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176 Chapter 8 The Conference Becomes International Ligutti’s Role During the 1920s, the newborn NCRLC was most concerned with the Catholic rural population problem. Later, in response to the Great Depression , the Conference turned its attention to the economic aspects of rural life as well. During the 1940s, the NCRLC further expanded the scope of its activities by entering international affairs. Before World War II, the NCRLC had little involvement with rural life outside of the United States. In the 1920s and 1930s, Father O’Hara and others in the Conference had studied rural life in Europe and exchanged information with people outside of the United States on how to deal with rural problems but had not undertaken any long-lasting commitments involving other nations. Starting with World War II, this began to change. The shift was in part a function of alterations in the NCRLC’s environment . The United States became committed to the role of a great world power, and to some extent the activities of national organizations such as the NCRLC simply followed the flag. The second cause of the Conference’s growing involvement in international rural life was the personal influence of Monsignor Ligutti. The Italian-born immigrant was well suited to lead the NCRLC into concern for foreign lands. Ligutti perceived that after World War II the U.S. government, American rural life, and the American Catholic Church all became international: “The world looks to the Catholic Church for leadership in fighting for solutions to farm problems, especially as they affect farm families and all rural peoples. The United States came out of World War II the natural world leader. It naturally follows that the Catholic Church in America must assume leadership in solving these prob- The Conference Becomes International 177 lems.”1Ligutti brought an awareness to American farmers “that there is a Third World, a world of poverty and need where two-thirds of the people ‘go to bed hungry at night’” and that the United States had a “responsibility for the needs of suffering mankind throughout the world.” Ligutti’s biographer went so far as to claim that the monsignor “almost singlehandedly brought the conservative heartbelt of the United States into the mainstream of international life.” He certainly did so for the NCRLC.2 While Ligutti was executive director of the NCRLC, he handled all of the international affairs of the Conference personally. He continued to deal with them from 1960 to the mid-1970s as director for international affairs. After Ligutti gradually faded out of the job in the mid-1970s, the Conference did not hire another international affairs director, even though the 1975 constitution provided for that possibility. Instead, international affairs were handled on an ad hoc basis by various NCRLC officials.3 Ligutti promoted the international role of the NCRLC in many ways. He collected news of international Catholic rural activities and shared it with the Conference membership through columns in the NCRLC periodicals such as “Other Lands” in Land and Home and “Around the World” in Feet in the Furrow. As he became a well-known international figure, his headquarters in Des Moines began to receive thousands of letters from around the world informing the Conference of rural developments in other lands and asking for advice. In addition, the headquarters became a popular stopping place for foreign Catholic priests, sisters, bishops, and laymen interested in rural life who were visiting the United States. It was not unusual for the headquarters to welcome with its famous hospitality a bishop from Tanganyika and a student from the Philippines at the same time.4 However, more important than other travelers’ visits to Des Moines were Ligutti’s own extensive travels to all parts of the world on behalf of rural life. Before Ligutti’s time, Conference officials had traveled occasionally to Canada, Mexico, and Europe. But travel was a customary part of Ligutti’s lifestyle, and he soon journeyed more than all of the others put to1 . “Plan National Program,” Rural Life Conference 7 (May 1958): 10. 2. Vincent A. Yzermans, “NCRLC’s Work Discussed in Bicentennial Series,” Catholic Rural Life 25 (April 1976): 11–13. 3. Constitution of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (Des Moines, Iowa: NCRLC, 1975), in “Gen. Pubs., 1970–76,” NCRLC 5-5, 7–8; issues of Catholic Rural Life since 1975. 4. See, for example, “Visitors at Headquarters,” Feet in the Furrow 3 (February 1955): 2; “Spanish Rural Life Head Studies, Praises NCRLC,” Catholic Rural...

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