{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = John C. Cort | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = John Cyrus Cort | birth_date = {{birth date|1913|12|3}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, US | death_date = {{death date and age|2006|8|3|1913|12|3}} | death_place = Nahant, Massachusetts, US | alma_mater = Harvard University | occupation = Editor | employer = ''Commonweal'' | movement = Christian socialism | spouse = {{marriage|Helen Haye Cort|1946}} | signature = | signature_alt = }} '''John Cyrus Cort''' (1913–2006) was an American Catholic socialist writer and activist. He was the co-chair of the Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America.
He was based in metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts. He fathered 10 children with his wife, Helen Haye Cort, and he cantored in his local parish until his death.<ref name="Stickgold 2006">{{cite news |last=Stickgold |first=Emma |date=August 6, 2006 |title=John Cort, at 92, Worked for Social Justice, Union Rights |url=https://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/08/06/john_cort_at_92_worked_for_social_justice_union_rights/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817030829/http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/08/06/john_cort_at_92_worked_for_social_justice_union_rights/ |url-status=live |archive-date=August 17, 2016 |url-access=subscription |work=The Boston Globe |page=E16 |access-date=September 11, 2020}}</ref>
==Biography== John Cyrus Cort was born in Woodmere, New York, on December 3, 1913, to Ambrose Cort, a {{citation needed span |date=September 2020 |text=public}} school teacher, and Lydia (Painter) Cort.<ref name="University of Notre Dame">{{cite web |title=Oral Histories Collection, 1972–2000 |url=http://archives.nd.edu/findaids/ead/html/orl.htm |type=finding aid |location=Notre Dame, Indiana |publisher=University of Notre Dame |access-date=September 11, 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Dorrien|2020}} He attended a public school in Hempstead, New York, for seven years.{{sfn|Cort|2003|p=47}} Raised Episcopal,<ref name="Stickgold 2006"/> he attended the choir school of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City from the age of 10.{{sfn|Cort|2003|p=47}} He completed his secondary education at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut.<ref name="University of Notre Dame"/>
After graduating from Harvard College ''cum laude'' in 1935<ref name="University of Notre Dame"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Teslik |first=Lee Hudson |author-link=Lee Hudson Teslik |year=2004 |title=Catholic Socialist |url=http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/010480.html |url-status=dead |magazine=Harvard Magazine |volume=106 |issue=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927224753/http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/010480.html |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |access-date=July 13, 2008}}</ref> and converting to Catholicism,{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} Cort was moved by a speech by Dorothy Day in May 1936.{{sfn|Riegle Troester|1993|p=73}} The novel ''Moon Gaffney'', by Harry Sylvester, was dedicated to Cort and Day. He was one of the earliest Catholic Workers who started at the Mott Street House in 1936. He worked with the Catholic Worker for a few years.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} He helped found the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists and for several years he edited their periodical, the ''Labor Leader''.<ref name="Jordan 2006"/> He served on the editorial staff of ''Commonweal'' magazine from 1943 to 1959.<ref name="Jordan 2006">{{cite magazine |last=Jordan |first=Patrick |date=September 8, 2006 |title=John Cort, R.I.P. |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/John+Cort,+R.I.P-a0152011093 |magazine=Commonweal |volume=133 |issue=13 |page=6 |issn=0010-3330 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206111050/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/John+Cort,+R.I.P-a0152011093 |archive-date=February 6, 2012 |access-date=July 13, 2008}}</ref> In 1949, he joined with picketers during the 1949 Calvary Cemetery strike. In the early 1960s he was a regional director of the Peace Corps in the Philippines, and was appointed by Governor Endicott Peabody as the director of the Massachusetts Commonwealth Service Corps.<ref>{{cite news |date=22 August 1964 |title=Peace Corps Aide Gets Post |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/08/22/peace-corps-aide-gets-post.html?_r=0 |work=The New York Times |access-date=11 October 2015}}</ref> In the 1970s he directed the Model Cities Program in Lynn, Massachusetts, and administered a number of Great Society social programs in Roxbury, Massachusetts.<ref name="CUA">{{cite web |title=John C. Cort |url=https://libraries.catholic.edu/special-collections/archives/collections/finding-aids/finding-aids.html?file=cort |type=finding aid |location=Washington |publisher=Catholic University of America |access-date=September 11, 2020}}</ref>
Cort married Helen Haye in 1946.{{sfn|Cort|2003|pp=135, 142}}
