The American Catholic

Chapter Five

Catholics #1 Religion in America

     By the turn of the century of 1900 the Catholic population in America was by far the single largest denomination. Not only increasing by immigration, but by breeding more of them. By the 1920's there was over 20 million Catholics in the United States. 16% of the Catholics lived in New York City and 30% lived in the cities of Brooklyn, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. 30% lived in the Ohio valley and the rest of the heaviest concentrations of Catholics lived in New Orleans(French influence) and in San Francisco.        

     With so many Catholics on American soil the bishops feared that without priests and nuns to "keep them in line" Catholics would be drawn away from their faith. Bishops began a massive program of building of orphanages, hospitals and sanitary clinics. Because the bishops mistrusted "foreign" priests, they also began building their own seminaries to train the style of priest they wanted.

     Bishop Bernard McQuaid of Rochester Illinois was the model of a successful American style bishop. In thirty years he built 26 parishes, 17 missions, 30 parochial schools, orphanages, hospitals, two seminaries, and his cathedral. He insisted that parochial schooling meeting the state requirements and demanded that his nuns get their teaching credentials from the state. His parochial schools were free and he had almost as many Catholic kids attending parochial school as did the public sector.

     By 1900 there were 12,000 priests, and 50,000 nuns staffing over 12,000 parishes and missions and 3300 parochial schools. Almost all of these were in the Northeastern part of America. The south was still struggling with only about 6% of a Catholic population. A diocese in South Carolina had as many Catholics in it as did one Church in New York. In Texas with only 200,000 Catholics scattered far and wide there was a general fear that syncretism was taking place in many parishes through the influence of the Hispanic culture i.e., many parishes were run by roving bands of laypeople performing folk-style Catholicism for weddings and funerals.

     In what cities were Cardinals formed in the United States: Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. These longtime archbishops that became Cardinals were men of like mindedness. They centralizers, standardizers, and strict disciplinarians. With the exception of Mundelein Chicago, they were all Irish.

     The priesthood at the turn of the century was then a highly respected profession for any young man to ascend to, even those from the poorest classes. The average salary for a priest in 1900 was about $600 a year. The pastor received $1,000 while a bishop could receive up to $20,000 a year. Not a bad salary for the times, considering that there housing was provided, the food was provided, along with housekeepers and cooks.

     Nuns however received about $200 a year and that was given to the religious order, not the individual. But to be a nun, which outnumbered priests at the turn of the century by 4:1, meant that any young woman to rise to independence, well respected, had authority if she were to become the mother superior. They ran the hospitals, the elementary and high schools, they ran the colleges, a job reserved for men only in the public sector.

Celibacy Still an Issue for Some

At the turn of the century the celibacy issue still kept many from the priesthood especially for the Italians that believed it was unmanly not to have a woman in your life. It was not as much of a problem for the Irish since many men remained celibate anyway for lack of being able to support a wife. Celibacy for nuns was never an issue or rather it was never an issue for women to remain so.

     Enforcement of the celibacy issue was scattered throughout America. In Chicago at the turn of the century, where there were many foreign priests( translate that into NOT Irish), priests and their mistresses was the standard, not the exception because of succession of weak bishops lost total control of their clerics. That was all to change dramatically two decades into the twentieth century when the celibacy requirement would be strictly enforced.

     As the ratio of Irish Catholics to "foreign Catholics" diminished over the first 20 years after the turn of the century, the Irish clergy did not diminish. Irish priests and nuns found themselves ministering to Italians, Bohemians and Slovocians. As late as the 1970's Irish clergy still accounted for over a third of all clergy in America and more than half of the bishops were Irish.

     To move up in the hierarchy of the Church did not take into account how "good" a pastor you were or how well you preached or how holy you were, it was and is where you were trained and who you knew that could pull you up. You had to have had a Roman education with good Roman connections. If those two factors ran together, then it was inevitable you would become a bishop, if not an archbishop or Cardinal. The Church needed shakers and movers, not saints.

     The difference between Catholics and their Protestant foes was that the Catholics were always well organized and well financed by those oftentimes that had the least to give. Protestants were never centrally headed or organized as were Catholics. This is also the time when Bishops had finally secured control of their churches and created the "sole corporation" concept. Thereby, passing on to the next bishop, a shareholder in the corporation, all of his assets.

Cardinal William O’Connell

     We must remember that the Church is very autocratic as an institution. What the Bishop said–went! What the pastor in a parish said–went! The framework for corruption in the Church was set in place. It is no surprise when we hear of alcoholic priests then, when you understand the loneliness and aloneness they had to face. They were forbidden to have "particular friendships". Whatever that means? Rumors of that were still circulating in my seminary as late as 1990. In the old seminary that meant that you could not associate only with one other guy in the seminary. Buddies were forbidden. Group outings were the only acceptable form of friendships. Certainly, you were never allowed in your room, with the door closed, with another seminarian. In fact, no other person could step foot inside your room. If they wanted to talk to you they had to stand at the doorway entrance only.

      Cardinal O’Connell was the epitome of a dangerous Churchman with unbridled power in his diocese. When a popular Irish statesman and he crossed paths, he commanded his Catholics to throw him out of office for dishonesty and they did. Being only 5'8", bald and weighing over 200lbs, he had a commanding voice and presence that intimidated politicians and clergy alike. He accumulated immense wealth and was more interested in the social elite society than he was with his church. He rarely said daily mass and when he did say mass, he did it with rapidity that it even scandalized Catholics. He built himself several mansions with one that had its own golf course.

