The Ninetieth Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association

Report of the Committee on Program

The 2010 annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association took place, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Historical Association and other affiliated societies, at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel, San Diego, California, from Thursday, January 7, to Sunday, January 10, 2010.

The Program Committee was made up of Stafford Poole, C.M. (St. John’s Seminary College, Los Angeles); Jeffrey Zalar (University of Wisconsin, Whitewater); and Paul W. Knoll (University of Southern California), chair.

The program opened with a session, “Formation in the Early Church,” at 3 p.m. on January 7, sponsored jointly with the American Society of Church History. Catherine Chin (University of California, Davis) presented the paper “Translation and Transformation: Personhood in Rufinus of Aquila’s Basil of Caesarea.” Papers by Sierra Ashley Pierce (Abilene Christian University), “Catechizing the Young in the Ancient Church,” and by Gavril Andreicut (Marquette University), “Augustine of Hippo: The Use of Force in Conversion,” which were originally scheduled, were not presented because their authors were unable to attend the meeting. Amy Oden (Wesley Theological Seminary) chaired this session and led a spirited discussion from the audience. That afternoon the Executive Council of the Association also met.

The next morning at 9:30 a.m., two sessions were held. The first was entitled “How Scholarly Were Religious Women in the Middle Ages? (Nuns and Others).” George H. Brown (Stanford University) spoke on “Education and Scholarship of Abbesses and Nuns in Anglo-Saxon England,” Edeltraud Klueting (O.F.B.M.V. de M.C.) presented the paper “Religious Women Writing Their Own History (Late Medieval Germany),” and the paper given by Phyllis Brown (University of Santa Clara) was “Hrotsvit of Gandersheim c. 935–975.” Harm Klueting (University of Cologne and University of Fribourg) chaired this session, and Karen Scott (DePaul University) provided insightful comment. The second morning session, “New Perspectives on American Catholicism in the Revolutionary Era,” was chaired by former ACHA president Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M. (Franciscan School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley); he also provided stimulating commentary. Three scholars presented papers. Maura Jane Farrelly (Brandeis University) spoke on “The Making of an American Catholic Identity”; the topic addressed by Ronald Binzeley (University of Wisconsin–Madison) was “Divided Inheritance, Jesuit Spiritualities, and American Church Reform in the Early Republic, 1790–1870”; and the paper by Catherine O’Donnell Kaplan (Arizona State University) was entitled “John Carroll, Elizabeth Seton, and the Early Republican Church.”

In the first of two afternoon sessions that day, beginning at 2:30 p.m., Roy Domenico (University of Scranton) replaced Peter Kent (University of New Brunswick) as chair and commentator in a session devoted to “The Holy See, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy Reappraised.” Frank J. Coppa (St. John’s University) presented the paper “Pope Pius XI versus His Secretaries of State: A Reinterpretation”; Suzanne Brown-Fleming (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) spoke on “The Vatican’s Response to Torture of Roman Catholic Clergy by the Nazi Regime, 1933–39”; and the paper by Ariella Lang (Barnard College, Columbia University) was entitled “Race, Religion, Exclusion: Anti-Semitic Initiatives and the Catholic Church in Mussolini’s Italy.” The second afternoon session was devoted to “The Discovery of Mary.” Darleen Pryds (Franciscan School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley) served as chair for two of the originally scheduled three papers (Anthony Shenoda of Harvard University was unable to attend). Luis Corteguera (University of Kansas) presented the paper “The Sex of Vision in Counter-Reformation Spain,” which was a correction of the title given in the printed program. The second paper was that by Lisa M. Bitel (University of Southern California), whose revised title was “Knock, Knock, Who’s There? Marian Apparitions after Fátima.” Following these, Isabel Moreira (University of Utah) provided a commentary. Both sessions featured engaged discussion by the audience following the formal presentations.

On Friday at 4:30 p.m., the annual business meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association took place, chaired by Steven M. Avella (Marquette University), the incoming president of the association. Paul Robichaud (North...