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Chronicling America
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Newspaper Katalikas (Chicago, Ill.) 1899-19?? Issued with title: Lietuvių dienraštis Katalikas / Issued with title: Lietuvių laikraštis Katalikas

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About Katalikas (Chicago, Ill.) 1899-19??

Katalikas was a Lithuanian-language Catholic newspaper published in Chicago from 1899-1916. Founded as a weekly by Father Matthew Krauciunas of St. George’s Catholic Church and owned by banker John Tananevicz, it quickly became a mainstay of the Chicago Lithuanian community. The paper was created to directly oppose the nationalist Lithuanian-American paper Lietuva and its editor Anthony Olsevskis, who was the largest Lithuanian banker in the city. The Lietuva accused Krauciunas of extravagance, focusing on church politics over his own parish, and mishandling funds meant to build a new church. Fed up, the priest sued Olsevskis for slander in 1898, who countered with five lawsuits of his own. Kraucinunas established Katalikas shortly after, and it responded to these remarks by accusing Olsevskis of being atheist, immoral, and anti-Lithuanian. Unfortunately, Krauciunas’s continued attacks on nationalist societies and their members—at times threatening them with excommunication—alienated much of his parish.

Around 1900, John Tananevicz brought his brother Stanley on board to serve as the paper’s editor. The paper was consistently religious, but its politics drifted from the right towards the center-left, supporting strong education and condemning the US war in the Philippines. As time went on, the brothers became more active in political affairs: Stanley donated to public safety commissions and argued against arms manufacture, while John joined the Progressive Republicans’ state committee. He resigned in 1912 over differences about Governor Deenan, giving his notice to former Chicago Daily Tribune owner Joseph Medill McCormick. The paper transitioned to a daily edition in August 1914, but by March 1916 had gone back to being a weekly; something Stanley Tananevicz blamed on how spread out Lithuanian communities were and priests upset with how progressive the paper was becoming.

Katalikas‘ downfall began in the mid-1910s with the arrest of Krauciunas and the Bank of Tananevicz’s insolvency. In 1915, Krauciunas was accused of stealing $15,000 from the recently-deceased Father George Kolesinskas and arrested on the steps of his own church. He was released before long, but the string of legal struggles took their toll: he would retire in early 1917. The Bank of Tananevicz, which was in the same building as the paper’s presses, relied on 2-3,000 Lithuanian- and Polish-American depositors. This reliance on the community proved a hindrance in October 1916, when flyers allegedly published by John Tananevicz’s enemies were distributed around local neighborhoods, causing a run on the bank and revealing that it was in financial distress. The bank quickly closed and was turned over to a trust company, but the damage was done: the Lithuanian community had lost $500,000. Neither the Katalikas nor Tananevicz Savings Bank ever recovered. The paper ended two months later, and John Tananevicz was later tried and sentenced to three years in prison for accepting deposits after the bank closed.

Provided By: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Katalikas (Chicago, Ill.) 1899-19??

Other Title

  • Issued with title: Lietuvių dienraštis Katalikas
  • Issued with title: Lietuvių laikraštis Katalikas

Translated Title

  • Catholic
  • Lithuanian Catholic daily
  • Lithuanian Catholic newspaper

Dates of Publication

  • 1899-19??

Created / Published

  • Chicago, Ill. : John M. Tananevicz

Headings

  • -  Lithuanians--Illinois--Chicago--Newspapers
  • -  Lithuanian Americans--Illinois--Chicago--Newspapers
  • -  Lithuanian American Catholics--Illinois--Chicago--Newspapers
  • -  Chicago (Ill.)--Newspapers
  • -  Lithuanian Americans
  • -  Lithuanians
  • -  Lithuanian American Catholics
  • -  Illinois--Chicago
  • -  United States--Illinois--Cook--Chicago

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly, Mar. 16-
  • -  Daily issues beginning Aug. 6, 1914 start numbering with M. 16, no. 1; weekly issues beginning Mar. 16, 1916 start numbering with M. 18, no. 1.
  • -  Preservation microfilmed in cooperation with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library as part of the United States Newspaper Program; the years 1910-1916 (on 6 microfilm reels) are available for purchase from OCLC Preservation Service Centers.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  In Lithuanian.
  • -  Description based on: M. 12, no. 28 (14 liepa, 1910).
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Dec. 28, 1916.

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn00062053

OCLC Number

  • 45095325

ISSN Number

  • 2769-433x

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Katalikas Chicago, Ill. -19??. (Chicago, IL), Jan. 1 1899. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn00062053/.

APA citation style:

(1899, January 1) Katalikas Chicago, Ill. -19??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn00062053/.

MLA citation style:

Katalikas Chicago, Ill. -19??. (Chicago, IL) 1 Jan. 1899. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn00062053/.