     Cardinal O’Connell was a thief. He "borrowed" $25,000 from his first diocese when transferred to Boston. His lavish homes on the ocean, in the mountains and elsewhere were all paid for out of the diocesan funds. He spent more of his time in the Bahamas or his various homes than he ever spent in the work of the diocese. He made his own nephew, James O’Connell, a newly ordained priest, the Chancellor of the diocese. This nephew embezzled funds from the diocese to support his real estate ventures and his "wife". O’Connell knew about all of this because they lived together, but it was speculated that O’Connell was homosexual and was acting out with a prominent doctor in town and James was blackmailing him. This all came to light when the doctor died and in his will left his entire estate to another male friend and letters to O’Connell were discovered detailing events that had to be hidden from the public. Of course, this was done with much money to the family.

      There was nothing that would stop O’Connell from attaining the highest position in the Church he could if he had anything to do with it. When the Boston Cardinalship opened up, O’Connell set about discrediting all those he suspected may be selected for the position. He spread rumors and falsehoods about other bishops in line for the appointment until he was the only one left to pick. But in spite of his personal life, he was a successful Cardinal. With his chest stuck out he represented the new bishop in America. He was a Cardinal of the Church triumphant and a major force in America to be reckoned with from now on. No longer would the Catholic cower in the presence of the "other" Americans.

The Other American Catholics

      The Polish people in their homeland had been conquered and re-conquered time and time again by various German and Russian groups. They immigrated to the United States bringing their national culture with them into a Catholic world run by the Irish. The actual numbers of immigrants is difficult to estimate, but some authorities believe that the numbers are comparable to the immigration of the Germans and Italians.

     By the turn of the century there were more Polish people in Chicago than Irish. They demanded their own Polish priests, which they held in high esteem. They built their own schools, hospitals, orphanages, massive churches and seminaries. Who coalesced this nationalism in America. One single man, Father Vincent Barzynski. He was a tough minded priest from the Russian sector of Poland. He was a builder and a mover of people. He loved his ethnic heritage and demanded it from his people. Poles would not be ruled by the Irish or the German priests sent to them by their Irish bishop. Imagine the Irish being ministered to by an English priest.

     Barzynski owned his own bank and cut a deal with the Irish bishop that if he would turn over the deeds to all of the Polish churches he would bring in Polish priests(The Resurrectionists) to minister to the people for ninety nine years. That didn’t happen for several years, but it did give the Irish bishop the land holdings that he hadn’t been able to wrestle away from the Polish people. The Resurrectionists continue to run the Polish churches to this day.

     If it wasn’t bad enough that the Poles fought with the Germans and the Irish in American, they fought amongst themselves. The Milwaukee Sentinel, still in publication to this day, noted that "there hadn’t been any riots amongst the Poles in two weeks, what could possibly be the matter?" Eventually they got their Polish Archbishop of Chicago, but it was short lived and Bishop Mundelein was made bishop of Chicago. He was a German trained by the Irish and acted like one. That eventually forced many Polish, now second generation, to look at how they were going to hold onto their religion and their nationality. The answer came as a schism in the Church. Separatists Polish Churches split from the Catholic Church and formed the Polish National Catholic Church in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Scranton and other cities. Today they number about 250,000 and remain in schism from the Church electing their own bishops and training their own priests.

An American Church is Ethnically Divided

     Italians preferred to move into older parishes and take them over from the Irish who were moving into suburbia. They never really wanted to build any of their own churches. Italians viewed the clergy and nuns as oppressors and were never inclined to put money into the collection basket like the Irish and the Polish. They never paid for their children to go to parochial school and didn’t really care one way or the other if they did go. Italians never took their own religion very seriously at the turn of the century and were virtually in America to make money, not to give it away.

     As the second and third generation Italian matured into American culture there was a dramatic shift in their perception of the Church and their religion. They became second to none in their generosity, their schooling of children, their appreciation for the priesthood and sisterhood and a new Italian emerged in America that became American first and Italian second.

     America has always and will always assimilate immigrants into this country. Sociologists suggest that it takes two to three generations for this to occur, but it does occur. These generations know nothing of the old country and couldn’t care less. So much so, that the Italians, the Irish and the Germans began marrying outside of their ethnic groups by the 1920's. Something that horrified their grandparents and sometimes their own parents.

     Since we have already established the bigotry of the Irish towards black people it is no surprise that there are few of them in our Church. The only notable exception being the New Orleans area where the French settled with their French priests. The first black Catholic I ever met was in the Air Force in 1963 and he was from New Orleans.

     It wasn’t until World War I that an ethnically divided American Catholic Church coalesced into a unified American Church. The holdout Germans finally stopped speaking their language and began speaking English as a first language. The War was a splendid opportunity to put to rest any lingering doubts about the patriotism of the American Catholic, no matter what his ethnic origin was at the time. It was a time of American Catholics to stand up and be counted in this war and the Church responded with bond drives, held victory masses, designated days of prayer for the soldiers, and led celebrations whenever victories were reported. They inundated the military with chaplains and many were decorated for bravery at the fronts.

     By the end of the war the American Catholic Church had real meaning. It was huge and flourishing. Its leadership was sound and stable. Its followers shared an outlook on the world that undeniably American; i.e., disciplined, rule-bound, loyal to the Church and country, unrebellious, upwardly mobile and achievement oriented. Although the Church was still being run by the Irish for the most part, the ethnic diversity coupled with nationalism for America changed the face of the Church to one that was uniquely its own. The Vatican had to take notice that the American Catholic Church was probably more "Roman" than the Romans. The American bishops balanced with finesse their loyalty to Rome and to America. When the Vatican would issue statements condemning certain values uniquely held by America, they simply and quietly ignored them and somehow the two loyalties remain out of conflict.

Chapter Six