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Immigration and Anti-Catholicism

Immigration and Anti-Catholicism. 1800 - 1920. Immigration. Statistics on Catholics in U.S.:. By 1800 - 40,000 By 1820 - 195,000 By 1850 - 1½ million By 1860 - 3 million By 1820 - 18 million The increase is almost entirely due to immigration. French. 1790 – 1800

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Immigration and Anti-Catholicism

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  1. Immigration and Anti-Catholicism 1800 - 1920

  2. Immigration

  3. Statistics on Catholics in U.S.: • By 1800 - 40,000 • By 1820 - 195,000 • By 1850 - 1½ million • By 1860 - 3 million • By 1820 - 18 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: • 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. 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

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

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

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

  26. "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

  27. 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

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