Post by Séamus on Nov 20, 2021 7:00:05 GMT
I came across a yellowing paperback (1955 it turns out,but the original imprimatur was given in 1949 by Archbishop McIntyre of California) Pageant of the Popes by John Farrow,a 'Golden Age of Hollywood' producer whose name probably sounded vaguely familiar to me at the time.
The book itself said a couple of things about mid-20th century Catholicism that might not fit into one's perception of the times. John was already divorced and remarried to Roscommon-born Maureen O'Sullivan, mostly known as Tarzan's Jane in the kookaburra-backgrounded films of the era. Still,several prelates seemed happy to be involved in the volume, which, incidentally is (so far) giving a very traditionally cosy Catholic narrative by comparison with what we might read or hear today.
Anyone who thinks that John XXIII's policy of openness as unprecedented might note that the introduction by a Fr Louis Galeb notes that
"(Leo XIII) remarked 'We are not afraid of having the (Vatican Library) documents published". St Pius X who succeeded Leo in 1903 continued to encourage Ludwig von Pastor by saying 'Truth never need he feared'".
This was a decade before Vatican II.
John and Maureen seem to have had the large picture perfect Catholic family of the 1950s- the best known Mia,was originally named Maria de Lourdes Farrow- looking into how they all ended up is disconcerting, somehow several took more interest in Eastern mysticism as they got older.
I don't know how familiar everyone is with the '50s image Our Lady of the Highway? It always,for some reason, gave me a happy feeling- a slim stylised Mary watching over a road winding around a small globe of the Earth with '50s cars driving around here and there. Western society, uncomplicated, strong against the Iron Curtain, so united in it's ideology. But looking closer at families like the Farrows, we can see that everything in this world is and was fragile and unreliable and forever a struggle.
The book itself said a couple of things about mid-20th century Catholicism that might not fit into one's perception of the times. John was already divorced and remarried to Roscommon-born Maureen O'Sullivan, mostly known as Tarzan's Jane in the kookaburra-backgrounded films of the era. Still,several prelates seemed happy to be involved in the volume, which, incidentally is (so far) giving a very traditionally cosy Catholic narrative by comparison with what we might read or hear today.
Anyone who thinks that John XXIII's policy of openness as unprecedented might note that the introduction by a Fr Louis Galeb notes that
"(Leo XIII) remarked 'We are not afraid of having the (Vatican Library) documents published". St Pius X who succeeded Leo in 1903 continued to encourage Ludwig von Pastor by saying 'Truth never need he feared'".
This was a decade before Vatican II.
John and Maureen seem to have had the large picture perfect Catholic family of the 1950s- the best known Mia,was originally named Maria de Lourdes Farrow- looking into how they all ended up is disconcerting, somehow several took more interest in Eastern mysticism as they got older.
I don't know how familiar everyone is with the '50s image Our Lady of the Highway? It always,for some reason, gave me a happy feeling- a slim stylised Mary watching over a road winding around a small globe of the Earth with '50s cars driving around here and there. Western society, uncomplicated, strong against the Iron Curtain, so united in it's ideology. But looking closer at families like the Farrows, we can see that everything in this world is and was fragile and unreliable and forever a struggle.