1865-1945
Priest

American Priest.

Academic Career.

Social Action.

On Catholicism in America.

Politics.

Disappointment.

Ryan was deeply disappointed with the failure of the Smith campaign and believed that anti- Catholic prejudice was a major cause, ignoring the Republican majority among the general public and the widespread prosperity of the decade. Probably no Democrat could have been elected in 1928, but the openly anti-Catholic sentiment, not only among the ignorant but also among intellectuals, was damaging to the Catholic community.

Source:

Robert D. Cross, The Emerging of Liberal Catholicism in America (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958).