American Catholicism's science crisis and the Albertus Magnus Guild, 1953-1969

During the middle decades of the twentieth century, American Catholic scientists experienced a sense of crisis owing to the paucity of scientific research performed either by individual Catholics or in Catholic institutions of higher learning. In 1953 the Rev. Patrick Yancey, S.J., the chairman of the biology department at a small Jesuit college and a member of the newly created National Science Board, led efforts to establish a national organization of Catholic scientists. Subsequently known as the Albertus Magnus Guild, this organization attempted both to improve Catholics' scientific performance and to refute the widely held notion among non-Catholic Americans that Catholicism was inherently hostile to science. By reflecting on Yancey's career as an educator and scientist and on the history of the guild, this article seeks to deepen our understanding of twentieth-century Catholic science education and reveal the ways in which Catholic scientists approached the issues surrounding the interaction of science and religion.