The Catholic community in the U.S. is composed today by people from different parts of the world. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, millions of people, especially from Europe, came to this country to settle their homes and start a new life or simply to take advantage of the opportunities that the new world gave them. Among those immigrants, a number of Catholics looked for continuing living their faith in their new home. In this essay, I want to focus mainly on two groups: Germans and Italians. Germans moved to the U.S. in huge numbers. However, according to Jay P. Dolan, only 30% of those immigrants were Catholic. It meant that between 1820 and 1920, more than 1.6 million German immigrants were Catholic (Dolan, 130). In addition, …show more content…
According to Dolan, the Church was not prepared for them and Italians had to attend to one of the local churches, it meant Irish churches. After some time, Italians were accepted to have Mass in the basement of the parishes. However, they felt it as humiliating and second class members (Dolan, 174). Italians lived a dualistic faith: one popular and the other official. Their popular way of faith was mainly characterized by the many voluntary associations that were created, especially by the clergy. They kept constant contact with priests members of those associations in Italy, who sent other priests to the U.S. in order to serve the Italian community. However, tension arouse because Italians involved more in those associations than in the parish government. They left the priest and the trustees who he chose himself to govern the parish. Some things that helped both immigrant groups were the proliferation of prayer books and processions. Prayer books were printed in different languages, but especially in English in order to unite all communities and also to keep their own culture and language (Dolan, 212). In addition, procession were attended by most Catholics, instead of the country they came from. The only difference in these processions was the level of involvement of each
Here we must make an aside in regard to the U.S. Catholic culture in America is practically non-existent, except in attenuated form among such peoples as the Hispanos and Indians of Northern New Mexico, the Cajuns and Creoles of Louisiana and the other Gulf States, and the old English Catholic settlements of Maryland and Kentucky. Elsewhere the Faith was brought by immigrants, and its attendant culture has, like all imported ones in the States, veered between preservation and assimilation. This was exacerbated by the fact that Catholic leadership in the United States was early committed to a programme of cultural melding. In addition, this leadership was primarily Irish, a nationality which had been deprived of much of its native culture by centuries of Protestant Ascendancy. Hence it has been extremely difficult for Americans, even American Catholics, to understand or appreciate the Catholic thing (as Chesterton described it) in a cultural context. I am reminded of the astonishment of a classmateof mine (from a typical American Catholic High School) at seeing an anthology of Catholic poetry. This situation has been greatly accentuated in the past twenty years by the changes occurring after Vatican II.
Saunders, William P. Straight Answers: Answers to 100 Questions about the Catholic Faith. Baltimore, MD: Cathedral Foundation, 1998. Print.
By the time of John Calvin’s posting to organise a civic church in Geneva, the City-State treasured its new independence and the church had been widely reformed in comparison to its previous existence as a Catholic State. Mass had been abolished and the old papal authority had been renounced in favour of associated councils consisting of men holding full citizenship (Grell, O’Day et al, 2011, p53).
Chapter one, ‘Beginnings at Assisi,’ offers a vivid description of the social, political, economic, cultural, demographic description of Assisi and its inhabitants. Here, the author describes the life of Francis and the situations and circumstances prompting his journey to spread the ideal gospel life to the world. This chapter is relevant in determining the circumstances that instigated a need for reforms in the Catholic Church. This chapter is applicable in my life because it offers insight on the fundamental Christian I can rely on in my daily life.
As the nation became more industrialized, many immigrants migrated to America with the motivation of cheap land, higher wages, and more job opportunities. The population of the country increased by about 27 million people, from about 49 million in 1880 to 76 million in 1900 (White). Immigrants migrated to America from different parts of Europe: Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, Lithuania, Romania and Asia: China and Japan. Since there were so many diverse groups of people, several religions and beliefs, such as Catholicism and Judaism, were introduced to other
By the twentieth century over two million Germans have immigrated to the United States. Regardless of where they settled they came from a multitude of areas and for a variety of reasons. They were a highly diversified group in terms of regional origin, religious and political orientation, education, and socioeconomic standing.
Dolan P shows "Between 1850 and 1930, about 5 million Germans immigrated to the United States with a peak in the years between 1881 and 1885, when a million Germans left Germany and settled mostly in the Midwest. Between 1820 and 1930, 3.5 million British and 4.5 million Irish entered America. Before 1845 most Irish immigrants were Protestants. After 1845, Irish Catholics began arriving in large...
