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

Our Catholic Roots 1492—1865

Unit V. Immigration, Prejudice, and Civil War: 1828—1865

Foreword
As the United States entered more fully into the industrial age, cities of the Northeast such as Boston and New York grew rapidly, and became the site of factories of all sorts of sizes. European famines and revolutions were driving much larger numbers of immigrants to settle in these cities. In almost every poor, big-city neighborhood an Irish or German Catholic church could be found, with its foreign priest watching over his flock.

Many Protestant Americans, upset by the wave of foreign Catholics, preached against them in their churches. Protestant mobs rioted against Catholics in the streets and burned their buildings. They sought to deny citizenship to Catholics, they drafted Catholics into the military in inordinate numbers, and they tried to deny Catholics their civil rights.

Against this hostile background, the American church went about the business of organizing itself and attending to the needs of its people. New dioceses were created, and new bishops were appointed to every comer of the continent. Catholic schools emerged as a major means of training for Catholic children.

Finally, the Civil War stilled the voices of the more fanatical anti-Catholics as Catholics seized the opportunity to join their fellow citizens in a common cause. Working, fighting, and dying side-by-side with their Protestant neighbors during the war brought Catholics a greater level of acceptance in the American community. But, as time would tell, the sickness of anti-Catholicism was not yet fully healed.

People who are not Catholic often ask questions about sacramentals. Crucifixes, statues, and paintings in churches and homes help Catholics in their worship, just as rosary beads, religious medals, holy water, and candles often accompany private devotions.

13. Church Organization and Parish Life
Shortly after his arrival in 1820, Bishop England began to bombard Archbishop Maréchal with letters urging that a meeting of American bishops be convened in accord with the rules of the Council of Trent. England had two reasons for wanting such a meeting:

1. He recognized that all the American dioceses had the same problems and needs, and they all had a serious lack of resources. To him it seemed logical to develop common strategies among the dioceses. In this unified way, they could address those problems and needs more efficiently.

2. He believed that, as a Catholic and a bishop, his responsibility for the welfare of the church did not end at the boundaries of his own diocese. His concerns, England believed, should go beyond the limits of his own personal interests.

First Councils of Baltimore
To Maréchal, however, these reasons sounded more like excuses for England to disturb the tranquility of his brother bishops and meddle in the affairs of their dioceses. So he simply declined to respond to England's letters, and instead wrote a single word on the back of each: "negative."

Maréchal died in 1828 and was succeeded by his aging protégé James Whitfield, the rector of Baltimore's cathedral. To no one's surprise, the new archbishop soon received a letter from Bishop England requesting a council. After an original refusal, however, Whitfield reluctantly agreed.

The American bishops gathered in Baltimore's Cathedral of the Assumption. Their meetings spanned sixteen days, from October 3 to 18, 1829. Archbishop Whitfield, six bishops, and the apostolic administrator of Philadelphia participated; three bishops, from more distant dioceses, were absent.

The discussions and decisions of the council showed clearly the lack of a common viewpoint between England and the other bishops. The majority of them perceived the big issues to be the need to tighten their control and the need to correct organizational abuses. Their approach to clergy-related questions serves as an example. They were disturbed about the lack of exact uniformity in the way priests celebrated the sacraments, the unauthorized use of English by some clergy in celebrating the Mass, and the continued presence of roving priests who were not subject to any bishop.

Bishop England recognized these problems, but was inclined to emphasize more basic pastoral needs. He believed that most priests in the United States were not troublemakers, but dedicated men who were doing their best in impoverished, isolated, and lonely circumstances. In his view, they needed support and guidance, not more rules. The council attempted to satisfy the concerns of both viewpoints. It moved to tighten the rules governing priests, but it also issued an excellent pastoral letter of encouragement and support for the clergy.

A similar pattern was followed on the issue of trusteeism. The majority of bishops remained frightened at the prospect of sharing their authority. They simply would not hear of establishing England's "Charleston solution" as the model for all American dioceses. Instead, they issued a blanket condemnation of all forms of trusteeism within the country. At the same time, however, they nervously agreed to recognize the Charleston constitution as an acceptable, if somewhat unusual, approach to church government.

On less controversial issues, the bishops reached more comfortable agreement. They endorsed the Douay-Rheims translation of the bible as the official text for American Catholics. They declared that Catholic schools were "absolutely necessary." And they established a society to publish Catholic books and pamphlets. The most important outcome of their participation in the council, however, was their new-found sense of the church in the nation as a whole. Slowly, each bishop was beginning to think in terms of realities larger than his own diocese.

Having experienced at close quarters the full force of Bishop England's personality, and the jarring challenge of his unconventional ideas, the cautious Archbishop Whitfield was not enthusiastic about convening the next scheduled council. So England, with the support of Bishop Du Bourg of New Orleans and the apostolic administrator of Philadelphia, appealed to Rome. The Propaganda Congregation responded by commanding Whitfield to convene the council, and he obeyed in 1833. Thereafter, the provisional councils of Baltimore met routinely, every three years, addressing common problems. This reinforced among the bishops a growing sense of identity for the American church.

Until his death in 1842, England was the sparkplug of these gatherings, always igniting controversy, raising the uncomfortable issues, and suggesting new approaches to old problems. And he was usually the one called upon to draft the joint pastoral letters issued by the bishops at the end of their meetings. For most of his ideas, England failed to gain majority support. However, he could look upon the creation of a regular vehicle for national dialogue among the bishops as an outstanding and lasting achievement.

Family life goes on, even amid very poor surroundings. As the Church helped immigrants in the nineteenth century, what are some ways to assist people in currently living in these conditions?

