Contemporary Church History Quarterly

Volume 32, Number 2 (Summer 2026)

Letter from the Editors (Summer 2026)

By Lauren Faulkner Rossi, Simon Fraser University

Dear Friends,

Summer greetings from a muggy, smoke-filled Vancouver. It has been a season of excitement and distraction for those of us whose eyes were drawn to the World Cup and its spectacle, but also a season of devastation, with wildfires once again dominating the news cycle for so many and upending lives and livelihoods across North America and Europe. I hope this missive reaches you safe and enjoying some respite from the intense heat that has settled over much of these continents.

CCHQ Editors enjoying lunch with Doris Bergen and Victoria Barnett during our May board meeting. Photo courtesy Victoria Barnett.

Our summer issue comes somewhat on the slender side, but the size belies its intellectual heft. Included therein are three reviews. Maria Mitchell reviews Simon Unger’s most recent edited volume, Katholizismus am Eisernen Vorhang: Der Vatikan, Westdeutschland und der Kalte Krieg, 1945-1965 (Catholicism at the Iron Curtain: The Vatican, West Germany, and the Cold War, 1945-1965), with the many contributions of active scholars in the field exploring Vatican foreign policy and Cold War politics, with several making use of the recently-opened archives about the wartime pontificate of Pius XII. Martin Menke offers a serious critical analysis of “Wir leben in einer Zeitenwende. . .“ Michael Kardinal von Faulhaber und die katholische Kirche zwischen Monarchie, Diktatur und Demokratie, (“We Live in a Time of Change”: Michael Cardinal von Faukhaber and the Catholic Church between Monarchy, Dictatorship, and Democracy), a volume of work produced by a German conference dedicated to digitizing the Nachlass of Cardinal Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber. The text, with contributions from multiple experts in the field of German Catholicism, highlights how much there is still to learn about this complex and controversial figure. Manfred Gailus rounds out our reviews, with his critical appraisal of Marlene Pape’s biography of August Marahrens, originally published earlier this year in Zeitzeichen (January 2026).

Timothy Turnquist, recently a doctoral student under the supervision of Gerald Steinacher and currently an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, brings us a research note about his dissertation, which he is currently revising. Focusing on “non-Aryan refugees” and responses to their plight by American Catholics, Turnquist situates himself at the intersection of multiple historiographies, including Vatican diplomacy and charitable outreach, migration studies, religious and national identity, and the US Catholic Church as a “network of assistance.” We look forward with eagerness to his future publications and are thrilled that we can offer a glimpse into what is undoubtedly a valuable contribution to this aspect of the Holocaust and attempts at Jewish migration.

I am pleased to include a report on the Doris L. Bergen Symposium, held at the University of Toronto on May 5, 2026, in honour of her retirement. Martina Cucchiara was a co-organizer and drafted the report, in consultation with those of us who were able to attend. In connection with this report, I am linking, with his permission to share, Chris Probst’s Substack post that he wrote shortly after the symposium, reflecting on his own relationship with Doris and his growth as a historian under her mentorship.

I invite you, the reader, to let us know what you think by leaving a comment on our site, and to relate any major conferences, exhibitions, websites, or films that we should know about to review, by contacting me directly.

On behalf of my associate editors and the editorial board,

Lauren Faulkner Rossi,

Simon Fraser University