George Barry O'Toole (1886 – 26 March 1944) was a founding member of the Catholic Radical Alliance. He was important for clarifying the right of

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

status. He began his religious career as a parish priest, and as a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Education career

He taught philosophy at both St. Vincent College,

Latrobe, Pennsylvania Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States and part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The city population was 8,338 as of the 2010 census (9,265 in 1990). It is located near Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Rid ...

and

Seton Hill College Seton Hill University is a private Catholic university in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Formerly a women's college, it became a coeducational university in 2002 and enrolls about 2,200 students. History The school was founded in 1885 by the Sis ...

. He was the first president (rector) of the

Catholic University of Peking Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU, FJCU or Fu Jen; or ) is a private Catholic university in Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1925 in Beijing at the request of Pope Pius XI and re-established in Taiwan in 1961 a ...

. He also was the head of the Philosophy department at

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( or ; Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsbu ...

Labor activities

He was a founding member of the Catholic Radical Alliance, an early labor support organization in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, and was important to the foundation of St. Joseph's House of Hospitality, also in Pittsburgh.

Pacifist activities

In 1939, he stated that a

just war The just war theory ( la, bellum iustum) is a doctrine, also referred to as a tradition, of military ethics which is studied by military leaders, theologians, ethicists and policy makers. The purpose of the doctrine is to ensure that a war is m ...

was nearly impossible, because the "modern abuse of universal

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

" made wars on so gigantic a scale as to be unjustifiable. Later he testified before a Senate hearing in opposition to the Burke-Wadsworth Act, a

act pending before Congress in 1940.

Creationism

O'Toole was the author of the

creationist Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...

book ''The Case Against Evolution'' (1925). The book was dismissed by academics as a "religious and not a scientific work". Science writer

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

noted that O'Toole endorsed the "naive criticism of strata chronology" from creationist

George McCready Price George McCready Price (26 August 1870 – 24 January 1963) was a Canadian creationist. He produced several anti-evolution and creationist works, particularly on the subject of flood geology. His views did not become common among creationists u ...

.Gardner, Martin. (1957). ''

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science ''Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'' (1957)—originally published in 1952 as ''In the Name of Science: An Entertaining Survey of the High Priests and Cultists of Science, Past and Present''—was Martin Gardner's second book. A survey o ...

''.

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...

. p. 133.

Publications

* George Barry O'Toole (1925)
''The Case Against Evolution''
The Macmillan Company. * Ch'ien-li Ying and George Barry O'Toole (1929). ''The Nestorian Tablet at Sianfu: A New English Translation of the Inscription and a History of the Stone''. Peking Leader Press, Peking. * George Barry O'Toole. (1929). ''

John of Montecorvino John of Montecorvino or Giovanni da Montecorvino in Italian (1247 – 1328) was an Italian Franciscan missionary, traveller and statesman, founder of the earliest Latin Catholic missions in India and China, and archbishop of Peking. He converte ...

, First Archbishop of Peking''.

. * George Barry O'Toole and Quianli Ying (1931). ''Luo ji xue: Zhong Ying dui zhao''.

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. . * George Barry O'Toole and Theodore Jeske-Choinski (1936). ''The Last Romans "Ostatni Rzymianie": A Tale of the Time of Theodosius the Great''.

. * George Barry O'Toole (1941). ''War and Conscription at the Bar of Christian Morals''. Catholic Worker Press. * Bishop Joseph M. Corrigan and George Barry O'Toole, editors (1944). ''Racism and Christianity; Race: Nation: Person. Social Aspects of the Race Problem, A Symposium''. Barnes & Noble, Inc., New York. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otoole, Barry 1944 deaths 1886 births American Christian creationists History of Catholicism in the United States Religious leaders from Pittsburgh Roman Catholic activists History of labor relations in the United States Catholic Workers American Benedictines World War I chaplains Roman Catholic missionaries in China Fu Jen Catholic University faculty United States Army chaplains Seton Hill University American Christian pacifists Catholic pacifists 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests