The goal of this paper is to determine if the Catholic religion has continued to modernize since Vatican II. In order to help analyze the modernization of Catholicism, this paper will examine the immigration of Catholics to America in the 19th and 20th centuries. Throughout this paper, I will reference Dr. Julie Byrne’s commentary, a professor in American religious history at Duke University, as a means of explaining how Catholicism has assimilated into American culture. Next, this paper suggests three challenges that Catholics are presently facing in the 21st century. Finally, this paper will elaborate on the growth in “irreligious Catholics” and its potential dangers. Although Catholicism assimilated into American culture during the 19th and 20th centuries, research and the rise in “irreligious Catholics” in the 21st century suggests it is possible that Catholicism has not continued to modernize. In Dr. Byrne’s article, “Roman Catholics and the American Mainstream in the Twentieth Century”, she identifies two transitional time periods in American history that have refashioned Catholicism. Dr. Byrne’s article focuses on the immigration of Catholics to America between 1840 and 1920. In Dr. Byrne’s article, she analyzes the immigration of Catholics during these centuries and concludes that each surge of immigration has contributed to the modernization of Catholicism. Dr. Byrne furthers her analysis by examining the paramount challenges that Catholic immigrants subsisted as they transitioned to the New World. Dr. Byrne feels the challenges that Catholic immigrants encountered in America during the 19th century were due to “demographic” confrontations. Dr. Byrne also believes the 20th century Catholic immigrants largely suffered ... ... middle of paper ... ...consciously continue the application of the apostolic tradition. However, it may not be so easy for future generations not socialized into Catholicism, to make effective moral decisions. Therefore, this paper suggests that the future of ecumenism depends on whether or not the Catholic Church can continue to modernize. Works Cited Byrne, Dr. Julie. "Roman Catholics and Immigration in Nineteenth-Century America, The Nineteenth Century, Divining America: Religion in American History, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center." National Humanities Center and Duke University, Nov. 2000. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. nkeyinfo/nromcath.htm>. Rausch, Thomas P. "Chapter 9: A Truly Catholic Church." Towards a Truly Catholic Church: an Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2005. 167-81. Print.
Lippy, Charles H., and Peter W. Williams. Encyclopedia of the American religious experience: studies of traditions and movements. New York: Scribner, 1988. Print.
G. - R. Hom &' E. Gerard (eds). Left Catholicism 1945-1955: Catholics and Society in Western Europe at the Point of Liberation. Leuven University Press (Belgium), 2001: 319.
Sundburg, Walter. Religious Trends in Twentieth-Century America. 2000. TS. Luther Seminary, St. Paul. Wordandworld.org. Web. 3 May 2014.
For the majority of my childhood, I never questioned the Catholic teachings, practices, or beliefs that I was taught to encompass into my everyday life. Being raised in an extremely catholic family and attending a catholic elementary school led to a unique form of socialization – the process whereby an individual develops an identity and culture through interacting and communicating with others (Sandstrom 2014). As a member of my city’s catholic community, there were numerous expectations to maintain, however, as I entered my early teenage years I began to question the Catholic system and the teachings that were instilled into these social institutions. By questioning the legitimacy of the information that priests, teachers, and my parents
The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), as stated by Hobson and Welbourne (2002), is seen as a catalyst for major change in the “discourse of religious education”. Religious educators have found it necessary to change not only what they teach, but more importantly, how they teach it to make accommodations for the changes in society that have included the impact of early Catholic schools and the shift from lay to religious teachers. These changes have also included secular theories from the doctrinal approach to the education approach, increases in population due to immigration, multicultural influences generated by this change in population and finally families who no longer have strong ties to parish communities.
The age of religious wars, a period of conflict between Catholics and Protestants lasting from 1517 to 1648, is underlined by several significant changes as well as continual trends in attitudes towards Catholicism and Protestantism. There existed several major benefactors as well as adversaries who served to both precipitate and inhibit the rise of each religious power. In addition to these key players, prominent events helped to shape the progression of attitudes as people reacted to such happenings and formulated their own outlooks towards these vastly differing religions.
