The following letter comes to us from Dr. Sheldon Marcus, chairman of the Division of Urban Education, School of Education, Fordham University, who is the author of Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life of the Priest of the Little Flower , which will soon be published by Little, Brown and Company.

I read with interest Robert S. Gallagher’s interview with Father Charles E. Coughlin in the October, 1972, issue of AMERICAN HERITAGE . Unfortunately, the article contained some misinformation.

First of all, Mr. Gallagher claimed that his interview with Father Coughlin was the first one given in the past three decades in which the priest discussed his career. Since Father Coughlin’s demise as a controversial public figure in 1942, he has periodically given interviews to newsmen. I myself was able to secure interviews with him in 1970 which proved valuable in helping me write his biography.

The explanation Coughlin gave Mr. Gallagher of having church support for his activities is misleading. In 1937 the Vatican, believing that Coughlin was effective in combating the spread of communism in the United States, intervened on his behalf when his new superior, Archbishop. Edward Mooney, attempted to silence him. This intervention enabled Coughlin to embark on the most vitriolic and controversial phase of his public life, which lasted until Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who had rebuked Coughlin for his activities during the 1936 Presidential elections, became pope in 1939, at which time the Vatican withdrew its support.

From reading the article one would gather that Father Coughlin and Franklin Roosevelt were close friends and that Coughlin’s criticism of F.D.R. was based on a disagreement over monetary policy. According to what he told me, Coughlin’s split with Roosevelt was predicated on his belief that the President had merely used him in the effort to attract the priest’s supporters to the New Deal. Coughlin told me that “he [Roosevelt] owed me things. After all, I helped make him President. We were supposed to be partners. He said he would rely on me … that I would be an important advisor. But he was a liar. He never took my advice. He just used me.” Coughlin never understood that Roosevelt, as a consummate politician, was doing everything possible to perform the prime function of apolitical candidate—winning elections.

When Coughlin realized that he was merely one of many who could talk to the President, his feeling of betrayal surfaced and took the form of vituperative criticism of the President, criticism which increased in intensity after the 1936 Presidential election, in which his Union Party ticket was soundly defeated.

In addition, in the article Father Coughlin said that he had to speak out on the critical issues of the day because of his concern for social justice. Coughlin’s private actions were, however, at considerable variance from his public utterances. He denounced bankers and Wall Street machinations, yet he