As a proud, former member of the Franco-American, AKA French Canadian, community of Lowell, Massachusetts, I would like to explain to my friends and acquaintances, from the world elsewhere, just how Papal authority and pronouncements guided and controlled our daily activities.
First and foremost, we considered ourselves full-fledged members of the Universalist, Catholic faith, which was located physically in Rome, Italy.
Secondly, we were also members of the American society, living under the rules and regulations of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In addition, we were bound by State laws enacted by state legislators all over the land.
Spiritually, our religious leaders made their pronouncements through the Vatican whereas, all temporal issues fell into the hands of our democratically elected officials. This arrangement worked reasonably well much of the time, but arguments and disputes did arise when the spiritual/temporal dividing line was disrupted.
Issues of contention had different focal points over the years, but some issues had no easy resolution, such as: divorce, remarriage, human evolution, workers’ rights, socialism or Communism, unemployment benefits, the New Deal, patriotism, etc.
There were plenty of areas for contention, but from our small community of low-paid, under-educated, confrères existing on the margins of a then-failing, industrial capitalism post 1929, good words of consolation and kindness emanating from Rome were music to tired ears.
Some of the issues that reached the newspaper level of concern are listed without comments in the excerpted pages of the Lowell Sun from that period.
Listed above is a very brief documentary on the impact of Pius XII on the history of our country over the many years.