Catholics In America

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Catholics In America
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• Catholics were an important part in American life
  between Civil War and WWI because
• Numbers increased rapidly
• Increasing attention to broader American culture
  made Catholics more of a driving force in the
  nation
• Catholics of the 19th cent. underwent a process
  of integration this was of distinct character
  because of the way local expressions of faith
  still functioned as parts of a worldwide
  Christian Church

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Immigrant Church

• Immigrant Catholics created both problems and
  opportunities for the American hierarchy
• Problems survival in a foreign environment and
  intramural disagreements among Catholics about
  how to adjust
• Opportunities chance to adapt ancient tradition
  to new settings and shape larger world of
  Christianity of US

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• Between Civil and WWI, immigrants from all over
  Europe, came to US and formed national parishes
• Catholic faith with social, domestic, economic,
  political, and cultural services

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Italians

• Of all the European immigrants, these were the
  least securely tied to the Church
• Other immigrants were offended by the American
  hierarchy to the reunification of Italy, but took
  offense when Italian festivals for patron saints
  were criticized as superstitious
• In unsettled religious conditions, aggressive
  Protestants such as Methodists, Baptists, and
  Presbyterians established churches for Italians,
  missions for conversion of Italian Catholics to
  Protestantism, but the Catholic Church in America
  proved to be more successful in winning back
  Italian loyalty than Protestants were in
  prevailing over it

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Polish

• Overwhelmingly Catholic
• Turned to church for spiritual support, social
  stability, and access to new lands
• Poles, similar to Italians noticed the lack of
  sympathy of American hierarchy
• First Polish bishop was not appointed until 1908
  and this was only after immigrant church had
  petitioned the Pope
• Polish break from the Church 10 years before with
  misunderstanding between German-American bishops
  and Polish congregations
• Polish National Church under Francis Hodur of
  Scranton, Pennsylvania
• Alternative to Roman control while maintaining
  Catholic theology, but making adjustments to the
  American environment such as optional celibacy
  for priests

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Education

• With much struggle, immigrant churches
  established their own educational institutions
• Rights of Catholic students in public schools was
  unsuccessful, so extensive parochial education
  system was established
• Catholic higher education was already in place
  before Civil war and so was strengthened by
  emergence of new colleges and seminaries

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Catholic University of America

• When the corner stone of the CUA was laid, Bishop
  John Spalding emphasized the larger importance of
  the event
• the special significance of our American
  Catholic historylies in the fact that our
  example proves that the Church can thrive where
  it is neither protected nor persecuted, but
  simply left to manage its own affairs and to do
  its work

A university of this kind showed Catholics that
they could succeed in America and revealed to
Americans that they had nothing to fear from
Catholics
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Catholic Workers Rights
Knights of Labor

• Catholic Laity worked together to organize
  workers and advance their rights
• Catholic bishops were uneasy about the formation
  of labor groups for fear of violence and possible
  promotion of socialism
• When labor organization, Knights of Labor
  renounced the use of violence, Catholic laity won
  the support of the hierarchy

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Womens Religious Orders

• Active role in Catholic adjustment in America
• Worked in hospitals, cared for orphans, provided
  for elderly, established settlement housing in
  cities, and operated many institution of social
  assistance
• Predominantly they were teachers
• Parochial schools were staffed by nuns
• Nuns seen as heroic figures, imprinting those
  taught by them with powerful memories of them,
  even after the decline in religious life in the
  60s

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Sister Blandina Segale

• Pioneer of Sisters of Charity
• she put up a school and a hospital without prior
  resources, ended a lynch law in New Mexico, tamed
  Billy the Kid, built the tallest building in the
  territory and proved herself more than the equal
  of the forces of greed and violence that
  surrounded her.
• Her influence furthered the Catholic presence in
  the southwest US, aiding Archbishop Jean Baptiste
  Lamy

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Catholic Laity

• patronized wide range of spiritual activities
  associated with the churches including
  associations devoted to Our Lady, Holy Spirit,
  societies of the Rosary, or the Sacred Heart of
  Mary
• Congresses were held in Baltimore, 1889, and
  Chicago, 1893 to encourage broader participation
  in the Church
• Catholics were not just present in numbers but in
  the establishment of social and religious
  infrastructure, sustaining the church life

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Isaac Hecker

• Converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism
• Grew up Dutch Reform, mother was Methodist,
  converted to Unitarianism, brief encounter with
  Mormonism, converted to Transcendentalist
• Joined Redemptorist order, then, when he felt
  that their missionary enthusiasm was lacking,
  founded the Paulist order
• Emphasis on the immediate work of the Holy
  Spirit, was less rigid in structure than the
  traditional Catholic orders
• His approach to Catholicism was strongly
  influenced by his American Protestant background

