National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica

National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica Catholic Church in Royal Oak, Michigan is a widely known Roman Catholic church and National Shrine carried out in the lavish zig-zag Art Deco design. The sanctuary stands at 2100 West Twelve Mile Road at the northeast corner of Woodward Avenue and is a parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. Royal Oak Michigan Information.

Daddy Coughlin was an early supporter of the New Deal programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt prior to becoming one of Roosevelt’s harshest critics. In 1934 he announced a new political organization called the National Union for Social Justice. For a couple of years, the American public responded highly: “Contributions which have flooded into his savings account as a result of these talks encounter thousands of dollars weekly.”  The membership faced the millions, but it was not well-organized at the local level. He wrote a platform requiring financial reforms, the nationalization of major industries and railroads, and defense of the rights of labor, issuing antisemitic commentaries and supporting some policies of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. After the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, it was the Roosevelt administration that lastly required the cancellation of his radio program and forbade the dissemination through the mail of his newspaper, Social Justice.