Conclusion (Cont.)

Its weakest point is that which at the same time is the chief source of its strength, namely emigration. Its numerical strength and grandeur have been created almost entirely by European emigration, and the Roman Catholic Church looks to it as the chief source of its growth in the future. But in this very source lies its weakest element. Consisting chiefly of settlers, the Roman Catholic Church in America is itself foreign, not grown on American soil but transplanted from Europe. This deprives it of one of the essential elements necessary for strong organic development, namely the native sense of attachment to the country and its institutions. The mass of the Catholic population represents various national groups which, for the most part, have not yet had time to orient themselves on American soil and live by the traditions of their former homelands. Since these traditions correspond more to Roman Catholicism than to the national purposes of the country, there naturally arises a contradiction between the native American people, who have embodied their national sense in existing institutions, and the Roman Catholic population, which in its majority either does not recognize or does not understand these institutions. This contradiction constantly manifests itself throughout the entire history of Roman Catholicism in the United States, and while it has not been expressed in open repressive measures by the state because of the principle of separation of church and state, there is nonetheless a virtually continuous agitation against Roman Catholicism on the part of both the state and society, sometimes in the form of various ordinances aimed at forcibly introducing institutions repugnant to it (trusteeism, compulsory education), sometimes in open uprisings of the native population against foreign Catholics (nativism and Know-Nothingism). The consciousness of this contradiction has led to fear that Roman Catholicism aims at the destruction of the republic’s institutions and in any case is incompatible with them. This fear has taken firm root in the consciousness of the American people and is expressed at every notable public or political event. At last year’s election of mayor in New York, this feeling manifested itself with particular force, when huge meetings were assembled for open protest against the nominated candidate, who by common agreement was a worthy citizen, but at the same time was known for his Catholic zeal. Public opposition to Catholicism is expressed both in literature, and there the virulence against it reaches such extremes that in the heat of polemical zeal history is forgotten and obvious incompatibility of means to ends is overlooked. Anti-Catholic literature in the United States is very extensive. Against Roman Catholicism take up the pen not only Protestant theologians but ordinary public figures, statesmen, novelists, and unbelieving professors.[1] All this clearly testifies that the Roman Catholic Church is a foreign institution to the American people and has not yet adequately reconciled American republican consciousness to itself. It lives in America like a foreign army, with its own separate life, as a state within a state, is governed by foreign authority, and consists of foreign members. In this lies its organic weakness, and as a consequence it does not and for a long time in the future will not have that stability of position in the country which is possible only through complete acclimatization on American soil and through accordance of its principles with the principles and spirit of American republican institutions. Since in the latter respect its principles of strict centralization stand in clear contradiction with the spirit of American socio-political organization, complete identification or reconciliation of it with the national ideal of the American people seems entirely impossible and can be achieved only under conditions of concession from one side or the other. But to suppose this concession from American society and the state would mean supposing the possibility of their renouncing their internal essence, developed by history and organic development of the internal national character, which is obviously impossible. On the other hand, to suppose concession from Roman Catholicism in favor of the spirit of the American people would mean supposing another impossibility, for with concession to the national character, Roman Catholicism would lose its essential character as a rigid, centralized system and become a national Church, for which strict papalism has no other name but schism.[2] Thus the contradiction lies in the very essence of the systems of Roman Catholicism and American socio-political organization, and it will forever serve as an insurmountable obstacle to the realization of the radiant hopes of Catholic publicists. This contradiction undoubtedly also explains the fact that, despite the strengthened process of national centralization after the civil war and its undoubted significance for religious centralization, the Roman Catholic Church cannot derive all the benefit from this process which its very essence would present. The people seek a strong unified church that would fully correspond to its strong unified national organism, and at first glance they seem to find it in Roman Catholicism; but at the same time they soon recognize the difference between the systems of centralization itself. The people seek an independent, organic, internal centralization, while Roman Catholicism represents for them a foreign organization with its driving center outside their country. This contradiction paralyzes movement in favor of Roman Catholicism and explains the fact that conversions to the Roman Catholic Church are far fewer than they might be if the Church coincided with the spirit of the national ideal.[3]

