January 5, 2000

 

Dear Parishioners,

On the weekend of January 2nd I shared with our parishioners pictures and brief summaries of my list of the ten most important or significant Catholics in the 20th Century for Church and Catholics in the U.S. Here’s my list; this time, unlike at the Mass presentation, they are in order of importance:

  1. Pope John XXIII (1958-1963)
  2. John F. Kennedy
  3. Pope John Paul II (1978- )
  4. Dorothy Day, Co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement
  5. Teilhard de Chardin, paleontologist and theologian
  6. John Courtney Murray, theologian of religious freedom
  7. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
  8. Cardinal Joseph Bernadin
  9. Thomas Merton, author and Trappist monk
  10. The Martyrs of El Salvador (four North American women, Bishop Oscar Romero, six Jesuits and two women helpers)

    11. The principle criterion I used in drawing up the list was "how much impact did these people make on our thinking, our behavior and our lives, especially as Church and believers? Here are another ten who didn’t make the first list, but almost did; again listed in approximate order of importance:

  11. Cesar Chavez, union organizer
  12. Bishop Fulton Sheen
  13. Pat and Patty Crowley, founders of the Christian Family Movement (CFM)
  14. Pope Pius XII (1939-1958)
  15. Flannery O’Connor, novelist
  16. Cardinal Francis Spellman
  17. Msgr. John A. Ryan, social reformer
  18. Alfred E. Smith, candidate for President
  19. Raymond Brown, scripture scholar
  20. Ted Hesburgh, president of Notre Dame

Here are some others that received consideration, but didn’t quite make it: G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, Dr. Tom Dooley, Sr. Ignatia (pioneer of the A.A. movement), J. F. Powers (novelist), Fr. Flanagan of Boys Town, Fr. Charles Couglin ("radio priest"), Andrew Greeley, Jacques Maritain (philosopher) William F. Buckley, Jr. Vince Lombardi and Bing Crosby!