1. Immigration and Anti-Catholicism

2. Immigration

3. Statistics on Catholics in U.S.:
By ,000
By ,000
By ½ million
By million
By million
The increase is almost entirely due to immigration

4. French 1790 – 1800 Caused by French Revolution Influences:
Highly authoritarian
Love of ritual
Devotion to Blessed Virgin
Early 19th century, majority of bishops were French immigrants

5. Bishop DuBourg of St. Louis Bishop Flaget of Bardstown
Bishop Lamy of
Santa Fe
Bishop Machebeuf of Denver

6. German
1820 – 1920
Caused by search for economic opportunity and, after 1870, persecution of Catholics in Germany
Mostly farmers and tradesmen
Settled in “German Triangle” between Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee

7. Influences:
Involved in their local parishes
Catholic schools
The first Catholics to settle in Ohio were German immigrants who settled near Somerset

8. Irish
1820 – 1900
Came fleeing persecution in Ireland, famine, and looking for economic opportunity
Settled in large cities of East Coast and Great Lakes
Mostly under 25, illiterate, unmarried

9. Influences: By 1900: Importance of education
Stress religious vocations in their children
Rely on clergy – the priest is the most important person in the parish
By 1900:
50% of all Catholics are Irish
65% of clergy are Irish
70% of bishops are Irish

10. Hispanics
U.S. conquered 1/3 of Mexico in 1848 – California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado
80,000 Hispanic Catholics became part of the U.S.
Immigration has increased the number – Hispanics are nearly 25% of American Catholics

11. Influences:
Popular devotions
Importance of home-based religious traditions
Our Lady of Guadalupe – patroness of the Americas

12. Anti-Catholicism

13. Historic Roots of Anti-Catholicism
English attitudes towards Catholics
Feeling that Catholics are not loyal to the government because of their allegiance to the pope
Protestant beliefs that Catholicism is not a Biblical religion because of its reliance on papal teachings, its veneration of Mary and saints, and rituals

14. Nativism (Part 1) 1820 – 1846 Caused by – Increased immigration
The rise of Protestant Revivalism
An economic downturn and the fact that immigrants were willing to work for lower wages
Question of teaching religion in public schools

15. 1830, magazine “The Protestant” founded to “inculcate Gospel doctrines against Romish corruptions.”
1834 burning of Ursuline convent and school in Charlestown, Mass.
1836 publication of “The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk” – a supposed memoir of life in a convent in Montreal

16. Frontispiece from an edition of The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk

17. Philadelphia Riots
Over the issue of allowing Catholic students to use the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible in religion class in public schools
Led to anti-Catholic riots during which several churches were burned and 14 people died

18. Nativism (Part 2) 1854 – 1860 “Know Nothing Party” established
Only “native born” Protestant Americans of European ancestry should be allowed to be citizens
Attempted to prevent Catholic citizens from voting
“Bloody Monday” – Louisville, 1855

19. Idealized portrait of a member of the Know Nothing Party
Became majority in Congress – able to pass anti-Catholic laws (all of which were overturned in the courts)
Died out by 1860 because they had no stand on the slavery issue
Idealized portrait of a member of the Know Nothing Party

20. “I have been educated to enmity toward everything that is Catholic; sometimes, in consequence of this, I find it easier to discover Catholic faults than Catholic merits.”
Mark Twain

21. Nativism (Part 3) 1887 – 1898 Main Issue: Catholic Schools
Belief that Catholic education is subversive and students are being taught to be loyal to the pope rather than good American citizens
Fear that Catholics will overthrow the government and replace it with a theocracy, getting rid of the Bill of Rights

22. Immigration is still an issue, especially as more immigrants from Eastern Europe are entering the country
Important spokesperson – political cartoonist Thomas Nast

25. The Ku Klux Klan
1920s
See themselves as protecting America for white, Protestant Americans against Blacks, Jews, Catholics and Mexicans

27. Against Al Smith, the first Catholic candidate for president

28. Most organized anti-Catholicism ends with the election of John F
Most organized anti-Catholicism ends with the election of John F. Kennedy to the presidency

29. "I am not the Catholic candidate for President
"I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me.“ Kennedy to the Greater Houston Ministerial Assc. In 1960

30. Anti-Catholicism Today
Little organized anti-Catholicism
A few Fundamentalist Christian groups – especially Jack Chick Publications
Anti-Catholic attitudes are still fairly common – it has been called “the last acceptable prejudice” recently
The clergy pedophilia cover-up brought a lot of those attitudes out