Encyclopedia of Religion
and Society

William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor

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MUNDY, PAUL

(1920-1995) Granted a Ph.D. in sociology from Catholic University of America in 1951. President, American Catholic Sociological Society, 1965; Religious Research Association, 1965-1966.

Mundy was Assistant Editor of the American Catholic Sociological Review 1951-1955, succeeding as Editor of the Review 1955-1960. It was at the end of his editorship that he accepted a paper read by Gordon Zahn at the ACSS convention in 1959, the fruit of Zahn's research on the German Catholic press under the Nazi regime, for publication in the fall 1959 Review . The paper received adverse publicity of a clearly biased nature in the Chicago Catholic press. Nonetheless, Mundy proceeded with publication plans, and Zahn's piece was at the galley correction stage when the incoming editor, Sylvester Sieber, S.V.D. (acting, he claimed, on the instructions of Executive Secretary Ralph Gallagher, S.J.), "yanked the article." The violation of academic freedom and censorship was brought before the ACSS Executive Council meeting held at the time of the organization's 1960 convention. The council ordered Sieber to print the article; he refused and resigned his position as editor. Sieber was succeeded ultimately by Paul Reiss, and this marked a major change in the editorial direction of the Review .

Mundy spent his entire academic life at Loyola University of Chicago, publishing and teaching primarily in the areas of intergroup relations and criminal justice, and in later years in sociology of health-related fields. Together with two other authors, he wrote and published a short piece on the work of Ralph Gallagher, S.J., titled Citizen Jesuit .

Loretta M. Morris

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