Paging Cardinal O’Connell
As Professor Ubertaccio explained yesterday, we bow before the Gambling Gods in Massachusetts. But there was once another sort of deity, or at least his spokesman, who could – and did – stop such...
View ArticleAn Irish Wake for Catholic Politics
As I wrote in Paging Cardinal O’Connell the once mighty Catholic Church has so desiccated its moral authority that it had no influence in stopping the casinos bill. Not too long ago the lobbyist for...
View ArticleContraceptives and the Mass. Senate Race
A true baby boomer knows how to duck and cover and that’s what President Barack Obama did recently in changing his administration’s policy on contraceptives in the face of opposition from the Catholic...
View ArticleThomas H. O’Connor, 1922-2012
Anyone who cares about the rich history of Boston and Massachusetts is saddened today by the passing of Boston College historian Thomas H. O’Connor at age 89. Tom had a scholar’s sense of curious...
View ArticleDefining the Working Class – Workers I
I’d like to get back to Edgar Litt’s 1965 book The Political Cultures of Massachusetts to continue the conversation on the four political subcultures in the state and to get some help as I think about...
View ArticleThe Comeback Cardinal
Once upon a time the Catholic Church played a major role in Massachusetts politics, so big that as historian Thomas O’Connor remarked “When Cardinal O’Connell spoke, the State House shook.” It’s been...
View Article
