Notes and Comments

Association News

At its last annual meeting, which was held in Washington, D.C., on January 8, 2004, the Executive Council appointed Leslie W. Tentler of the Catholic University of America assistant secretary and treasurer of the American Catholic Historical Association.

At the same meeting the Executive Council approved the regulations for the awarding of the Harry C. Koenig Prize that were proposed by an ad hoc committee consisting of James D. Tracy of the University of Minnesota (chairman), Marvin O'Connell, emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, and Uta-Renate Blumenthal of the Catholic University of America. (See the obituary of Monsignor Koenig ante, LXXXVIII [April, 2002], 407-408.) The following statement was unanimously adopted: "The Harry C. Koenig Prize, offered every two years, is a subvention fund to assist a press in publishing a book-length biography of a member of the Catholic Church who has lived in any period of history and in any part of the world. Works already accepted for publication may be submitted for the award, but the winning manuscript must have printed, preferably on its title page, 'The Msgr. Harry C. Koenig Prize in Catholic Biography.' The monetary grant will be made within a maximum of two years after the award has been announced and upon receipt in writing of a commitment from the publisher accepting the manuscript for publication. Beginning with the initial competition, for 2004/2005, manuscripts must be submitted by November 1 to the Executive Office of the American Catholic Historical Association in Mullen Library, Room 320, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20064. Manuscripts may not be submitted in more than one competition. The award will be announced at the Association's annual meeting in January." As is true of all the Association's prizes, an applicant must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or Canada. The committee for the choice of the first winner will be the same as the ad hoc committee named above.

The President of the American Catholic Historical Association, Christopher J. Kauffman of the Catholic University of America, has appointed three members to the Committee on Program (of which he is chairman) for the eighty-fifth annual meeting, which will be held in Seattle, Washington, on January 7-9, 2005. They are Jo Ann H. Moran Cruz of Georgetown University, Thomas Kselman of the University of Notre Dame, and James Riley of the Catholic University of America.

Meetings, Congresses, Conferences, Symposia, and Colloquia

The Texas Catholic Historical Society was to hold its annual meeting in Austin on March 5. In a joint session with the Texas State Historical Association the topic "Writing Diocesan History" was discussed by Sister Hildegard Varga, O.S.B., of St. Benedict Monastery and Sister Dolores Ann Liptak R.S.M., of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.

To commemorate the quincentenary of the election of Giuliano della Rovere to the papacy in 1503, an international conference on "Giulio II: Papa, politico, mecenate" was held on March 25-27, 2004, in the Fortezza del Priamar at Savona, the city in which he was born. Among those presenting papers were Christine Shaw of the University of Warwick ("Giuliano Della Rovere: l'uomo, il politico, il principe della Chiesa") and Nelson H. Minnich of the Catholic University of America ("The Image of Julius II in the Acta of the Councils of Pisa- Milan-Asti-Lyon and Lateran V").

A colloquium will be held on the Island of Andros, Greece, on April 22-25, 2004, to mark the eighth centenary of the Fall of Constantinople.

The Advisory Committee of the project "The Vatican and Religious Institutions, 1802-1914," will hold an international colloquium on May 27-29, 2004, at the Belgian Academy in Rome on "Religious Institutions and the Roman Factor in Western Europe, 1802-1914." Papers will be delivered in English and French and will subsequently be published. Seven themes have been proposed, to wit, "The Role of the Curia," "The Role of the Papal Nuncios...