Charles Coughlin was the founding priest of the National Shrine of the Little Flower.
39 Facts About Charles Coughlin
2.
Charles Coughlin was ordained to the priesthood in 1916, and in 1923 he was assigned to the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan.
3.
Charles Coughlin began broadcasting his sermons during a time of increasing anti-Catholic sentiment across the globe.
4.
Charles Coughlin largely vanished from the public arena, working as a parish pastor until retiring in 1966.
5.
Charles Coughlin was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the only child of Irish Catholic parents, Amelia and Thomas Charles Coughlin.
6.
Charles Coughlin prepared for holy orders at St Basil's Seminary and was ordained to the priesthood in Toronto in 1916.
7.
Charles Coughlin was assigned to teach at Assumption College, operated by the Basilians, in Windsor, Ontario.
8.
Charles Coughlin was incardinated by the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1923.
9.
In 1926, disturbed by Ku Klux Klan-orchestrated cross burnings on his church grounds and aware that he was unable to pay back the diocesan loan which had paid for his church, Charles Coughlin began broadcasting his Sunday sermons from local radio station WJR.
10.
When WJR was acquired by Goodwill Stations in 1929, owner George A Richards encouraged Coughlin to focus on politics instead of religious topics.
11.
Charles Coughlin's program was picked up by CBS in 1930 for national broadcast.
12.
In January 1930, Charles Coughlin began a series of attacks against socialism and Soviet Communism, which were both strongly opposed by the Catholic Church.
13.
Charles Coughlin criticized capitalists in America whose greed had made communist ideologies attractive.
14.
Charles Coughlin's views were seen as mirroring those of Richards himself, who had held reactionary conservative beliefs.
15.
Charles Coughlin was critical of Prohibitionism, which he claimed was the work of "fanatics".
16.
Charles Coughlin was an early supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal reforms and coined the phrase "Roosevelt or Ruin", which entered common usage during the early days of the first FDR administration.
17.
Charles Coughlin preached increasingly about the negative influence of "money changers" and "permitting a group of private citizens to create money" at the expense of the general welfare.
18.
Charles Coughlin spoke of the need for monetary reform based on "free silver".
19.
Charles Coughlin claimed that the Great Depression in the United States was a "cash famine" and proposed monetary reforms, including the nationalization of the Federal Reserve System, as the solution.
20.
Charles Coughlin was upset by Roosevelt's recognition of the Soviet Union.
21.
Charles Coughlin urged Roosevelt to use silver to increase the money supply and reorganize the financial system.
22.
Charles Coughlin's office received up to 80,000 letters per week from listeners.
23.
Charles Coughlin expressed an isolationist, and conspiratorial, viewpoint that resonated with many listeners.
24.
In 1934, when Coughlin began criticizing the New Deal, Roosevelt sent Joseph P Kennedy Sr.
25.
Increasingly opposed to Roosevelt, Charles Coughlin began denouncing the President as a tool of Wall Street; Charles Coughlin opposed the New Deal with growing vehemence, his radio talks attacked Roosevelt and capitalists and alleged existence of Jewish conspirators.
26.
Joseph Kennedy, who strongly supported the New Deal, warned as early as 1933 that Charles Coughlin was "becoming a very dangerous proposition" as an opponent of Roosevelt's and "an out and out demagogue".
27.
Charles Coughlin's NUSJ gained a strong following among nativists and opponents of the Federal Reserve, especially in the Midwest.
28.
At a campaign rally for the NUSJ at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on May 11,1936, Charles Coughlin predicted the organization would "take half of Ohio" in the upcoming primary election, citing multiple congressional candidates that had the NUSJ's backing.
29.
Charles Coughlin presided over two additional high-profile events in Cleveland during the summer of 1936: the Townsend Convention held at Cleveland Public Hall during mid-July and the Union party convention at Municipal Stadium on August 16; at the latter, Charles Coughlin fainted near the end of his speech.
30.
Lemke's candidacy was a failure, with Charles Coughlin taking a brief two-month hiatus after the election.
31.
Charles Coughlin believed Jewish bankers were behind the Russian Revolution, backing the Jewish Bolshevism conspiracy theory.
32.
Charles Coughlin promoted his controversial beliefs by means of his radio broadcasts and his weekly rotogravure magazine Social Justice, which began publication in March 1936.
33.
Station president Donald Flamm viewed an advance copy of the sermon and pressured Charles Coughlin to edit it twice but did not see the final text, which he said "was calculated to stir up religious and racial hatred and dissension in this country".
34.
Charles Coughlin worked around the new restrictions by purchasing air time and playing his speeches via transcription.
35.
Charles Coughlin said that, although the government had assumed the right to regulate any on-air broadcasts, the First Amendment still guaranteed and protected freedom of the written press.
36.
Isolationists such as Charles Coughlin acquired a reputation for sympathizing with the enemy.
37.
Charles Coughlin complied with the order and was allowed to remain the pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower.
38.
Charles Coughlin died in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1979 at the age of 88.
39.
Charles Coughlin was buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan.