Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

In our issue of April, 1921, we announced a change in the programme of the Catholic Historical Review, setting forth the reasons which impelled the broadening of its field of activities. We entered the new field with misgivings; but we cherished the hope that the larger ambitus would eventually enhance the value of the Review and enable it to make a more general appeal to students of history.

We now take pleasure in announcing that our hopes have been fully realized and we have secured a solid foothold in the territory which we so timorously invaded. The success which has been attained is due: to the sympathetic encouragement and support rendered by the Right Rev. Rector of the Catholic University of America; to the generosity and hearty coöperation of our subscribers; to the seasonable aid of several distinguished contributors who, without pecuniary remuneration, have supplied scholarly articles to our columns; to the untiring energy of the secretary of the Board of Administration, Mr. J. Harvey Cain, and the loyal support of the Executive of the Editorial Board.

This issue marks another étape in the steady and encouraging progress of the Review. It is now issued as the accredited organ of the American Catholic Historical Association under a most satisfactory agreement entered into with this nation-wide organization at its annual meeting held at New Haven in the month of December. By the terms of this agreement the membership fee in the Association has been increased to five dollars annually, and each member becomes ipso facto a subscriber to the Catholic Historical Review, which assumes the obligation of

publishing the Acta of the Association. The affiliation, however, affects in nowise the policy of the Review which, in pursuance of its stated programme, will discuss as heretofore historical problems relating to the internal and external life of the Church; chronicle important historical events of ecclesiastical interest; and review publications which have historical or academic value.

In addition to an already lengthy list of contributors, we have enlisted the coöperation of several distinguished Catholic writers and scholars in Europe, and in the near future we shall publish articles by Dr. Hartmann Grisar, S.J., the famous Innsbruck author, Dr. Pfeilshifter, Rector of the University of Munich, Dr. Maurice de Wulf, of Louvain and Harvard, Msgr. O'Doherty, Rector of the Irish College, of Salamanca, and others.

An arrangement has been effected with St. Thomas's Historical Society of London, whose membership comprises the most erudite Catholic historians in Great Britain, whereby we secure for publication many of the papers read at its monthly meetings. Some of these papers are already in our possession.

We feel that the outlook for the future of the Catholic Historical Review is radiant with promise, and we are confident that its new programme will more effectually promote a national interest in the history of the Catholic Church and serve as a stimulus to historical study.

THE MANAGING EDITOR.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL

ASSOCIATION

DECEMBER 27-30 1922

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

To chronicle even briefly the many events of the Third Annual Meeting of the Association without yielding to the desire to impart to one's words the enthusiasm which marked its public sessions and conferences, and the pleasure which all felt in its social gatherings, would indeed be difficult. The retrospect adds strength to this impression. Washington, St. Louis and New Haven-these widely separated cities have been the scenes of the first three Annual Meetings of the Association. Each of them was a distinct success. Each evoked memories that will never be forgotten by those who participated in their Public Sessions. Each in turn was of a creative nature, forming, shaping, and maturing plans for the next Meeting. The geographical distribution of those who were present at the Washington Meeting became wider at St. Louis and wider still at New Haven. At the Meeting at Washington our first President, Dr. Lawrence F. Flick, told us that the American Catholic Historical Association had come into existence at a time when scholarship was ripe for it; that the Association merely needed to do each task which fell within its easily discernible and welldefined field of labour promptly as it came along, to accomplish all that its most ardent friends could expect of it. These expectations were clearly visible during the second Meeting at St. Louis, where the Committee on Local Arrangements, with Monsignor Tannrath as its Chairman, prepared an elaborate series of social and academic events for the entertainment of our members. Every encouragement was felt at St. Louis that the next Meeting would prove all the more forcibly the value of these annual historical gatherings; and those who took part in the Meeting at New Haven saw the predictions of 1922 realized far beyond our hopes.

Under the Chairmanship of the Right Reverend Bishop John

« PreviousContinue »