Lay Retreats: The Image Of A New Passionist & National Apostolate In The Sign During The 1920s
by Rob Carbonneau, C.P., Ph.D.
During its first decade (1921-1930), The Sign magazine actively promoted the Passionist and national retreat movement.
Passionist retreats were conducted for men. A retreat master, not a retreat team gave the program. Retreatants appear to have come from professional interest groups not parish based groups. As the apostolate grew, national organization of laymen from various Passionist retreats appeared to be a greater priority than it was organizing Passionists who preached to the retreatants. Emphasis was on spiritual rather than educational development.
Retreats and the Lay Apostolate, by Edward W. Joyce (September 1921) presented the retreat movement as a sacred oasis in the desert of modern culture which was overcome by war and modern science. "A retreat," wrote Joyce, "begins the social regeneration...by purifying the soul and properly directing the will of man, the social unit." During the three day "cloistered quiet of the monastery" the article described how Passionist monasteries at St. Gabriel's, Brighton, MA; Chicago, IL; Holy Cross Prep at Dunkirk, NY; and St. Paul's Monastery, Pittsburgh, PA; gave men "time for reflection upon the true value of life." Time at the foot of the Cross, holy Mass, and Papal Blessing at the end of the experience emphasized that a personal relationship with God was paramount in order to combat "revolution," "divorces," and "the diminution in the birth-rate." Retreatants, according to Joyce, were the "Knights of Faith," the "lay apostles" resembling Spartans at Thermopylae defending the faith of America, the world, and the Church in the 1920s. Joyce certainly gave the impression that the retreats conducted by the Passionists were providing spiritual stability in an unstable world.
The following month George Philson continued the theme in his article "The Lay-Retreat Movement Necessary in America." Once again modern industrial society was the villain leading Catholics to "indifference in matters of belief, a tolerance of false ideals of family life, loose morals, vile, and anti-Christian literature, false standards of honesty in business, a defiance of authority—Socialism and a host of other errors." Retreats, so important for the clergy and religious and promoted by Pope Pius X in 1904, were the means to revitalize the spirit. Philson then when on to point out that members of the Catholic hierarchy saw the Passionist efforts in Brighton, MA, and Pittsburgh, PA, as signs of new hope. Two of the three groups of Boston retreatants pictured in the article appeared to be professionals; employees of Boston City Hall and a businessmen's retreat.
Passionist editor of The Sign, Fr. Harold Purcell, believed that the magazine should be a means to promote Catholic principles and educate the public on new Catholic ventures. John J. Sullivan's "The Laymen's Week-end Retreat League of Philadelphia" (June 1922) described the genesis of the Malvern, PA, retreat movement. It was an outgrowth of retreats for laymen conducted at St. Charles Borremeo Seminary and the desire of a Catholic layman, John J. Ferreck, "to establish a permanent home for retreatants in the beautiful suburbs of that city." Privacy and solitude were essential for the fifty-five acre site and turn-of-the century mansion. Approved by Cardinal Dougherty, Malvern was unique in that it was incorporated by laymen, not the diocese. The retreat was dedicated on May 21, 1922, and the first retreat master was St. Charles Seminary professor, Rev. Joseph M. Corrigan, D.D. Sullivan went on to point out that the retreat provided a comfortable place to "see things in proper perspective" and return "with a desire to do something for the Church." To ensure "privacy and detachment" Malvern did not plan to go beyond fifty men, and the retreat season appeared to have a winter break from mid-November to April. A Malvern retreat weekend in 1922 cost $10.
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