Catholic Parish Life on Florida's West Coast, 1860-1968 by Michael J. McNally (review)

518BOOK REVIEWS Catholic Parish Life on Florida's West Coast, 1860-1968. By Michael J. McNaUy. (St. Petersburg: CathoUc Media Ministries, Inc.,The CathoUc Diocese of St. Petersburg. 1996. Pp. xix, 503. Paperback.) Born of Spanish colonial struggle, pockmarked by virulent anticlerical strife, and punctuated by explosive growth, the Catholic Church along Florida's southwest coast has long awaited its historian. In Catholic Parish Life on Florida 's West Coast, 1860-1968, Michael J. McNaIIy offers the region's first comprehensive history of CathoUcism. The task of writing a history of parish life along the gulf region stretching from Naples to Tampa Bay is daunting. McNaUy possesses impeccable credentials for the task.A professor ofhistory at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, he enjoyed fuU access to diocesan materials and church archives. Moreover, McNaUy has consulted a wide variety of secondary sources, notably new studies which attempt to place the Church in broader perspective. In his conclusion, McNaUy notes,"What characterizes parish life on the West Coast from I860 to 1968 is change, from a rural Southern backwater frontier community to a sprawling metropoUtan mecca, in just over 100 years" (p. 399)· Examined through four separate time periods and organized around five themes (clergy, piety, organization, education, and ethnicity), Catholic Parish Life presents an extraordinary amount of material, detaU, and analysis. Readers and researchers wiU find names and deeds of pioneering priests, founding dates for parish churches and schools, and tables listing baptisms, marriages , and school enrollment. Significantly McNaUy does a splendid job in providing background, borrowing UberaUy from the proliferation of studies examining Florida, especiaUy Tampa Bay. His fascinating discussion of AfricanAmerican and Afro-Cuban CathoUc schools and reUgious practices invites future inquiry. WhUe Catholic Parish Life on Florida's West Coast breaks new ground, the work is marred by several troubling areas. The copious endnotes make no sense; the endnotes do not match the chapters. The documentation will confuse and exasperate readers attempting to determine any sense oforder.This reviewer takes sharp issue with McNaUy's interpretation of CathoUcism among Tampa'sYbor City immigrants.The author ignores the weighty evidence of anticlericaUsm engendered by Spanish and ItaUan language newspapers and labor-mutual aid society sources, while arguing that the Catholic Church in Ybor City triumphed in spite ofthe opposition.This reviewer contends that Italian , Cuban, and Spanish immigrants ("Latin" in the vernacular) manifested an anticlericalism seldom matched in the United States.When viewed against the competing institutions of labor unions and mutual aid societies, the CathoUc church inYbor City faUed miserably Future historians wUl find fruitful inquiry into these issues. BOOK REVIEWS519 OveraU, McNally's Catholic Parish Life on Florida's West Coast, 1860-1968, is an impressively researched book that wUl become the standard work on the subject for many generations. Gary R. Mormino University ofSouth Florida The Search for Thomas E Ward, Teacher of Frederick Delias. By Don C. GUlespie . (GainesvUle: University Press of Florida. 1996. Pp. xvi, 180. $29.95.) Thomas Ward (1856-1912) was buried in a pauper's unmarked grave in Houston's Holy Cross Cemetery. Ward was a professional musician, a music teacher, and a Catholic. But none of his musical compositions were preserved; only one verifiable photograph of him exists; only four of his letters are extant; his extensive library has vanished; aU correspondence between him and his famous student, Frederick DeUus, was destroyed.Why write and publish a biography about a man in historical oblivion? Moreover, GUlespie, a NewYork musicologist , an editor of the scores of modern composers, a writer for scholarly musical journals, is an unlikely biographer ofWard since his is neither an historian nor a Catholic, but his interest in the renowned Delius led him to the obscure Ward. GiUespie teUs two stories: the first, as his title implies, is about his dogged and patient pursuit for documentation about Ward; the second, is about Ward himself , a man unremembered, but whose life of quiet dignity touched others. GUlespie makes his search forWard an integral part of the narrative. Some may find this self-referential detective tale distracting; the author's research difficulties become as important asWard himself. Others may find some of GiUespie's conjectures about Ward, when evidence is...