Examining Faith

Our Catholic Roots

Our Catholic Roots presents events, issues, personalities, movements, and controversies that bear directly on the Catholic American experience. You will find details of the founding, organization, development, and major difficulties faced by the Church in the new nation as well as an understanding of the Church's presence as it was felt in American affairs.

Our Catholic Roots is the story of Catholic people, lay, religious, and ordained; of Catholic leaders, saints, and ordinary folk; of Catholic women and Catholic men; of Catholic successes and Catholic failures. Above all, it is the story of Catholic heritage in the United States.

Table of Contents:

I. Spanish, French, and English Catholics Come to America: 1492-1776

Foreword / The Spanish Contribution (Part 1)
The examination of Our Catholic Roots begins with a brief overview and the first part of the review of the Spanish contribution to bringing the Church to the Americas.
The Spanish Contribution (Part 2)
This week continues the examination of the Spanish efforts to bring the Catholic faith to the New World.
The French Contribution
This segment explores the experience of the French as they tried to make converts to Catholicism in New France.
The English Contribution (Part 1)
The installment this week examines the effects that the religious and political situations in England had on the settlements in America.
The English Contribution (Part 2)
This week's segment continues the examination of the effects that the religious and political situations in England had on the settlements in America.

II. American Catholics Struggle for Religious Freedom: 1763-1791

Foreword / Seeds of the Church in America
The next section examines how Catholics handled challenges to religious freedom that they faced in the British colonies of North America.
Organizing the Infant Church
This section covers how the Catholic Church in the new nation slowly began to organize and take root.
The Constitution and Religious Liberty
This week looks at the evolution of the concept of religious liberty in the United States and its effect on the Catholic population.

III. American Catholics Organize Their Church: 1789-1815

Foreword / Bishop Carroll's First Years 1789-1793
This section explores the promises and challenges that faced American Catholics as they began to organize their church during the first years of the United States of America.
Democracy and Church Organization: 1793-1800
Catholics are part of the growth of the new nation, and the Church works to meet the challenges of ministering to a far-flung flock.
John Carroll: Churchman and American
This chapter reviews the growth and development of the Church in the United States as the new country doubled in size with the Louisiana Purchase.

IV. The Catholic Community Grows with America: 1815-1829

Church Development: 1815-1820
This segment deals with the effects that the major migration of people to America in the early 1800s had on the country and on the Catholic church.
Church Development: 1820-1829
During the first part of the 1800's the Catholic bishops in the United Stated faced many and varied challenges. The vision and creative approach of Bishop John England to these challenges stands out.
Instructing the Ignorant: 1820-1829
Even though the Bill of Rights was in place, Catholics in the United States encountered prejudice on many levels.

V. Immigration, Prejudice, and Civil War: 1828-1865

Church Organization and Parish Life
Parish liturgy and life provided spiritual and material support to the huge influx of Catholic immigrants during the first half of the nineteenth century.