Last spring Steven Avella was awarded Marquette’s Haggerty Award for Research Excellence, becoming one of a handful of Marquette faculty honored with both this award as well as one of the University’s awards for teaching excellence. It’s also worth bragging that he is the third Marquette historian to win this award, following Jim Marten (2010) and Athan Theoharis (2002). In this post, Steve shares some details of his current research project, which recently garnered research support from the Cushwa Center for American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.
Since my presidential address to the American Catholic Historical Association in 2010 I have been working on a history of the Catholic Church in the American West during the 20th century. (“Catholicism in the Twentieth Century American West: The Next Frontier,” Catholic Historical Review 98 (April 2011): 219-249. The target audiences for this book are my colleagues in the field of Western History. There is a need for a greater appreciation of the role of the Catholic Church in the economic, cultural, and social development of this region. Catholic dioceses grew tremendously in the 20th century and re-mapped the west. Catholic enterprises in schools, health care and social provision provided important services for the evolving region. Catholic ministries to native peoples and Latinx peoples are important to note as is ministry to immigrant groups (Germans, French, Portuguese, and Italians.) It is a massive project.
One important research thread I have been following has been the files on American diocese in the Vatican Archives. The Holy See carefully tracked the development of the Catholic Church in the American West. The files of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation contain reports on dioceses replete with vivid descriptions of the land, the people, and the challenges of various regions. The office of the Apostolic Delegation to the United States has reports and correspondence on dioceses and issue related to the selection of bishops. The files of the Secretariat of State contain ample records on the US Church. I have already published one article on this topic in the US Catholic Historian. (“The Catholic Church in the Twentieth-Century American West: Spatial Realities, Demographic Growth, and Roman Observations,” 39 (2021): 113-134.)
With the opening of a new set of records by Pope Francis, I can now pursue further research. I applied for and received the Peter D’Agostino Travel Grant from the Cushwa Center for American Catholicism. I have already made a reservation at the Vatican Archives and hopefully will be off to Rome to toil away in those records from mid-May to the end of June.
I am delighted to receive this award from my alma mater. Years ago, I was present when the Cushwa Center was opened and I was one of the first Cushwa Fellows—which took care of my financial needs for all my years at Notre Dame. I also knew Dr. D’ Agostino—a fine young scholar of the relationship between the US Church and the Holy See whose life was cut short. I am honored to advance his legacy.
Historians@Work 
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