John C. Cort
Born
John Cyrus Cort

(1913-12-03)December 3, 1913
New York City, New York, US
DiedAugust 3, 2006(2006-08-03) (aged 92)
Nahant, Massachusetts, US
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationEditor
EmployerCommonweal
MovementChristian socialism
Spouse
Helen Haye Cort
​
(m. 1946)​

John Cyrus Cort (1913–2006) was an American Catholic socialist writer and activist. He was the co-chair of the Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America.

He was based in metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts. He fathered 10 children with his wife, Helen Haye Cort, and he cantored in his local parish until his death.[1]

Biography

John Cyrus Cort was born in Woodmere, New York, on December 3, 1913, to Ambrose Cort, a public school teacher, and Lydia (Painter) Cort.[2][3] He attended a public school in Hempstead, New York, for seven years.[4] Raised Episcopal,[1] he attended the choir school of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City from the age of 10.[4] He completed his secondary education at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut.[2]

After graduating from Harvard College cum laude in 1935[2][5] and converting to Catholicism, Cort was moved by a speech by Dorothy Day in May 1936.[6] The novel Moon Gaffney, by Harry Sylvester, was dedicated to Cort and Day. He was one of the earliest Catholic Workers who started at the Mott Street House in 1936. He worked with the Catholic Worker for a few years. He helped found the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists and for several years he edited their periodical, the Labor Leader.[7] He served on the editorial staff of Commonweal magazine from 1943 to 1959.[7] In 1949, he joined with picketers during the 1949 Calvary Cemetery strike. In the early 1960s he was a regional director of the Peace Corps in the Philippines, and was appointed by Governor Endicott Peabody as the director of the Massachusetts Commonwealth Service Corps.[8] In the 1970s he directed the Model Cities Program in Lynn, Massachusetts, and administered a number of Great Society social programs in Roxbury, Massachusetts.[9]

Cort married Helen Haye in 1946.[10]

Cort wrote several books and articles for magazines. He was the founding editor of the Religion and Socialism Commission's Religious Socialism magazine.[11] He contributed to the American Friends Service Committee's Peacework magazine.[9][12]

He was described as "personally conservative but socially and politically radical, well-read but never pedantic, funny, chivalrous, of broad culture but a man of the people." Unlike most Catholic Workers, John Cort was not a pacifist, but he did oppose the Vietnam War using just war theory.[1]

Cort died August 3, 2006, in Nahant, Massachusetts, and was buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Nahant.[1] Cort's papers are housed at the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives at the Catholic University of America.[9]

Selected bibliography

  • Christian Socialism: An Informal History. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. 1988. ISBN 978-0-88344-600-3.
  • Dreadful Conversions: The Making of a Catholic Socialist. New York: Fordham University Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8232-2256-8.

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Stickgold, Emma (August 6, 2006). "John Cort, at 92, Worked for Social Justice, Union Rights". The Boston Globe. p. E16. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Oral Histories Collection, 1972–2000" (finding aid). Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  3. ↑ Dorrien 2020.
  4. 1 2 Cort 2003, p. 47.
  5. ↑ Teslik, Lee Hudson (2004). "Catholic Socialist". Harvard Magazine. Vol. 106, no. 3. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  6. ↑ Riegle Troester 1993, p. 73.
  7. 1 2 Jordan, Patrick (September 8, 2006). "John Cort, R.I.P." Commonweal. Vol. 133, no. 13. p. 6. ISSN 0010-3330. Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
  8. ↑ "Peace Corps Aide Gets Post". The New York Times. August 22, 1964. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 "John C. Cort" (finding aid). Washington: Catholic University of America. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  10. ↑ Cort 2003, pp. 135, 142.
  11. ↑ Cort, John C. (2002). "Is Religion the Problem or the Solution?" (PDF). Religious Socialism. Vol. 26, no. 1. Nahant, Massachusetts: Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America. p. 5. ISSN 0278-7784. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  12. ↑ Cort, John (September 2000). "Who for President? The Left Is Split". Peacework. American Friends Service Committee. Archived from the original on February 12, 2007. Retrieved September 11, 2020.

Works cited

  • Cort, John C. (2003). Dreadful Conversions: The Making of a Catholic Socialist. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-2256-8.
  • Dorrien, Gary (2020). "Introduction to the 2020 Edition". Christian Socialism: An Informal History. By Cort, John C. (2nd ed.). Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-60833-820-7.
  • Riegle Troester, Rosalie (1993). Voices from the Catholic Worker. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-56639-059-0.

Further reading

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