I believe that in today’s society more than ever, the Catholic Church is facing great controversy with itself and its followers. The Catholic Church, being one of the most powerful and prestigious religions, has been the target of many social attacks. Many people are now questioning the validity of the church and asking themselves whether or not what they are being taught by the Bible is actually true.
Since the genesis of the Catholic Church it has been arguably the most powerful and feared organization in human history, withstanding any that opposed it. After 2,000 years of history it has become one of the most dominant religions on Earth, leading the western world. After the time of Martin Luther, the Catholic Church never thought that it would see another era of opposition until the Boston Globe’s investigative Spotlight Team uncovered one of the churches greatest scandals, bringing it into the light of the world. The uncovering of this scandal will become one the landmarks of modern journalism, after a group of reporters took on one of the strongest organizations known to man without fear of reprisal from this great titan.
To become a true representation of what St. Peter’s original church called for, a balance must be achieved, holding the values of belief, action, faith and reason as equal and necessary measures of the manifestation of Jesus’ message. When the early church is considered, both the...
Fisher, James Terence. Communion of Immigrants : A History of Catholics in America. Cary, NC, USA : Oxford University Press, USA , 2007. Print.
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.
Within any body, such as the Catholic Church, there will never be complete concurrence of opinion on any issue, ideology, or even fact. This holds true for even basic tenets of the Catholic tradition, tradition here referring to an argument extended through time in which certain fundamental agreements are defined and redefined. Examples of this tradition, and its defining and redefining, would be the evolvement of Scriptural interpretations or the Catholic Church’s positions on matters ranging from climate change to civil rights. This defining and redefining because of tradition is central to the progress and amelioration of the Catholic Church and the faith as a whole because it provides a multitude
When religion comes up in a conversation you never know what is going to be said. Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions about the subject; some are more passionate than others. After conducting a couple of interviews with my family members, I came across some information I did not know of. I never really thought about my family’s religion history until now. Coming from a very small family, we really don’t have much diversity when it comes to our religion affiliation. The two religions that run through my family history are Christianity and Catholicism. Throughout this paper, I will be discussing some of the information that came across while interviewing my mother. Unfortunately, my father passed away a couple years ago, so I will only
In late October 1850, the papacy plans to restore the Catholic Hierarchy on English soil were announced. Since the 17th century Catholics in England had been under the governance of Vicars Apostolic, rather than bishops, in a type of organisation reserved for mission lands with no established parish administration. The protestant reaction, fuelled by fear of the Catholic faith being restored in England, was instantaneous. As Walter Ralls recalls, the announcement began “a national outcry that swept along nearly every shade of the press and the pulpit with the established church and much of dissent joined in a most uncharacteristic show of unity”. The Papacy’s plans became known as Papal Aggression and “no event could rival its continued fascination of the public” . In this essay I will look to explore why the Protestant majority in England saw the move as such a threat to the nation; from this I hope to reveal as to how and why the religious state of the country in the mid 19th century had actually become increasingly fragile. To me, there are four main features to the nature of the perceived Catholic threat. To start with, the rise in the number of Catholics in England in the early 19th century was huge, largely as a result of Irish immigration. This was met with progressive anti Catholic resentment as well as large amounts of Protestant rhetoric on the incompatibility of Catholicism amongst English Political institutions; all this, coincided with the unsettled condition of Protestantism at the time as well as a revitalised Catholic network in
Modern Catholic social teachings trace its beginnings to the writings of Pope Leo XIII. His insight on Christian philosophy, politics and the social order and applies to teachings in current injustices in the economic order. Leo XIII’s teachings were also critical participation in the developments of modern social and economic life. He rooted his social ethics in the supreme value of the human person and added that all political and social structures need to respect and respond to this primary and moral claim of human dignity. While the Church and the political community are autonomous and independent of each other in their own fields, the Church is “at once the sign and the safeguard of the transcendental dimension of the human person”.