History of Catholic Church in America

The Founding of the Catholic Church in America

History of Catholic America up to the 19th century

Missionary communities which founded Catholic America

Those who first planted the Catholic Church in North America - outside the original thirteen colonies, but within the present boundaries of the U.S.A. - were religious communities of Jesuits, Franciscans, Capuchins, Recollects, and other missionary congregations. Moved by the zeal for the Catholic mission, these missionaries endured every form of hardship, some with torture and death, that they may build communities and gather around them the nucleus of what will be a Catholic parish.

Early Founding Fathers

The Franciscan Junipero Serra and the Jesuit Eusebio Kino are the most famous of the hundreds of priests who evangelized the vast Spanish territory stretching from Florida to California. These two missionaries taught the native population the arts of civilization as well. They left souvenirs of their labors in names like San Francisco, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. Elsewhere, northward to the huge French area, the Jesuit Jacques Marquette (discoverer of the Mississippi), and the Jesuit martyrs St. Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brebeuf, and their companions, were among the many who ministered to the spiritual and temporal needs of the native Americans. These early founding fathers and other missionaries also helped establish French Catholic outposts on the Great Lakes and down through the Ohio and Mississippi valleys - creating a chapter in Catholic history that would always be remembered by names like Detroit, St. Louis, Vincennes, Louisville, and Marietta.

The Maryland colony


Although the first Catholic parish was established in 1565 A.D. at what was then the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Florida, the history of American Catholicism can be traced to the efforts of George Calvert, first Baron of Baltimore, who established a colony for English Catholics in 1627 A.D. In 1632 A.D., two months after the death of Calvert, a charter was granted by Charles I to form the colony of Maryland. Maryland as a colony had both Catholics and Protestants, who lived peacefully in a spirit of mutual toleration. When, however, the Church of England was established in the colony, the Maryland Catholics migrated to the colony of Pennsylvania.

American Revolution

The American Revolution brought about a big change in the fortunes of American Catholics. The legal disabilities under which they labored were gradually lifted, beginning with Maryland's and Pennsylvania's adoption of religious liberty in 1776 A.D. With the advent of American independence and a more favorable climate for Catholics in the United States, Rome felt it was time for them to have a bishop of their own. This bishop was John Carroll. The Holy See appointed John Carroll in 1790 A.D. to be the first bishop of approximately 25,000 CAtholics.

Bishop John Carroll

Catholic America was singularly fortunate to have John Carroll guide its destiny and lay the groundwork for its future expansion. John Carroll was a wise and humane superior who has his roots from an old and distinguished Maryland family. He was a Jesuit, a highly educated scholar, and a man of broad vision and genuine spirituality. In building the institutions necessary for the growth of the Church, he received much assistance from the various religious communities of men and women who began to enter America during his tenure - the Carmelites (in 1790 A.D.); the Poor Clares of Georgetown; the Visitation nuns; the community founded by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton at Maryland (in 1809 A.D.); the Sulpicians (in 1791 A.D.); the Jesuits (re-established in 1806 A.D.); the Augustinians (in 1795 A.D.); and the Dominicans (in 1805 A.D.). John Carroll's flock grew to nearly 200,000 by his death in 1815 A.D. His diocese was subdivided in 1808 A.D., when four other dioceses were added: Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Bardstown (later Louisville).

Bishop John England

The Age of Bishop John Carroll was then followed by the Age of Bishop John England. Bishop England insisted that the American bishops gather together in council to steer the burgeoning young Catholic America from crisis to growth. So, together with other bishops like Francis Kenrick (Philadelphia), Martin Spalding (Baltimore), John Hughes (New York), and John Purcell (Cincinnati), they led Catholic America to grow and establish new dioceses in pace with the rapid westward movement of the American frontier. By 1840 A.D., the archepiscopal see of Baltimore presided over fifteen suffragan sees: Boston (1808 A.D.), New York (1808 A.D.), Philadelphia (1808 A.D.), Bardstown (1808 A.D.), Charlestown (1820 A.D.), Richmond (1820 A.D.), Cincinnati (1821 A.D.), St. Louis (1826 A.D.), New Orleans (1826 A.D.), Mobile (1829 A.D.), Detroit (1833 A.D.), Vincennes (1834 A.D.), Dubuque (1837 A.D.), Nashville (1837 A.D.), and Natchez (1837 A.D.).

Massive influx of Catholic immigrants

No missionary territory in the nineteenth century registered great and substantial gains than the Catholic Church in America. Thanks also to the massive influx of Catholic immigrants - Irish, German, Italians, Poles, and others - the growth of the Catholic Church far outstripped the nation's growth. The American bishops integrated these newcomers into the Church structure and provided a huge network of schools, hospitals, and other institutions for them.

References used in this article

• A History of the Church, by Franzen and Dolan
  


• A Concise History of the Catholic Church, by Thomas
  Bokenkotter