Cort wrote several books and articles for magazines. He was the founding editor of the Religion and Socialism Commission's ''Religious Socialism'' magazine.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Cort |first=John C. |year=2002 |title=Is Religion the Problem or the Solution? |url=http://www.religioussocialism.com/pdf/2001-02.win.pdf |magazine=Religious Socialism |volume=26 |issue=1 |location=Nahant, Massachusetts |publisher=Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America |page=5 |issn=0278-7784 |access-date=September 11, 2020}}</ref> He contributed to the American Friends Service Committee's ''Peacework'' magazine.<ref name="CUA"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Cort |first=John |date=September 2000 |title=Who for President? The Left Is Split |url=http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0900/092k04.htm |magazine=Peacework |publisher=American Friends Service Committee |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070212195520/http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0900/092k04.htm |archive-date=February 12, 2007 |access-date=September 11, 2020}}</ref>
He was described as "personally conservative but socially and politically radical, well-read but never pedantic, funny, chivalrous, of broad culture but a man of the people." Unlike most Catholic Workers, John Cort was not a pacifist, but he did oppose the Vietnam War using just war theory.<ref name="Stickgold 2006"/>
Cort died August 3, 2006, in Nahant, Massachusetts, and was buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Nahant.<ref name="Stickgold 2006"/> Cort's papers are housed at the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives at the Catholic University of America.<ref name="CUA"/>
==Selected bibliography== * {{cite book |last=Cort |first=John C. |display-authors=0 |year=1988 |title=Christian Socialism: An Informal History |location=Maryknoll, New York |publisher=Orbis Books |isbn=978-0-88344-600-3 }} * {{cite book |last=Cort |first=John C. |display-authors=0 |year=2003 |title=Dreadful Conversions: The Making of a Catholic Socialist |location=New York |publisher=Fordham University Press |isbn=978-0-8232-2256-8 |ref=X<!-- Required in order to distinguish from the entry in the works cited section --> }}
==See also== * Catholic social teaching * NewsGuild-CWA
==References== ===Footnotes=== {{reflist|22em}}
===Works cited=== {{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}} * {{cite book |last=Cort |first=John C. |year=2003 |title=Dreadful Conversions: The Making of a Catholic Socialist |location=New York |publisher=Fordham University Press |isbn=978-0-8232-2256-8 }} * {{cite book |contributor-last=Dorrien |contributor-first=Gary |contributor-link=Gary Dorrien |contribution=Introduction to the 2020 Edition |last=Cort |first=John C. |year=2020 |title=Christian Socialism: An Informal History |edition=2nd |location=Maryknoll, New York |publisher=Orbis Books |isbn=978-1-60833-820-7 }} * {{cite book |last=Riegle Troester |first=Rosalie |year=1993 |title=Voices from the Catholic Worker |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-56639-059-0 }} {{refend}}
==Further reading== {{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}} * {{cite magazine |last=Hammer |first=Andrew |year=2006 |title=John C. Cort, 1913–2006 |url=http://religioussocialism.com/pdf/2006.2.pdf |magazine=Religious Socialism |volume=30 |issue=2 |publisher=Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America |pages=2–3 |issn=0278-7784 |access-date=September 11, 2020 }} * {{cite magazine |last=Higgins |first=George |author-link=George G. Higgins |year=2001 |title=A Labor Priest's Tribute to John Cort |url=http://religioussocialism.com/pdf/2001.sum.pdf |magazine=Religious Socialism |location=Nahant, Massachusetts |publisher=Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America |pages=6–7, 14–15 |issn=0278-7784 |access-date=September 11, 2020 }} * {{cite magazine |last=Isserman |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Isserman |year=2001 |title=Organizing for Social Justice: John Cort and the ACTU |url=http://religioussocialism.com/pdf/2001.sum.pdf |magazine=Religious Socialism |location=Nahant, Massachusetts |publisher=Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America |pages=1, 4–5, 14 |issn=0278-7784 |access-date=September 11, 2020 }} * {{cite book |last=Morris |first=Charles R. |author-link=Charles R. Morris |year=1998 |orig-year=1997 |title=American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church |location=New York |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-8129-2049-9 }} * {{cite magazine |last=O'Brien |first=David |year=2003 |title=A Life of Contagious Enthusiasm |url=http://www.religioussocialism.com/pdf/2003.tumn.pdf |magazine=Religious Socialism |volume=27 |issue=3–4 |location=New York |publisher=Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America |pages=13–14 |issn=0278-7784 |access-date=September 11, 2020 }} {{refend}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Catholicism|Socialism}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cort, John C.}} Category:1913 births Category:2006 deaths Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:20th-century Roman Catholics Category:21st-century American male writers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century Roman Catholics Category:American anti–Vietnam War activists Category:American Christian socialists Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:American religious writers Category:American Roman Catholic writers Category:Catholics from Massachusetts Category:Catholic socialists Category:Catholic Workers Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from Massachusetts Category:Peace Corps people Category:People from Nahant, Massachusetts Category:Roman Catholic activists Category:Trade unionists from Massachusetts Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:American former Protestants