Father Charles Edward Coughlin (pronounced COG-lin, October 25, 1891 – October 27, 1979) was a Canadian-born Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower Church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than 40 million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the 1930s. While initially a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, Coughlin grew disenchanted with Roosevelt and what he claimed were undue "Jewish" influences in capitalism. Thus, he began praising Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. As World War II began in Europe, the Roosevelt Administration and the Catholic Church made efforts to rein in Coughlin. By 1942, with the U.S. fully committed to the war, Coughlin lost his momentum completel