The United States Catholic Conference (USCC) was established in 1966 by the Catholic Church, alongside the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), the former with a global focus, the later with a national focus. Previous incarnations and related organizations include: The National Catholic War Council (NCWC), which was formed in 1917 for Catholics in the United States to donate money and time to rehabilitate servicemen during World War I, and the National Catholic Welfare Conference, which was formed in 1922 to as address policy matters like education, immigration and social justice. In 2001, the NCCB and the USCC were combined to form the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
The collection consists primarily of memos, press releases, correspondence, conference materials, and reports produced from 1969-1974 by the United States Catholic Conference Division on Latin America (USCC), an official assembly made up of lay Catholics and clergy, established to promote the Catholic Church and its ideology through culturally specific programs. It also contains U.S. State Department communications in the form of memos, airgrams, and telegrams about the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Brazilian State from 1967-1973. These materials mention prominent figures in the Latin American Church: Cardinal Eugênio de Araújo Sales (1920-2002), Bishop Jorge Marcos de Oliveira (1915-1989) and Archbishop Hélder Pessoa Câmara (1909-1999). Other significant materials include articles written by and about the National Catholic News Service, various academic publications on Latin America, the 1982 testimony of J. Bryan Hehir for the United States Catholic Conference before the House Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations, and Latin America Calls! a newspaper published by the USCC, which runs from November 1964 to May 1971, volumes 2-8.
Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
United States Catholic Conference research collection, Ms.2014.005, Brown University Library.
Files grouped by broad topic and chronologically within those topics.
Gift of James N. Green in 2014.