Religion and Society in America

The “Immigrant Church”

Week 8 – Lecture 1

The “Immigrant Church”

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”Divisions with Catholic leadershipDivisions among the laityThe Articulation of American

Catholicism “Americanism”

The “Immigrant Church”

These two historical develops raise larger questions concerning:The place/relationship of immigrants

to American religious lifeIdeas about American exceptionalismThe affect of democracy upon

religious traditionsWhat is the essence of religious

identity/meaning in light of modernity?

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

(1880 – 1920) In each decade over 1 million Catholic immigrants come to the United States

(1901 – 1910) 2 Million Catholics arrive

19th Century migration of Catholics was chiefly from northern European countries (Ireland and Germany)

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

1st and 2nd Wave Immigrants By the turn of the century, 80% of

Catholic immigrants come from southern and eastern Europe

Italians, Hungarians, Poles In 1890, four out of every five people

in greater New York City were either immigrants or children of immigrants

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

6,259,000

16,363,000

0

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

Growth of Catholicism in U.S.

1880

1910

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

75,609,000

16,363,000

010,000,000

20,000,00030,000,000

40,000,00050,000,000

60,000,00070,000,000

80,000,000

1910 Population

Non-Catholics

Catholics

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Immigration among Catholics raises key

questions concerning ethnicity and cultural heritage

Internal divisions: French-Canadian Catholics begin southern

migration French parish opens in Burlington, VT in

1850 Irish population clashes with new wave of

“foreigners” who worked longer hours for less pay and did not tithe to the church on the level of Irish-Americans

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Bishop Louis de Goesbriand of Burlington

complains in 1886 the new wave of immigrants were in “complete ignorance of religion”

Concerted effort at weeklong “parish missions” in the region; efforts borrow heavily upon Protestant paradigms

Catholics hold a form of revival meeting where preaching, not sacrament, is emphasized

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Concerted campaign within the press to

attract attention to the missions program Religious enthusiasm breeds nationalist

expectations Québec nationalist Louis La Flèche, Bishop

of Trois-Rivières prophesied in 1889 about New England’s annexation to Québec

Such claims aroused profound suspicion among New England Catholics of their immigrant coreligionists

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Other issues, such as temperance,

could divide Catholics along ethnic lines and social standing

John Ireland, pastor of a church in St. Paul, a region of the nation heavily settled by German Catholics, incurred the scorn of German-Americans when he lead the Irish-American Temperance Society in the 1870s

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

Flood of new immigrants to America arouses Protestant fears as well

In 1884, Presbyterian minister Samuel Buchard, a prominent supporter of presidential candidate James G. Blaine denounced the Democratic Party as “the party whose antecedents are rum, Romanism, and rebellion.” Blaine loss the necessary electoral votes in New York state because of this slur and some speculate the presidential election as well.

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Speaking of late-nineteenth century

and early twentieth century Catholics, one historian writes: “Catholicism fit awkwardly with established Protestant American patterns. It became preeminently the church of laborer and city-dweller, of ghetto and slum, and kept that image until the post-World War II flight to the suburbs.”

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Why did the pattern of Catholic

immigration to America differ from Protestants?

What features of Catholicism did not permit it to spread like American Protestants?

What are the prevailing ideas concerning the relationship of church and state among American Catholics?

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” A division emerges among American

Catholics over the relationship of the Church to American democracy

Liberals: John Ireland (1838-1918) – archbishop of St.

Paul, Minnesota diocese. John Gibbons – bishop of Richmond (1872)

and coadjutor bishop of Baltimore (1887) John Keane – bishop of Richmond (1877)

and founding rector of Catholic University in the District of Columbia (1889)

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

A division emerges over these questions within the Catholic leadership

Conservatives:Michael A. Corrigan (1839-1902)

Archbishop of New York (1880)Frederick Xavier Katzer (1844-1903)

Bishop of Green Bay

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

Ireland advocates mainstreaming immigrant Catholics into American society wherever doctrine allowed

“There is no conflict,” Ireland told the Third Council, “between the Catholic Church and America.”

