FOR BOTH CROSS AND FLAG IN THE SERIES Urban Life, Landscape, and Policy, EDITED BY ZANE MILLER, DAVID STRADLING, AND LARRY BENNETT For Both Cross and Flag Catholic Action, Anti-Catholicism, and National Security Politics in World War II San Francisco William Issel TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1601 North Broad Street Philadelphia PA 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Printed in the United States of America This book is an expansion of the article by William Issel, “‘Still Potentially Dangerous in Some Quarters’: Sylvester Andriano, Catholic Action, and Un-American Activities in California,” Pacifi c Historical Review 75, no. 2 (May 2006), 231–270. The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Issel, William. For both cross and fl ag : Catholic Action, anti-Catholicism, and national security politics in World War II San Francisco / William Issel. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4399-0028-4 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Andriano, Sylvester, 1889–1963. 2. Italian Americans—California— San Francisco—History—20th century. 3. Catholic Action—California— San Francisco—History—20th century. 4. Catholic Church—California— San Francisco—History—20th century. 5. Anti-Catholicism—California— San Francisco—History—20th century. 6. Religion and politics—California— San Francisco—History—20th century. 7. World War, 1939–1945—Italian Americans. 8. Italian Americans—Civil rights. 9. San Francisco (Calif.)— Ethnic relations. 10. San Francisco (Calif.)—Politics and government— 20th century. I. Title. F869.S39I85 2009 305.6'827946108951—dc22 2009021168 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1 Sylvester Andriano, a Catholic Attorney in San Francisco 15 2 Anti-Catholicism in Little Italy 23 3 Catholic Action, from Rome to San Francisco 33 4 Catholic Action Theory and Practice in San Francisco 43 5 Sylvester Andriano and Catholic Action in San Francisco 55 6 The Catholic Action Social Apostolate 66 7 The Catholic Action Educational and Moral Apostolates 77 8 Catholic Action and Communism 89 vi CONTENTS 9 Catholic Action, European Crises, and San Francisco Politics 104 10 Andriano’s Ordeal: The Loyalty Hearings 122 11 Andriano’s Ordeal: Exclusion and Exile 146 Epilogue 165 Notes 173 Index 199 A photo gallery begins on page 7 Acknowledgments T his book could not have been written without the assistance of Jeffrey M. Burns, the director of the Chancery Archives of the Archdiocese of San Francisco; Susan Goldstein, Pat Akre, Christina Moretta, Tami J. Suzuki, and their colleagues at the San Francisco History Center of the San Francisco Public Library; Susan Sherwood and Catherine Powell of the Northern California Labor Archives and Research Center of San Francisco State Uni- versity; and Linda Wobbe, the archivist of the College of St. Mary’s of California. Thanks are also due to the librarians and staff of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Anne Rand Research Library of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union; the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research; the California State Archives, for supplying a copy of the Tenney Committee hearings shortly after they were made available for research; and librarians and archivists at the National Archives and the Library of Congress. I thank Robert W. Cherny, Jeffrey M. Burns, Constance Holmes, Mary Claire Heffron, and Marjorie Lasky for reading and comment- ing on all or parts of the manuscript, and Kathleen Maggiora Rogers viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS of the Associazione Piemontesi nel Mondo of Northern California for her interest in and support of my research about the Piemontesi. Thanks are also due to Kenneth Burt for sending me copies of sev- eral useful documents that he discovered in his own research on Catholics and California politics. Further, I thank Andrew Canepa, Peter D’Agostino, John P. Diggins, Stefano Luconi, Matteo Pretelli, and Stephen Schwartz, who generously replied to my e-mail research queries; David Cicoletti, who supplied information about the Andriano family; Rose Marie Cleese, who provided information about the close friendship between her grandfather, mayor Angelo Rossi, and Sylvester Andriano; and my research assistants, George Malachowski, Giovanna Palombo, and John Rosen. A brief account of the subject of this book appeared in print as “‘Still Potentially Dangerous in Some Quarters’: Sylvester Andriano, Catholic Action, and Un-American Activities in California,” Pacifi c Historical Review 75, no. 2 (May 2006), 231–270. I thank the Uni- versity of California Press for permission to reprint some of the text of that article, the editors of the journal and their readers for comments on the manuscript for the article, and the readers who commented on the book manuscript for Temple University Press. Responsibility for any errors or omissions that may have escaped my attention is mine alone. I also thank Zane Miller for suggesting that I consider publishing my book in his Temple University Press series, and I acknowledge the friendly and professional assistance of the Temple team: Mick Gusinde-Duffy, Lynne Frost, Gary Kramer, Emily Taber, Kimber- ley C. Vivier, and David M. Wilson. Introduction M assachusetts Congressman Thomas P. O’Neill once famously remarked that in the United States, “all politics are local.” O’Neill made a good point, but it was only half true, because local politics in the United States, especially during wartime, have also been shaped by the political and religious loyal- ties that immigrants bring with them. Government offi cials who fail to take account of such loyalties and rivalries may fi nd themselves duped into becoming partisans on one or another side of local politi- cal battles when they make decisions about who is and who is not a security risk during wartime. Their commendable zeal to protect the nation from harm can lead them to violate the constitutional rights of citizens while doing nothing to protect domestic security. That is exactly what happened in the case of Sylvester Andriano, an Italian-born San Francisco attorney and local government offi cial who was forcibly removed from the West Coast in 1942 on the basis of politically inspired false charges that he was a Fascist agent. The Andriano case provides a cautionary tale about the sometimes dele- terious impact on our national life of religious and ideological zeal- otry in our communities, no-holds-barred political competition in