Father Charles Coughlin

Early Years

• Born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1891.
• After graduating from St. Michael's College in Toronto, he studied for the priesthood at St. Basil's Seminary and was ordained in 1916.
• Coughlin was deeply influenced by the encyclical, On the Condition of the Working Class, published by Pope Leo XIII in 1891.
• In this document the Pope called for far-reaching reforms to create a more just society in order to counter the growing support for socialism in the world.

Detroit

• After assisting in several parishes in the Detroit area, Coughlin was assigned to the new Shrine of the Little Flower Church in Royal Oak, Michigan, in 1926.
• At the time the parish only had 25 families, but Coughlin was such a popular preacher he was later able to build a church to hold 600 people.

Radio

• October 1926: Coughlin started a weekly broadcast over the local radio station.
• Initially, the broadcast was intended for children, but it gradually changed to adult topics, and Coughlin began expressing his views on the need for social reform.
• The Ku Klux Klan, upset by his views, arranged for a blazing cross planted on the lawn.
• 1930: National broadcast on CBS

Politics

• Coughlin was highly critical of the government in the Soviet Union.
• He argued that the Communist government had made divorce easy and claimed these anti-family ideas were spreading to the United States.
• Coughlin believed the best way of combating the appeal of these ideologies was the introduction of reforms that would make America a more equal society.
• Included industrialists paying their workers a living wage and pensions

Politics

• Coughlin denounced the greed and corruption of America's industrialists and warned about the dangers of the "concentration of wealth in the hands of the few.”
• July 1930: Coughlin testified before the House of Representatives Committee to Investigate Communist Activities.
• Coughlin criticized left-wing groups, but he shocked the committee by also attacking leading industrialists such as Henry Ford.

Controversy

• Coughlin began to criticize the government of President Herbert Hoover.
• CBS, concerned by this development, warned him to tone down his broadcasts.
• When Coughlin refused, CBS decided not to renew his contract when it expired in April 1931.
• Coughlin responded by organizing his own radio network, which eventually grew to over 30 stations.

Popularity

• The first edition of his complete radio discourses, published in 1933, quickly sold over a million copies.
• Radio audience reached 30 million.
• Received 400,000 letters a week from listeners

Political Activity

• November 1934: Formed the National Union of Social Justice
• In 1935, Coughlin started a campaign to restructure the Federal Reserve System and urged Roosevelt to take full government control over the nation's banking system.
• Coughlin also became involved in trade unions.

Political Activity

• Formed an alliance with populist Gov. Huey Long of Louisiana.
• After Long killed in 1935, Coughlin backed William Lepke as a third-party candidate against FDR.
• Lepke lost badly and Coughlin’s power started to wane.

Decline

• Became an isolationist and one of his campaign slogans was: "Less care for internationalism and more concern for national prosperity.”
• Praised the actions of Hitler and Mussolini in 1938 against Communism
• Coughlin attacked the influence of Jews in America
• 1942: Archbishop Francis Mooney ordered Coughlin to end his political activities.
• Continued as priest and died in 1979