MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
O'Gara, James, 1918-2003
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Descriptive Summary
Record Group: Section A - Correspondence
Dates of materials: 1966-1967
Volume: 3 item(s); 3 pg(s)
Scope and Content
This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "O'Gara, James".
Biography
James O'Gara was editor of the Commonweal in New York from 1952-1984. A Catholic, born in Chicago's South Side, he had an early interest in the Catholic Worker movement. He later became assistant director of the Catholic Worker House of Hospitality and associate editor of the Catholic Worker newspaper. After fighting in the infantry in the Second World War in the South Pacific, he contracted malaria and was sent home. He married Joan F. Smith in 1946, who was secretary for the head of the Chicago Interstudent Catholic Action Movement. He co-founded Today, a Catholic student magazine circulated nationally. Later he worked for Voice of St. Jude, which became the current magazine U.S. Catholic. During his tenure at Commonweal, he defended a liberal Catholic voice in journalism. When Daniel Berrigan submitted an article while hiding from the federal authorities during the Vietnam War, O'Gara was approached by the FBI, but was said by his daughter to have told them to "get out". (Source: Toomey, Shamus. "James O'Gara, 85, editor for leading Catholic lay magazine." Chicago Sun Times [online]. 30 Oct. 2003.
Obituaries. 13 Jan. 2006. ‹http://www.chicagosuntimes.com/output/obituaries/cst-nws-xogara30.html›.)
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