Notes And Comments

NOTES AND COMMENTS Association News The president of the American Catholic Historical Association, James D. Tracy, has appointed two new members to the Committee on the John Gilmary Shea Prize, namely, James M. O'Toole of Boston College, who will serve for two years (1999 and 2000) and will be chairman in the second year, and Thomas Kselman of the University of Notre Dame, who will serve for three years and will be chairman in the third year (2001). Dr. O'Toole previously served for one year (1995). The chairman for this year is John C. Moore, emeritus of Hofstra University, who now resides in Bloomington, Indiana. Professor Tracy has also appointedJames Muldoon of theJohn Carter Brown Library to the Committee on the John Tracy Ellis Dissertation Award for a threeyear term. This year, therefore, the committee consists of Thomas J. Shelley of Fordham University (chairman), Carlos Eire of Yale University, and Professor Muldoon. The chairman of the Committee on Program for the eighty-first annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association, which will be held in Boston in January 5-7, 2001, will be the first vice-president of the Association, Joseph H. Lynch (who will be president in 2000). Members who wish to propose papers or (preferably) complete sessions should write to Professor Lynch byJanuary 12, 2000, giving an abstract of each paper. All participants in the sessions must be members of the Association, except those representing another historical society that is co-sponsoring the session. Anyone who will present a paper in January, 2000, is not engible to present a paper in January, 2001. Proposals should be sent to Professor Lynch in care of the Department of History, 106 Dulles Hall, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1367; e-mail: lynch.l@osu.edu. Conferences and Lectures The twelfth conference on the history ofBayArea Catholicism was held at St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, on April 10, 1999. Papers were read by Bishop Mark Hurley on "Archbishop McGucken and the Origins ofthe New Cathedral"; by Lawrence Scrivani, S.M., on "Marian Movements in the Bay Area"; by Norman Staub of the University of California at San Francisco on "St. Mary Magdalen: Marin's Hidden Treasure"; and by Clay O'DeU of the University of Virginia on 500 NOTES AND COMMENTS501 "Pioneer Ministry to African Americans and the Birth of the CathoUc Interracial Council in San Francisco, 1928-1960." At the spring conference of the New England Historical Association, which was held at Rivier CoUege, Nashua, New Hampshire, on April 17, 1999, one of the thirteen sessions was devoted to the theme "Catholics and Uniates ('Greek Catholics') and the Problems of Church Unity in Imperial Russia." Papers were read by Stanislaw Obirek, SJ., of the Jagellonian University, Krakow, on "Peter Skarga, the Jesuits, and the Union of Brest (1596)"; by Barbara Skinner of Georgetown University on "Tsar and the Rule of Law: Conflicting Values in Eighteenth-Century Uniate and Orthodox Catechisms"; and byJeff Beshoner of the University of Notre Dame on "Gagarin and Ecumenism in the Russia of Nicholas I." In another session Tom Carty of the University of Connecticut read a paper on "John F. Kennedy and Catholic Anti-Communism." In a session on "Court and Piety in Eleventh-Century England"the piety ofthe bishops was presented by Mary Frances Smith of Eastern Connecticut State University, that of the earls by Robin Fleming of Boston College, and that of the noble women by Patricia Halpin, also of Boston College. The first of two international conferences commemorating the twelfth centenary of the death of Paul the Deacon was held at Cividale del Friuli and Udine on May 6-9, 1999, under the title "Paolo Diácono: Uno scrittore fra tradizione longobarda e rinnovamento carolingio."Among the papers presented on those days were "Paul the Deacon and the Frankish Liturgy," by Yitzhak Hen of the University of Haifa: "Le Libellus episcoporum Mettensium dans l'histoire du genre Gesta episcoporum," by Michel Sot of the university of Paris X; "La figura di Gregorio Magno nellOpera di Paolo Diácono," by Claudio Azzara of the University ofVenice; and "Aspetti deUa trasmissione della Vita Gregorii di Paolo Di- ácono," by...