HOTBED OF COMMUNISM?

I well remember the muggy 14th day of January 1967 when I received my doctorate from Western Reserve University.  Candidates who had earned doctorates, masters, or undergraduate degrees assembled in Severance Hall, which could seat all two thousand graduates.  After the university president delivered a short congratulatory message, we marched out to the particular hall or auditorium where the appropriate degrees were conferred.

What a delight it was to learn that Atlanta’s Archbishop Paul Hallinan, a native Clevelander, would receive an honorary degree that afternoon, address our college and assist in conferring diplomas.  A few years earlier Hallinan had earned a Ph.D. in history at Reserve.

Hallinan was ordained five years before me at Saint Mary Seminary, so we were friends, although not close ones. He was delighted to confer my doctoral degree and suggested that we meet briefly after the ceremony, which we did.

Paul told me he was happy that I had earned a doctorate at Reserve but was saddened that few priests pursued degrees in higher education at Reserve. Unfortunately, it was the era of McCarthyism when many higher education institutions and individuals were targeted as fostering Communism.  Some priests of the diocese went so far as to call Reserve a hotbed of Communism.

My conversation with Hallinan was short because of the crowds of people who had come to honor the graduates. It was the last time I had the opportunity to speak with this outstanding prelate.

A few years later when Hallinan was in Rome as a participant in the Vatican Council, he developed what was thought to be food poisoning and died a short time later.

Hallinan had high respect for Reserve and never believed that it was a hotbed of Communism. I agreed with him wholeheartedly because of my personal experience at the university.

While working under the direction of my doctoral advisor, Dr. Edward Fox, I became frustrated when time and again he suggested revisions in my manuscript.  For example, he had approved chapter 2, then later when I was writing chapter 4 suggested a revision that required me to re-write chapters already submitted. These were pre-computer days, when entire manuscripts would need to be re-typed to make required changes.

One afternoon when he made a suggestion which would mean that I would have to re-write several earlier chapters I exploded.  “Dr. Fox,” I said, “what guarantee do I have that you won’t require more changes after I revise this?”

“George,” he responded. “You have no guarantee.  But I want you to know something.  Every night when my wife and three children kneel down to say our night prayers, you have a prominent place in our prayers. All of us want you to succeed and earn your doctorate.” 

During our work together we had interesting discussions about religious issues from time to time, he from a Protestant perspective and I from a Catholic one, but I was surprised that he told me about his family’s nightly practice of prayer and deeply touched that they included me in their prayers.

So much for the canard that Reserve was a hotbed of Communism.

Posted February 3, 2011

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