A very short history of Catholics in America

In 1544, Father Andres de Olmos, a Franciscan, first evangelized in Texas.

St. Augustine, Florida founded in 1565 first Catholic community.

Santa Fe was founded in 1610.

Maryland founded in 1634; was the center of Catholic presence. By 1765, 20,000 Catholics lived in Maryland.  However, Maryland became an English royal colony in 1689.

In 1685, the French explorer LaSalle established Fort St. Louis in Matagorda Bay in Texas, which had a chapel.
 
First Spanish mission was established in 1690 in San Antonio.
 
John Carroll ordained first bishop of Baltimore 1790.

Large-scale immigration began in 1820s and by the 1920s there were about 17 million Catholics, which included some 28 ethnic groups. 

Religious sisters:  some 1,300 sisters in the 1850s by 1900 there were 40,340. Thanks to the religious communities made the growth of schools and hospitals possible.

Anti-Catholic sentiment swept across America during the 1850s. Convents and churches were burned as well as riots that took place. As result, Catholics developed a subculture often described as a “ghetto mentality.”  However, there were some Catholics who promoted the idea that the Church become more American.  These include Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulists, Archbishop John Ireland, and James Cardinal Gibbons.  Rome, did not like the idea of separation of church and state, religious toleration and democracy was the ideal form of government. In 1899, Pope Leo XXIII issued his encyclical letter, Testem Benevolentia that condemned what he caked “Americanism.”   This intervention solidified the Romanization of the Church in America.

One hallmark of the immigrant Church could be called a devotional spirituality with an emphasis on authority, sin, ritual and the miraculous.  This was the age of processions, devotional guides and confession.  All of these would set Catholics apart from people of other faiths.  This type of spirituality shaped American Catholics up until the 1940s.

Catholics were often and widely stereotyped in political cartoons in newspapers.  Also ads for employment often included “No Irish Need Apply.”

The 1844 riots resulted from anti-Catholic sentiment.  Nativist groups spread the rumor Catholics were trying to remove the Bible from public schools.  See “ The Forgotten History of Anti-Catholic Riots” online.

The Baltimore Catechism, the official catechism for children mandated by the Third Council of Baltimore , was the standard text from 1885-1960s.  The year 1885 was the midpoint for immigration, which created the need for helping to educate the great influx of Catholic immigrants.

The Civil War:  Thanks to various communities of religious sisters who served as nurses during the Civil War, Catholic prejudice was reduced.  These sister nurses were color blind, that is, they cared for both Union and Conferdate soldiers.  The sisters helped with surgeries, buried the dead and prayed with the dying.  Some sisters even had been trained in Europe with Florence Nightingale; thus, they helped reduce the number of deaths due to unsanitary conditions.

The Spanish American War:  Religious sisters also served the same capacity as in the Civil War.

A growing movement among educated middle class called for the Church to become more involved with public life.  For example, the Rev. Joh Ryan promoted social action; Dorothy Day founded Catholic Worker in 1933; Bishop Fulton J. Sheen had his own prime-time TV show; Pope John XXIII was elected in 1958; and John Kennedy who was elected President in 1960.

Vatican Council II 1962-1965.

In the 1960s the Church joined the war on poverty and discrimination.

New Wave of Immigration: Mass in Los Angeles was celebrated in 47 languages and in 30 languages in New York.

Conclusion:  If you would like more information, go to Catholics in America websites.