The CHRONOLOGICAL FILE consists of all types of Breig documents dating from 1975 until November 1981. These documents were a second accession to the original shipment of papers to the Notre Dame Archives. The accession has been sorted into chronological order, but in general has been kept as it arrived at the Archives. Only the material dating before 1975, the Breig family genealogy (now in the PERSONAL MATERIAL series), and loose clippings (now in the WRITINGS and PERSONAL MATERIAL series) have been removed from this series and filed elsewhere.
There is a folder for every month of every year from 1975 until November 1981. At the end of each year there is also a folder with papers that could be connected to the year but not to a particular month. This series generally consists of correspondence, columns, articles, book reviews, etc. The nature of the correspondence is basically the same as described in the CORRESPONDENCE series. Breig corresponds with his family, his son James (assistant editor of the Evangelist), his sister Mary (Sister Regina Clare), his daughter Mary and her husband Terry (Brock), his cousin David Harley (West Virginia) and his cousin Ferd McKenzie (Dakota). Breig's correspondence with his son often deals with James' work as assistant editor of the Evangelist. Other private correspondence is also about his activities in his parish, with Breig's and his wife's friends, and with his fellow alumni from Notre Dame. Even though he retired in February 1975 this accession contains much correspondence with readers, clergy, editors of Catholic newspapers and magazines, and politicians. Abortion, homosexuals, and criticism and support of his opinions are among the topics of these letters.
This series also contains an abundance of manuscripts of columns. For the years before 1975 such manuscripts are found in the WRITINGS series. Breig wrote about various topics in religion, family, politics, sports, and nature. His articles for that period are mostly about religious subjects, and his book reviews are on books about journalism, sports, family, grammar, and religion. Breig repeatedly wrote about abortion, euthanasia, women in the Catholic church, artificial contraception, Humanae Vitae, busing, the death penalty, the Equal Rights Amendment, Archbishop Lefebvre, Father Andrew Greeley, Father Hans Küng, the theory of evolution and the theory of creation, the speed limit, homosexuality, boxing, the Olympic Games, and political issues like the Near East conflict, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and the Vietnam war. Many columns contain Breig's defense of papal decisions and policy.