Because of the incompatibility of Roman Catholicism with the principles of the national ideal of the American people presented above, the Roman Catholic Church does not have a solid foundation in its struggle with Protestantism. The latter, by its principle and actual fragmentation, does not bear comparison with Roman Catholicism as a dogmatic system and a single strong organism; but at the same time it finds strong support in its greater correspondence with the national way of life. Because of this, it stands closer to the state and imparts a Protestant character to the latter. As a result, Protestantism was able to conclude a kind of alliance with the state for the purpose of opposing Roman Catholicism. The former is hostile to it as an opposing Church system, while the latter is no less hostile to it as an opposing political system, animated by a spirit hostile to itself. From this they jointly resist the hostile system, and Roman Catholicism in many respects must engage in struggle not only with Protestantism as a religious teaching, as it should be under the principle of separation of Church from state, but with the state itself, which recognizes as state institutions those establishments which by their very essence are Protestant institutions. The chief institution of this kind is the system of public schools (Public school system). The chief aim of this system apparently is the realization of the fundamental principle of the state, namely the principle of religious equality of all faiths and sects without preference of one to the others, to achieve which the school has been secularized, while retaining the most general forms of religious element. But by such secularization the state only openly took the side of Protestantism, which is satisfied with general forms of religiosity, and thereby directed the most powerful instrument in the matter of forming the moral-religious and mental character of the people against Roman Catholicism, which considers such a school not only insufficient for itself but directly harmful. Hence the open struggle of the Roman Catholic Church with the state over the system of public education, and it naturally does not contribute to its consolidation on American soil. In its opposition to the system of public education adopted by the state, the Roman Catholic Church undoubtedly has serious grounds, since this system, despite its “non-sectarian” character, is in essence Protestant, and the entire arrangement of school instruction as independent from direct Church direction is permeated with a Protestant character. As a result, it serves as a powerful instrument of Protestantism in its struggle with Roman Catholicism. The children of Catholic parents, having gone through this school, lose the specific character of Catholic religiosity and become either indifferent to the Catholic system or entirely Protestant.

Relying on its advantages as a native American system and as standing closer to the fundamental principles of the public and national life of the country, Protestantism was able not only passively to resist Roman Catholicism but also to make gains at its expense. These gains were especially significant when Roman Catholicism did not yet represent a strong organization capable of retaining within the Church the mass of Catholic population flowing in from Europe. When Irish emigration poured into America in the 1830s and 1840s, the available resources of the Roman Catholic Church proved insufficient for the suddenly arising need, and masses of settlers remained outside the actual organization of the Church. Many of them naturally were lost among the Protestant population and succumbed to the influence of Protestantism, especially since religious influence found strong support in public opinion at that time.[4] These losses were very considerable. The Roman Catholic Bishop England, in presenting a report in 1836 to the Congregatio de propaganda fide on Roman Catholic emigration arriving in the United States, expressed his sorrow over great losses for the Church from this emigration. “If I speak,” he writes, “on the basis of the data presented, that we ought, in the absence of loss, to have five million Catholics in the United States, while in fact we have fewer than one and a half million, then our loss should be at least three and three-quarters million; and persons thus lost are found among various sects in a number three times greater than all the Catholic population of the country.”[5] This calculation is undoubtedly exaggerated, but the very exaggeration testifies to real serious losses. Other Catholic prelates also testify to such losses. When in 1851 the Irish Catholic scholar Mullen came to the United States to investigate the religious condition of Irish emigrants, Bishop Reynolds said to him: “You will render great service to religion (Catholicism) if, upon returning to Ireland, you will go from parish to parish and tell the people not to destroy their immortal souls by emigrating here.”[6] Archbishop Hughes also told him: “The people in Ireland do not fully understand the condition of emigrants here; thousands of them are lost in the great cities, and even in the country faith has died out in many places.”[7] According to information gathered by Mullen himself, the Catholic Church through emigration lost up to two million souls.[8] In 1853, the Roman Catholic pastor in Pennsylvania, Reardon, wrote to his friend in England regarding Irish emigrants: “They hurry almost certainly to the ruin of their souls, while their material condition improves only slightly. For the love of Jesus try to keep your people at home, for with every person you retain, you snatch a soul from hell.”[9] If the very people most devoted to Roman Catholicism—the Irish—perish in multitudes for the Church upon emigration to America, this must be said even more forcibly about German Catholics. They soon succumb to Protestant influence and abandon Roman Catholicism. Archbishop Purcell in Cincinnati openly complained that “the Catholic Church is losing hundreds of German members, who prefer Protestant preaching in German to Catholic preaching in English and who, moreover, wish to belong to a larger number of societies than the Church allows.”[10] By 1850, as a result of this, there were already whole parishes made up exclusively of converts from Roman Catholicism, who had as their preachers Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and other pastors.[11]

Protestantism with its influence invades the internal organization of the Roman Catholic Church and undermines its foundations. We have seen how this Protestant influence expressed itself in trusteeism and how much effort the Roman Catholic Church had to expend to suppress it. But it is not even now fully suppressed and as is known is even legally supported in some states, for example, Massachusetts. And in general, the Protestantized state reluctantly inclines to recognize for Roman Catholicism full rights to manage its Church property in accordance with its own canons and, on the contrary, supports the Protestant system of parish self-government, which provides food for trusteeism. Until full recognition by the state of the rights of Roman Catholicism to self-government in the matter of property, trusteeism will constantly threaten the organization of the Church and take away from it many fruitless efforts.