Roman Catholic crusading in ten years of Triumph, 1966-1976: A history of a lay-directed, radical Catholic journal

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to explicate the Roman Catholic views of Triumph, a lay-directed Catholic journal. The principal source was the journal. In addition, the research was dependent upon interviews, books published by the editors, papal encyclicals, Vatican Council II documents, and two special collections. The primary research was complimented by extensive secondary research.Findings and Conclusions: The purpose of Triumph 's editors was to convert America to the Roman Catholic faith and construct a confessional state. That is, they wanted to subject the public order to the authority of Christ's vicar, the pope. They believed that the American political order--because it gave authority to the people, rather than Christ, and separated Church and state--was an inherently secular and relativist order, and thus, was an obstacle to virtue. The confessional state, in contrast, aided virtue and thereby promoted the salvation of its members. The confessional state, they noted, was an act of love. The thesis of this dissertation is that Triumph 's editors were radical. Their views--essentially calling for a regime change--were militant and extraordinary in the context of late twentieth-century America. Two sub-theses of this dissertation are that the editors did more than sustain a journal, but actually founded a movement dedicated to their radical goals, and that the journal, despite its sectarian views, was important. Their views and actions exhibited the tension that is to exist, supposedly, between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern pluralist and secular state. Catholics have dual citizenship, to the Church of Rome and to their country. The obligations to the former, the Church teaches, supersede the latter when their interests conflict. A Catholic revival in America, rooted in such a tension, could rightly be traced to Triumph