Nurturing Faith

I am a computer buff. Are there any Catholic search engines? I would love to surf the net and explore Catholic web sites.

There are many Catholic search engines. Woodstock Theological Center has a wonderful search engine that allows you to search Catholic Theological Reflection of the past and present. The Catholic Internet Directory will enable you to search Catholic Dioceses and organizations. There is even a search engine that will search the Catechism of the Catholic Church for you. And the wonderful thing is that you can access all these search engines at one place. Have fun and click on:

http://www.mcgill.pvt.k12.al.us/jerryd/cm/engines.htm

Are there any famous Catholics in American history? I like to read about the founding of the American colonies and the time of the Revolution but I never seem to find anything about Catholics. Also I know that during the time of the great immigration from Europe that there had to be Catholics. Were any of them famous?

One of the reasons that you read very little about Catholics in Colonial America was that there were very few of them. In 1785 Father John Carroll reported that Catholics made up only 1 percent - 25,000 people - of the population in America.

However, between 1820 and 1860 nearly 5 million immigrants from Europe arrived in America and many of them were Catholics. During this time many communities of religious filled the need for teachers for the Catholic schools.

Elizabeth Anne Seton started St. Joseph's Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1810. In 1975 Paul VI declared that she was a saint. Rose Philippine Duschene left her native France to begin a ministry to Native Americans during the years 1818-1842. Mary Elizabeth Lange founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a community of black women in 1829. Henriette Delille and Juliette Gaudin founded the Association of the Holy Family, another group to care for the black community. In 1886, Mary Caroline Dannat Starr, a convert to Catholicism, founded the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, to provide employable skills and catechism for needy street children in New York City. These later became fully accredited educational institutions. Katherine Drexel began the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1891.

In the field of publishing, Dennis and James Sadlier began publishing as D & J Sadlier in New York in 1832. Throughout the nineteenth century, Maryanne Sadlier and her daughter Anna wrote and translated numerous religious books.

Annie Sadlier Dinger ran the Sadlier company at the turn of the century. Francis Cabrini cared for Italian Immigrants. She was canonized in 1946. Lucy Filippini worked with Italian immigrants.

Between the year 1820 and 1890 more than 40 different communities of religious women and 11 communities of religious brothers worked in Catholic education.

There is wonderful information about the history of William H. Sadlier Publishing Company, which can be found at: http://sadlier.com/about.htm

Thank you for your question.
- Marie Murphy Ph.D.

Marie Murphy, Ph.D., serves as Wm. H. Sadlier's Executive Religion Consultant, conducting workshops nationwide on catechetical and theological topics as part of Sadlier's Consultant Services. Marie received her doctorate in theology from Fordham University and has served as a parish catechist and Director of Religious Education.

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