Charles Edward Coughlin, commonly known as Father Coughlin or the radio priest, was a Canadian-American Roman Catholic priest who was based in the United States near Detroit. He was the founding priest of the National Shrine of the Little Flower church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience: during the 1930s, an estimated 30 million listeners tuned to his weekly broadcasts. He was forced off the air after his rhetoric became anti-Semitic and fascistic.
Coughlin was born in Canada to working-class Irish Catholic parents. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1916, and, in 1923, was assigned to the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Detroit, Michigan. Spurred by Ku Klux Klan-orchestrated cross burnings, Coughlin began broadcasting his sermons. As his broadcasts became more political, he became increasingly popular.
Initially, Coughlin was a vocal supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, but he became a harsh critic of Roosevelt, accusing him of being too friendly to bankers. In 1934, he established a political organization called the National Union for Social Justice.