Religion and Society
in America
The “Immigrant Church”
Week 8 – Lecture 1
The “Immigrant Church”

The Formation of the “Immigrant
Church”
Divisions with Catholic leadership
 Divisions among the laity
 The Articulation of American
Catholicism


“Americanism”
The “Immigrant Church”

These two historical develops raise
larger questions concerning:
The place/relationship of immigrants
to American religious life
 Ideas about American exceptionalism
 The affect of democracy upon
religious traditions
 What 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”
20,000,000
16,363,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
6,259,000
5,000,000
0
Growth of Catholicism in U.S.
1880
1910
The Formation of the
“Immigrant Church”
80,000,000
70,000,000
60,000,000
50,000,000
40,000,000
30,000,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
0
75,609,000
Non-Catholics
Catholics
16,363,000
1910 Population
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 postWorld 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 progressive
 Efforts 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