“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me…” — (Mt. 25:35)

The period roughly from 1840 to 1920 witnessed one of the most dramatic demographic transformations in United States history: the rise of a mass Catholic population through immigration. This influx reshaped American religion, politics, and society, provoking both fierce hostility and significant institutional innovation.

In 1840, there were about 600,000 Catholics in the United States, comprising about 3.5% of the total population. By 1920, the Official Catholic Directory reported nearly 28 million Catholics in our nation, then 26% of the population. As with other dramatic influxes of immigrants from the many nations of the world, the assimilation of Catholics was not without its perils. Many native-born Protestants feared that Catholics owed allegiance to the pope rather than to American democracy. A common nativist belief was that Catholic immigration represented a conspiracy to make the nation a Catholic nation (like those of earlier European nations) which itself professed an ultimate loyalty to the pope. In the end, however, nativist sentiments feared a loss of political power and influence.

Acts of outright bigotry and violence were not uncommon. Among the most notorious was the publication of the spurious “historical” novel of 1836 entitled, “Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal” by Maria Monk, purported to expose the licentious and murderous acts of Catholic priests and nuns behind closed convent doors. The anti-Catholic screed sold more copies than any other book in America until the 1852 publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This anti-Catholic sentiment fueled political movements, including the notorious “Know-Nothing Party” of the 1850s that explicitly opposed Catholic immigration. During these early years of Catholic immigration, spurred by famines in Europe, particularly in Ireland, acts of violence were perpetrated against the Catholic immigrant, including the 1834 burning of a convent in Boston and the anti-Catholic riots of 1844 in Philadelphia. As can be frequently the case, Catholic immigrants were subject to dehumanizing actions and rhetoric. “No Irish Need Apply” communications in employment situations were but veiled anti-Catholic messages. A future president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, wrote in his diary as a young man about increasing influence of Irish politicians in the New York State Assembly, “There are some twenty-five Irish Democrats in the house. … They are a stupid, sodden and vicious lot, most of them being equally deficient in brains and virtue. Three or four however … seem to be pretty good men, and among the best members of the house are two Republican farmers named O’Neil and Sheehy, the grandsons of Irish immigrants. But the average Catholic Irishman of first-generation as represented in this Assembly, is a low, venal, corrupt and unintelligent brute.”

With such hostility greeting the Catholic immigrant of the 19th century, the Church itself sought to provide for its own through social and educational efforts. A significant influx of religious sisters, brothers and priests founded and staffed schools, orphanages, and other social institutions. Bishops and clergy exhorted the new immigrants to become loyal American citizens, while the Church defended the immigrants against employment and other forms of discrimination and provided moral and social guidance through its educational institutions, especially the parochial school, which were mandated by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1844) — the vast parochial schools system that resulted provided a refuge for young immigrant children and produced a means for preserving faith and culture in the face of an often hostile American culture. The Church thus became a central social anchor, not just a religious institution. In the end, the Church and its leadership framed immigration not as a threat, but as a source of renewal for American society and Catholic life. The country was often slow to accept this message.

As mentioned, a primary agent of the Church’s response to a resistant to the incorporation of the vast number of Catholic immigrants by the larger American nation were Catholic religious orders, led by radiant figures like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Katherine Drexel, and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, who founded numerous schools, orphanages, hospitals, and social agencies, a legacy that remains with us through organizations like Catholic Social Services of our own diocese. Even to this day, a large segment of our hospital system traces its origin to Catholic institutions, which sought to provide for immigrants and, in the end, to respond to Jesus’ wider call to care for all the sick (cf. Mt. 25:36).

In our current day, immigration remains a contentious and thorny political issue. It ought to come as no surprise that the same arguments presented against the Catholic immigrant of the 19th century are employed even to this day regarding our new generation of immigrants. And while there have been many successes with acceptance of Catholics in our larger American culture, the progress was slow and uneven. At the very least, our legacy as an immigrant people who were met with profound resistance in the 19th and 20th centuries ought to provide a context out of which to view our current national debate over our newest American sisters and brothers. Recalling Jesus’ own command to “welcome the stranger,” may God provide wisdom for our leaders … and all of us … to provide for the orderly and just reception of immigrants who have come to our land with the same aspirations as our Catholic ancestors.

Next month: Slavery, Abolition, and the Civil War