man. Let me say anti-Semitism was rampant in America back then in the 1930's, at least in this neighborhood. Well Father Ed got wind of the fact that some of his parishioners and children were harassing the man and boycotting his business. Father Ed made it a point to visit the tailor and bring his dry cleaning four blocks from the rectory. In good weather, Father Ed sat on the store stoop and smoked a cigar together with the tailor as a means to make a statement of sorts to the neighborhood. Apparently Father Ed and the tailor became good friends as the result of this local anti-Semitism. - - Sabbath Tales

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