As the History Channel’s documentary on Italian Americans states, Italians were told that in America they would find “streets paved with gold, only to arrive and realize they had to dig the streets.” So, these immigrants picked up shovels and went to work. But they quickly found opposition to their efforts. The Irish, who had come a few years prior to the Italians, did not appreciate the Italians’ willingness to perform hard labor jobs for small wages. The Irish began to feel threatened and soon a rivalry rose between the two groups. This was unfortunate, for both groups, because they were both primarily Catholic. But, this common ground became a divider and not a connector between the two groups.
Religion is something that people all over the world have fought wars for. Whether that religion be Judaism, Christianity, or many other diverse religions. Many people have fought and died for their religion as it gives them something to believe in passed the world we know and live in. For Italy it is Christianity as 88 percent of the population belong to the Roman Catholic Church, even though only around one third of these people consider themselves “active” in their religion (“Religion in Italy : A Christian country”). Although such a large percentage of the people are Christian that doesn’t mean that other religions don’t have prominence in Italy. In fact there are around one million Muslims, seven hundred thousand Eastern Orthodox Christians, five hundred fifty thousand evangelical Protestants, two hundred thirty five thousand Jehovah’s Witnesses, forty five thousand Jewish people, and many other smaller religions (“Religion in Italy : A Christian country”). Despite the vast majority of people practicing Christianity in Italy all of these religions thrive. Most importantly though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Italian constitution, besides extreme sects (“Religion in Italy: A Christian country”). The most important building for religion in Italy is the Vatican. The Vatican is home to the government of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the home to the Pope who is the spiritual leader of the church (“Religion in Italy: A Christian country”). The Vatican has its own post office, newspaper, radio, and television stations (“Religion in Italy: A Christian country”). There has been close relations between the church and the state which influences the politics and society of Italy (“Religion in Italy: A Christian country”). Out of all the major countries in the world Italy may have the closest relationship between church and state.
Internationally, the Vatican has been seen as a symbol for the power of the Church throughout many centuries. Its ancient architecture and housing of the Holy See causes it to be seen essentially as the spiritual center of Catholicism. Besides its status as the home of the pope, the Vatican exists as a special sovereign state that is filled with an overwhelming amount of culture in such a small area. The city has witnessed some of the most monumental events in the Church’s history, which are documented in the state’s very own architecture, art, and even government.
When Italian immigrants came to America, many were not welcomed in the communities of the Germans and Irish. The neighborhoods that the Itali...
The Story of Christianity is a very informative summation; a continuation of Volume 1 which covered the beginning of the church up to the Protestant Reformation, while Vol. 2 dealt with the Protestant Reformation up to more modern time period. This author delivers a more comprehensive and deeper look into the development of Christianity, which includes particular events which had transpired throughout the world; particularly how Christianity has expanded into Central and South America. Gonzalez opens up this book with the “Call for Reformation,” where he shares with his readers the need for reform; the papacy had started to decline and was corrupt, in addition to the Great Schism, which had further weakened the papacy (p.8). The author explains how the church was not the only issue but that the church’s teachings were off track as well, seeing that the people had deviated from...
One theme that has overly changed over the years is that of pluralism. For many years, America has been a haven for different groups of people. British immigration brought with it a different ideology since they lacked unification in their own religious beliefs. This essay seeks to show how the Roman Catholic Church adapted to the challenge of religious pluralism in the American republic by modifying European notions of religious tradition. The adaptations of traditions within the Roman Catholic Church enabled them to be relevant within the communities.
The year between 1850 and 1915 was known as the “Ages of Mass Migration” in the United States. In that time frame an estimate total of thirty million immigrants came to America .reported by (A Nation of Immigrants Assimilation and Economic). This surge made up twenty –two percent of the U.S labor force foreign. The same trend kept the U.S labor force growing as of 2015 by the “Bureau of labor statistics U.S department of labor” shows that 48.8 percent of the U.S labor force is foreign, mostly Hispanics with other 21.1 percent being of Asian descents, leaving
Bibliography Name Institution Tutor Date On 20th April 2014, I attended Easter Sunday celebrations in the Roman Catholic Church. This is the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the most important celebration in the Catholic Church; it can’t even be compared to the day Christ was born. Easter Sunday happens after forty days of fasting, this represents the suffering Jesus went through because of our sins at the cross. Good Friday comes prior to thanksgiving on Sunday; on this day we die spiritually with Christ on the cross and share on with his pain then rise up on Sunday and celebrate him.