When the bishops met for the First Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1829, there were eleven dioceses: Baltimore, Boston, Bardstown (Louisville), New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Richmond, New Orleans, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and the brand new Diocese of Mobile. At each of the provincial councils thereafter, the bishops examined the patterns of new settlement out West and of new growth in older areas of the East and the South. They then recommended to Rome the foundation of new dioceses. Reflecting the rate of national population growth, five dioceses were added in the 1830's, eleven in the 1840s, and fifteen in the 1850s:

Founding new dioceses was not by itself an adequate response to the surge of growth of America's immigrant population. But it was the promise of a response. In every diocese, the new immigrants had two very specific requests of their church:

1. the spiritual guidance and religious instruction that would help them to understand and live their faith confidently and maturely;

2. the material assistance and practical advice that would help them to adapt and survive in a foreign and hostile culture. For the bishops, this meant establishing parishes, schools, colleges, newspapers, hospitals, and orphanages; and then finding the priests, sisters, and brothers to staff them.

Living conditions in nineteenth-century inner cities were often harsh and degrading.

Annually, in what was for many the highlight of the year, benediction would be extended across several days for a period of special devotion known as "Forty Hours." The church was banked with candles and flowers, and the parishioners would sign up to spend specific hours of prayer before the exposed sacrament. Like those who had gone before them for many centuries, American Catholics took strength and comfort from eucharistic ceremonies such as these, which imparted a strong sense of Christ's personal presence in their lives, troubled though they were.

On weekday mornings, priests celebrated Mass very early. Many parishioners would attend these Masses, but only the very pious would receive the Eucharist. Masses after midday were never permitted. Weddings and baptisms were celebrated at the church almost daily, but funerals were often conducted in homes or at the grave because people were too poor to afford the services of an undertaker.

The same extreme sense of personal unworthiness and sinfulness that kept most Catholics away from the Eucharist brought them regularly to the confessional. As a result, one of the city priest's more exhausting services to his huge congregation involved sitting in an airless confessional for four to five hours at a time, administering the sacrament of reconciliation on Friday and Saturday evenings.

The elaborate Latin prayers and rituals for every occasion were carefully spelled out in official ceremonial books, and everyone recognized these books as the exclusive business of the ordained priest who prayed on their behalf. Almost always this was done at some distance from the people in a raised sanctuary. This area contained the altar and tabernacle and was separated from the people by a low wooden or marble fence called the communion rail. The solemnity and beauty of these ceremonies, as well as their separation from the congregation, provided an intense stimulus to the people's sense of the presence of their all-powerful and mysterious Creator.

However, the average Catholic also needed less formal and more intimate forms of prayer that would help him or her to experience and understand the gentle and healing side of God's presence. So, with the help of their priests, most Catholics of the nineteenth century turned to a variety of private devotions. Most popular among these were the rosary, novenas (nine days of special prayers), stations of the cross, devotion to patron saints, and especially, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus or the Immaculate Conception of Mary. By the 1846s, it had become common for even the poorest of people to carry tiny, cheaply printed prayer books containing their favorite prayers and devotions. Very often, these were the prayers that captured people's attention even as the priest read the scriptures and celebrated the Eucharist. For all but the well educated, it would be a very long time before Bishop England's recommended practice of carrying an English missal to Mass would catch on.

Celebrating the Sacrament of the Sick is part of a priest's comforting and blessing ministry. During this sacrament, a person's five senses are anointed with holy oil.

"Sick calls" at every hour of the day or night were regular occurrences, especially in the poorer areas where diet and living conditions were so miserable. Summoned by a family member or a neighbor, the priest would carry the Eucharist and the holy oils to administer the sacrament of the sick, frequently in very gross circumstances. As a group, parish priests of this period died very young, usually from catching a contagious disease while caring for the sick. In one incident recorded in New York City, a pastor visited a parishioner who was dying of typhus, and then contracted the same disease himself. On his deathbed, he in turn passed on the same fatal disease to the priest who came to give him the sacraments. It was left for the bishop to bury them both.

The Parish Priest
Because he was presumed to have a special relationship with God, and also because he was better educated than most of his people, the priest was ordinarily the most respected person in the parish. As a result, the priest's opinion on matters large and small carried great weight. Thus he was in a position to provide very useful assistance to his people as, by trial and error, they attempted to learn how to survive in their new homeland.

His wise counsel prevented bad marriages and foolish decisions. His calming voice restored peace where riot was imminent. Food from his house saved many a hungry soul, and money from his pocket delivered many more from being thrown out with their poor possessions into the street. His advice was often sought in political and community matters. When there was trouble, everyone knew where to go.

Watched over, aided, scolded, comforted, advised, fed and clothed, encouraged, warned, blessed, and forgiven by their priests, the new American Catholics found in their parish a community, a safe and familiar home in which they could begin the building of new lives.

Terms

fast: to eat very little, or nothing at all, for a specified amount of time.

monstrance: a sacred vessel that holds the Eucharistic host for display.

benediction: a devotion which includes displaying the Eucharistic host in a monstrance, together with a blessing of the people.

rector: a priest who directs a church where there is no pastor, or whose pastor has other appointed duties.

Questions for Reflection

In general terms, what did the majority of bishops perceive to be the big issues confronting them at the First Provincial Council of Baltimore? In what ways did Bishop England simultaneously agree and disagree with them? How did this difference of viewpoint manifest itself when the bishops looked at their clergy?

For the immigrants of the nineteenth century the local parish was often their only lifeline. Is that true today?

You have seen how the Church responded to the needs of the new American Catholics in the first half of the nineteenth century. What are the most important needs of Catholics in parish today? How does your parish respond to those needs? What could you and your fellow parishioners do to improve that response?

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