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Archiver > NY-IRISH > 2002-03 > 1015043034


From: Pat Connors <>
Subject: [NY IRISH] more of John Hughes story...
Date: Fri, 01 Mar 2002 20:23:54 -0800


remember that article from Urbanites, I've been a bit busy so fell
behind, my apologies...



He did this by putting Catholicism's Marian Doctrine right at the enter
of his message. Irish women would hear from the priest and nuns that
Mary was Queen of Peace, Queen of Prophets, and Queen of Heaven, and
that women were important. The "ladies of New York," Hughes told them,
were "the children, the daughters of Mary." The Marian teaching
encouraged women to take responsibility for their own lives, to inspire
their men and their children to good conduct, to keep their families
together, and to become forces for upright behavior in their
neighborhoods. The nuns, especially, encouraged women to become
community leaders and play major roles in church fund-raising
activities--radical notions for a male-dominated society where women did
not yet have the right to vote. In addition, Irish men and women saw
nuns in major executive positions, managing hospitals, schools,
orphanages, and church societies--sending another highly unusual message
fro the day. Irish women became important allies in Hughes' war for
values; by the 1850s they began to be major forces for moral rectitude,
stability, and progress in the Irish neighborhoods of the city.

When Hughes went beyond spiritual uplift to the material and
institutional needs of New York's Irish, he always focused sharply on
self-help and mutual aid. On the simplest level, in all parishes he
encouraged the formation of church societies--support groups, like
today's women's groups or Alcoholics Anonymous, to help people deal with
neighborhood concerns or personal and family problems, such as
alcoholism or finding employment. In these groups, people at the local
level could exchange information and advice, and offer on another
encouragement and constructive criticism.



My comments: If Hughes believed in self-help, why then did he rely on
the women to bring the men around??? Why didn't he go after the men,
also, to change their behaviors?

--
Pat Connors, Sacramento CA
http://www.connorsgenealogy.com
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