Horace B. McKenna, SJ Papers
Collection
Identifier: GTM-821201
The Rev. Horace B. McKenna, SJ Papers are comprised of files kept by Father McKenna at the time of his death. Consequently, they date primarily from the 1960's and 1970's and concern his activities as assistant pastor of St. Aloysius Church and his involvement in numerous projects. Father McKenna was a major force in the adoption of innovative social action programs to combat problems encountered in the inner-city. The papers contain files on his work with the St. Vincent De Paul Society, as well as extensive material on the founding and operatyion of Sursum Corda, an housing project in the District of Columbia, and SOME (So Others May Eat), a soup kitchen facility.
Also included is a series of autobiographical tapes recorded in 1979, a few years prior to Father McKenna's death. The tapes contain reflections on experiences in a changing Church, highlighting specifically the role of black Catholics within that Church. Transcripts from the tapes can also be found in the papers.
The Horace B. McKenna, SJ Papers on are deposit at Georgetown University and is the property of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus. Access to the Archives is governed by the Maryland Province. As stewards of the Archives, the Georgetown University Library’s Booth Family Center for Special Collections is responsible for managing access to the material based on policies set forth by the Maryland Province.
Guidelines:
1. All Archives materials dated or bearing solely on events occurring before January 1, 1940, shall be open for review unless otherwise restricted, subject to Library policies and procedures.
2. All unpublished Archives materials dated or bearing solely on events occurring on or after January 1, 1940, shall be open for review upon request subject to a decision by the Provincial or someone designated by the Provincial.
3. Researchers may quote from the materials.
4. Researchers may take their own photographs of the material for scholarly and research purposes. Allowing photographs is not an authorization to publish or to deposit the material in another library or archive.
5. Written permission from the Maryland Province is required for the publication of substantive portions of any material or publication-quality reproductions of any material.
6. Material not yet processed is not available to researchers; permission will not be granted to access any unprocessed material.
7. Audiovisual, microfilm and other material in the Archives, the original of which is held in another archive, may be consulted and transcribed only. Written permission from the archive holding the original material is required for any duplication, reproduction, or publication of that material.
8. Use the Permission Request Form to request permission (i) to access any restricted processed material or (ii) to publish reproductions or quote substantive portions of the material. Send the completed form by email to the Booth Family Center for Special Collections (speccoll@georgetown.edu).
Researchers are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of the materials being used, establishing who the copyright owner is, locating the copyright owner, and obtaining permission for intended use.
Fr. Horace B. McKenna (1899-1982) was born in New York City to Charles F. McKenna (1861-1930) and Laura J. O’Neill McKenna (1860-1900). He was the sixth of eight children who survived to adulthood, alongside Mary E. "May" (1886-1976), Daniel M. (1889-1969), Charles F., Jr. (1890-1967), Helen (1893-1976), William "Bill" A. (1894-1946), Laura M. (1900-1950), and Elizabeth "Betty" (1906-2003). McKenna attended Fordham Preparatory School (1913–1916) before entering the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, where he completed his novitiate and juniorate (1916–1920). He then studied philosophy at Woodstock College (1921–1923), followed by a regency that included teaching assignments at Ateneo de Manila in the Philippines (1924), Boston College High School (1925), and St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia (1926). Returning to Woodstock for theological studies (1927–1930), he was ordained in 1930.
Following ordination, McKenna was stationed in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, where he served from 1932 to 1953 at St. Michael’s Church in Ridge. From there, he ministered to the Black Catholic community at nearby St. Peter Claver Church. He also served as superior of the St. Michael’s Jesuit community from 1936 to 1946. McKenna’s later ministry centered in Washington, DC, where he was assigned to St. Aloysius Church (1952–1958, 1964–1982), with an interim period as assistant pastor at the Church of the Gesù in Philadelphia (1958-1964). At St. Aloysius, he played a key role in developing several community initiatives: he helped establish the Sursum Corda Cooperative in 1968, a low-income housing project just north of the parish; he founded SOME (So Others Might Eat) in 1977, which began as a soup kitchen and grew into a comprehensive service center offering food, medical care, and counseling for the poor and homeless; and he co-founded Martha’s Table in 1980, serving low-income families in the Columbia Heights neighborhood.
The basement of St. Aloysius became a hub of social outreach, housing the St. Vincent de Paul Society--where community members could seek assistance--and hosting McKenna’s informal Sunday afternoon "coffee klatsch." After his death in 1982, the outreach center at St. Aloysius was renamed the McKenna Center in his honor.
23 Cubic Feet (22 boxes)
English
Gift of Horace W. McKenna, circa 1982-2001.
This collection combines two accessions: GTM-821201 and GTM-010401. Materials have been rehoused in archival-quality boxes and folders. In 2023, materials that were housed in Box 14B were moved into a more appropriately sized container (now Box 23).
Part of the Georgetown University Manuscripts Repository