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Americanism

• After Heckers death, controversy arose because
  of the question of how far Catholic traditions
  would be accommodated in the New Worlds ideas of
  freedom, evangelism and spiritual enlightenment
• The biography of Isaac Hecker, written by a
  Paulist father, Walter Elliot, created upset to
  European Catholics regarding the liberalness of
  the new world, and the belief that it was
  fostering a break from the Catholic traditions
• There was also an apparent conflict between Pope
  Leo XIII and the American hierarchy

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Bishops John Ireland and James Gibbons
argued that the Church was compatible with
American ideas of life

• John Ireland was bishop of St. Paul, Minnesota
  and spent his life campaigning for full Catholic
  participation in American education, politics and
  society
• Assembled against German and Polish conservative
  Catholic leaders who were seeking a European
  Catholicism in the US
• Advocated for strong Catholic education in public
  and separate parochial schools
• Supported the Catholic University of America,
  also had an interest in public higher education
• There is no conflict between the Catholic Church
  and AmericaThe principles of the Church are in
  thorough harmony with the interests of the
  Republic.

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• James Gibbons sought to bring Catholic practice
  into mainstream American life in a liberal
  fashion
• Liberal in his church-state views believed that
  Catholics could flourish in a society without
  official government support
• He fought the anti-Catholic resistance to new
  effects of immigration
• His support of American reforms such as
  prohibition and with cooperation with Protestants
  made him unpopular with conservatives

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Response to Americanism by the Papacy

• Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical praising
  American Catholics for their accomplishments in
  the New World, but warned against making American
  church-state relations the norm for all places
• Four years later he issued another encyclical
  where he attacked ideas that had been spread
  across America such as notions that church
  teaching could may be altered to accommodate
  special local conditions
• He said that teaching that American Catholics
  should show some indulgence to modern popular
  theories or that there should be more freedom in
  individual interpretations, must stop
• Gibbons responded by saying that American
  Catholics were loyal to Rome and that there were
  no such heresies that the Pope talked about going
  on or being tolerated

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Growing Maturity

• Catholicism in Americas maturation evaluated in
  two fields
• The development of spirituality
• Capability in politics
• Old World example used with New World ideas
• Development of Spirituality Stability among the
  Chaos
• John Joseph Keane, first rector of the Catholic
  University of America, later became bishop of
  Richmond
• Designed devotional exercises to the Holy Spirit,
  and from this, the Confraternity of Servants of
  the Holy Ghost was established, encouraging
  parishioners to celebrate the third person of the
  Trinity
• This contributed to the concerted efforts being
  made to instill internal stability of faith
  during a time of external struggle to survive

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Political Capability

• Protestants had worked out informal ways to
  assert their motivations on the political body,
  so any fears that Catholics would not abide by
  church-state separation were valid
• Catholics found much difficulty when it came to
  seeking out equal time in public schools where
  Protestant morals, and biblical translations were
  being used
• Parochial schools helped in solving this problem,
  but constant negotiations between bishops and
  political leaders were still needed. Any sort of
  Catholic influence in politics was swiftly jumped
  on by Protestant enthusiasts
• At the same time, Catholic leaders were warning
  the faithful to stay away from mixing religion
  and politics in every matter
• The line between legitimate influence and
  shameless politicking was a fine one (Noll)

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Catholic Political Involvement

• Catholic political involvement reached an
  institutional high during WWI when a National
  Catholic Welfare Conference which was established
  to coordinate public services of the Church
• National Catholic Welfare Conference became the
  National Conference of Bishops
• The irony of American religious history is that
  in the 19th century, Protestants feared Catholic
  political corruption, but in the 20th century, it
  was Catholic influence through these general
  meetings that supported some of the most
  accountable Christian commentary on the
  political, social and economic life of the nation

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The Changing Landscape of the Religious Body in
America

• The reality of the US as a white Protestant
  country of British heritage was changing
• Groups drawing strength from immigration include
  Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Jewish
• The breakthrough in the growth of these religious
  groups happened in the late 19th century, early
  20th century
• Roman Catholics doubled in numbers from 6 to 12
  million over 16 years (1890 1906)
• Eastern Orthodox increased from 600 to approx.
  130 000 over the same 16 years (1890 1906)
• Jewish numbers increased almost 6 times over 10
  years (1906 1926)