Talk:National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica

Help with facts, please
I moved some info here from the article on Thérèse de Lisieux, and integrated it the best I could. Some questions: The St. Therese article said that the church was originally built in 1925 but burned down by the KKK and then rebuilt in 1936. This article states that the current church building was begun in 1931. Obviously a contradiction, unless the move was unrelated to the KKK. In any event it needs clarifying. Secondly, the church's website seems to be down, so I wasn't able to verify any info there. Thirdly, it is confusing that there are three shrines to St Therese in the U.S., all of which seem to be claiming they are "the" National Shrine. Can someone explain that? Fourthly, it seems to me that this church could be very significant architecturally, and deserve a much more detailed article. Is it the first Catholic Church designed in the round? How does it compare with other art deco era churches? Cheers. Laura1822 05:22, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, this article could possibly benefit from some (well-sourced) info relating to Charles Coughlin and accusations that he was using the Shrine for his own enrichment ('The Shrine of the Silver Dollar', it says in his article). But excellent start for an article, good work! Eaglizard 06:45, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't take that accusation seriously. Coughlin reportedly came from a well to do family to begin with, and compared to modern televangelists, the scale seems impoverished. MMetro (talk) 14:43, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

The citation from Shannon says the KKK burned the cross at the church site two-weeks after it opened in 1925. An article in the NY Times published 6 July 1930, states the cross burning occurred three years earlier (http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30B11F63D54157A93C4A9178CD85F448385F9&scp=28&sq=royal+oak+shrine&st=p). Is there any further info that could clarify which date is correct? Goldnpuppy (talk) 03:39, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

I added an endnote to the article which cites two different biographies of Father Coughlin. One is written by Charles J. Tull (1965), and the other is by Sheldon Marcus (1973). It is clear in both biographies that the church was built in 1926. Sheldon Marcus specifically says that the KKK burned a cross on the lawn of the church barely two weeks after the church was completed. That also would have been in 1926. Another source you could consult if you are interested in this period of Father Coughlin's life is the book "Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression" by Alan Brinkley.JDefauw (talk) 03:13, 13 September 2011 (UTC)JDefauw

Church Burning
Added a few referrences. The sequence is first church built, KKK cross burning, then the church mysteriously burning down. Pustelnik (talk) 05:09, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Fr. Coughlin
Does anyone else find the second paragraph on Fr. Coughlin irrelevant to the article? The article is about the basilica, not Fr. Coughlin. The "contraversy" section explains enough, and if people want to read more they can visit the page on Fr. Coughlin. Unless anyone is opposed, I'm going to delete that paragraph. TraLeSollecitudini (talk) 15:50, 20 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I agree entirely, and have removed it. Kablammo (talk) 12:01, 5 January 2021 (UTC)