Raised by the Church : Growing up in New York City's Catholic Orphanages / Judith Estrine, Edward Rohs.
2011
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Title
Raised by the Church : Growing up in New York City's Catholic Orphanages / Judith Estrine, Edward Rohs.
Author
Rohs, Edward, author.
ISBN
9780823240258
Published
New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2011]
Copyright
©2011
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (244 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers
10.1515/9780823240258 doi
Dewey Decimal Classification
362.73/2
Summary
In 1946 Edward Rohs was left by his unwed parents at the Angel Guardian Home to be raised by the Sisters of Mercy. The Sisters hoped that his parents would one day return for him. In time they married and had otherchildren, but Ed's parents never came back for him. And they never signed the legal papers so that he could be adopted by another family.Raised by the Church chronicles the extraordinary life of Ed Rohs, a bright, mischievous boy who was raised in five institutions of the Catholic orphanage system in postwar Brooklyn, New York, from infancy in 1946 until he was discharged as an adult in 1965.Rohs was one of thousands of children taken in by Catholic institutions during the tumultuous post-WWII years: out-of-wedlock infants, children whose fathers had been killed in the war, and children of parents in crisis. Edgives a brief history of each institution before describing that world-the Sisters and Brothers who raised him, the food, his companions, and the Catholic community that provided social and emotional support.When Ed finally leaves the institutions after nineteen years, he has a difficult time adjusting. He slowly assimilates into "normal" life and determinedly rises above his origins, achieving an advanced degree and career success, working for years in child welfare and as volunteer strength coach for the Fordham University basketball team. He hides his upbringing out of shame and fear of others' pity. But as he beginsto reflect on his own story and to talk to the people who raised him, Ed begins to see a larger story intertwined with his own. With original research based on interviews with clergymen and nuns, archival data from the New York Archdiocese, and government records, Raised by the Church tells the social history of an era when hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers passed through the orphanage system. Through the story of one man, this book gives us a much needed historical perspective on an American society that understood and acknowledged the community's need for a safe haven.
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Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)
Added Author
Estrine, Judith, author.
In
Fordham University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
Fordham University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
Fordham University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
My Ten Beliefs for Success
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction
I Orphans in America
1 The Search for Solutions
2 New York City in the Nineteenth Century
3 The Twentieth Century
II Raised by the Church
4 The Sisters of Mercy: A Tale of Two Cities
5 My Earliest Years
6 St. Mary of the Angel
III Homes for Boys
7 St. John's Home for Boys
8 St. Vincent's Home for Boys
9 Growing Pains
IV On My Own
10 Alone in the Real World
11 Inventing Another New Life
12 Milestones
13 Reflections
Postscript: September 11, 2001
Appendixes
Appendix A. Vinnie Boys in the World
Appendix B. The Foundling Hospital
Appendix C. Suggested Reading
Notes
Index
Contents
My Ten Beliefs for Success
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction
I Orphans in America
1 The Search for Solutions
2 New York City in the Nineteenth Century
3 The Twentieth Century
II Raised by the Church
4 The Sisters of Mercy: A Tale of Two Cities
5 My Earliest Years
6 St. Mary of the Angel
III Homes for Boys
7 St. John's Home for Boys
8 St. Vincent's Home for Boys
9 Growing Pains
IV On My Own
10 Alone in the Real World
11 Inventing Another New Life
12 Milestones
13 Reflections
Postscript: September 11, 2001
Appendixes
Appendix A. Vinnie Boys in the World
Appendix B. The Foundling Hospital
Appendix C. Suggested Reading
Notes
Index