Read, in Allitt

3.4  Maryland's Act of Religious Toleration  66-67
6.2  Maria Monk Shocks Protestant Readers with Allegations of Sex and Violence in a Nunnery, 1836 165-168
6.3  John Francis Maquite Recounts the Suffering of Irish Immigrants (1846) 1887 168-171
Catholic Charity and Protestant Suspicions (Dolan), 00. 183 - 188
8.1  Rosa, an Immigrant, Contrasts her Italian Catholicism with the American Version, c. 1890 (228-230)
An Italian-American Street Festival to Honor the Virgin Mary (Orsi), pp. 245 - 249
10.1 Clara Grillo Recalls Protestant-Catholic Tensions in Cleveland, c. 1920 (291 - 293)

These seven documents represent a number of different facets of the Catholic Experience in America.  Maryland's Act of Religious Toleration is the first instance of an attempt to create a pluralistic society (but not a secular one) within the borders of what would be the United States of America.  Note, as you read this, that not every variety of religion was to be tolerated in this Proprietary Colony established by the Catholic Calvert family.

Maria Monk was a rather sad figure, exploited by Protestant extremists in an attempt to curb the growing threat to Protestant domination occasioned out of the new immigration from countries of Catholic Europe.  Scholars have thoroughly discredited Miss Monk's account.  It does provide an insight into those elements of Catholic practice which seemed most alien to the Protestant code.  Following the publication of this book, Monk was sponsored on the lecture circuit by none other than Samuel F. B. Morse, painter, inventor of the telegraph, and one of the most avid anti-Catholic spokesmen of his day.  Read this in conjunction with Clara Grillo's testimony, recounting how, nearly 100 years later, tensions between Protestants and Catholics Persisted.

Maquite and Rosa highlight the importance Catholicism played in sustaining a sense of ethnic and personal identity for immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Rosa highlights the way the American experience subtly altered the practices of Catholicism.  Material here correlates with ideas we discovered in the sections on pluralism and ethnicity in Albanese last Tuesday and Thursday.  I may be fair to say that Catholicism provided a bridge in the difficult process of assimilation.

Two secondary sources round out the readings for this day.  Dolan points to the process whereby the minority Catholic Church creates a whole series of charitable institutions to insulate Catholics from Protestant efforts to convert them.  The result were two parallel worlds which mirrored each other to a remarkable degree.  Protestants saw the rise of Catholic Benevolence as another indication that Catholics preferred to stand apart rather than assimilate into the culture.  Orsi will provide a good example of the sort of religious behavior which Albanese called Paraliturgical Devotions.  Note how the Street Festival strengthens the immigrant community by giving it a better sense of itself and how religious practice strengthens ethnic identity.  Note:  Those of you who live in or near Bristol can observe a similar street festival sponsored by St. Elizabeth's Church, which largely serves Bristol's Portuguese population.  Mt. Carmel Church, which ministers to the Italian population, has a similar festival of its own.  Unfortunately both these take place in the summer when most of you have returned to your home communities... if you live in a town or city with a strong ethnic population, you will most likely have similar celebrations there.
 
 

INTERNET ASSIGNMENT:

The celebrations of Passover and Easter are the most important events in the Jewish and Christian liturgical year.  I wish those who observe these festivals a time of spiritual renewal, and suggest that everyone learn a bit more about the events and customs associated with these days.

To learn more about Passover, visit http://www.holidays.net/passover/

To learn more about the celebrations associated with Easter, visit http://www2.arkansas.net/~stmary/Paschal_Triduum.html

Note that all Christians do not celebrate all services of Holy Week, nor do the celebrations mean the same thing for all Christian churches.