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

Corrigan accused Ireland and others of holding a “spirit of false liberalism” that was ultimately damaging to Catholicism

“Our love for country must not in any way blind us to error which are serious” Corrigan warned the Church and liberals within.

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Immigration touches of a key question for

American Catholic leadership, namely: “How could the leadership provide the kind of pastoral care needed to sustain the faith of immigrants in their new environment?”

Some responses reflect efforts in the past: John Ireland forms “Catholic Colonization Society” in 1876 for speculation of Catholics in the West to relieve them of ghetto life

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Third Plenary Council of Baltimore meets in

1884 to debate this question Proposed Solutions:

Parochial Schools – parish supported schools, usually elementary schools

Growth spurred by immigration and conflicts over curriculum with public schools and fear of a type of pan-Protestantism

Motto: “Every Catholic child in a Catholic school”

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” While there is agreement on the need for

education of Catholics for social improvement, a great debate existed over the methods

Ireland and other liberals assert Catholics should be taught strictly in English

Ireland proposes plan to have Catholic schools within two Minnesota districts to be funded with public money

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

Ireland’s plan raises the ire of Katzer whose constituency (German Catholics) have no interest in learning English nor blurring the lines between parochial schools and state

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church”

Proposed Solutions: Guarded or cautionary stance toward

Catholic membership in organizations known in Europe as “secret societies” (e.g. Freemasons or the Knights of Labor)

Divisions with Catholic Leadership

Example: Knights of Labor American Catholics debate if Knights

should be condemned as a secret society or supported for the sake of workers’ social betterment

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Knights of Labor - labor organization, started by

Philadelphia tailors in 1869 by Uriah S. Stephens. Initially secretive, it grew rapidly after 1881 when its

secrecy character was abandoned. Organized on an industrial basis, with women, black workers (after 1883), the Knights aided various groups in strikes and boycotts

With the motto “an injury to one is the concern of all,” the Knights sought to reform—an 8-hour day, abolition of child and convict labor, equal pay for equal work, elimination of private banks, cooperation—which, like its methods, were highly idealistic.

In 1886 its membership reached 702,000 members under Terrence Powderly, mayor of Scranton, PA.

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Powderly’s ideological leanings were

questioned by many despite his repudiation of socialism and radicalism

Bishop James A. Healey of Portland, Maine, excommunicates those belonging to the Knights

Knights condemned by Roman Catholic Church in Canada (1884)

1884 U.S. Bishops appeal to Vatican not to condemn the Knights.

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Gibbons (liberal) secures Vatican

toleration for the Knights with his “memorial” submitted to Rome in 1887.

Continuous appeals to the Vatican by American bishops leads Pope Leo XIII to once and for all resolve issue about Catholicism’s place in American culture

The Formation of the “Immigrant Church” Among Liberals a type of American Catholic

Messianism is born Roots of thought grounded in American

thought Denis O’Connell would argue in his 1897

address before the International Catholic Scientific Congress in Fribourg that for the Catholic Church to remain vital, it must adapt in areas of “nonessentials” to the current age

“Americanism”

Americanism: 19th Century term for “patriotism”

Enters the lexicon of Catholic theology in 1889 when Pope Leo XIII used the term in his apostolic letter Testem Benevolentiae

This letter censured certain ideas being espoused by the liberal leadership of the American Catholic Church

Eventually “Americanism” was condemned as a heresy by Pope Leo XIII in 1899.

“Americanism”

Main issue which was debated in a series of events (1884-1899) was the extent of accommodation to American culture

“Accommodations” included:The espousal of American Catholic

messianism held by progressiveEfforts of the international Catholic

reform movement (1887-1899)

“Americanism”

The letter Testem Benevolentiae strongly condemned the contention of the liberal American leadership which suggested the Church should adapt to the age and secure greater individual liberty