Rome and the Church in the United States

Rome and the Church in the United States

Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, who confirmed my father, was a pugnacious Irishman with a taste for shocking people via undiplomatic language. In a conversation with the great historian John Tracy Ellis, Curley, who had had his share of tussles with the Vatican, once blurted out, “Rome will use you, abuse you, and then throw you away!” Like other bombastic Curleyisms, it was an exaggeration, but one that contained a nugget of truth: R…