Dr. Christopher Shannon is a member of the History Department at Christendom College and author and co-author of several books. His most recent book is American Pilgrimage: A Historical Journey through Catholic Life in a New World, which was published in June by Ignatius Press. Dr. Shannon, who writes the column “The Past Present” for Catholic World Report, recently spoke about his new work of history.
CWR: You begin your book — which is mostly focused on the history of Catholicism in the United States — with an introduction focused on the virgin of Guadalupe. Why did you do that, and why is Guadalupe so relevant to American Catholics in the twenty-first century?
Christopher Shannon: Though Guadalupe has a special relation to Mexican and Mexican-American Catholic life, I begin the book with her story because I believe it speaks, on many levels, to the broader experience of faith in the New World. The appearance of the Virgin Mary in the garb of an Aztec princess speaks to the blending of faith and culture that has characterized the life of the Church since its expansion out of the Jewish community of Palestine into the wider pagan Greco-Roman world in the first century. As Iberian Christians opened themselves to the cultures of the New World, so Native peoples opened themselves up to the newness of Christianity.
Guadalupe is a reminder to Catholics today that the Church is always open to the new, but in a manner that never negates the old.
CWR: The first section of your book provides a history of the French, Spanish, and English Catholic experiences in the New World. What do you think are the most salient commonalities and differentiations between those Catholic experiences?
Shannon: The clearest commonality among the three Catholic colonial experiences is the initial commitment to evangelizing the Native peoples. After that, the differences seem to outweigh the similarities. Spain and France were both Catholic powers committed to advancing empire along with the faith, but the Spanish path of empire was more violent, involving the conquest of substantial, settled civilizations, particularly in Central America and Peru.
The Native peoples of French North America were largely hunter-gatherers, and the main economic resource of the region—furs—did not require the structured settlement that caused so much conflict in the Spanish experience.
England, in contrast to both Spain and France, was a Protestant empire in which Catholics were an outlawed minority. Catholics made up only a small percentage of the British colonial population and spent most of the colonial period just trying to keep their heads low, practicing their faith in secret but in public conforming to the social mores of Anglo-Protestant culture.
CWR: It seems like one of the constant trends in American Catholicism since the beginning has been the tension between integrating into American culture and politics, while still preserving an orthodox, faithfully Catholic identity. Could you talk about the historical roots of that tension, and how it developed in the early generations of the Republic, perhaps through the end of the nineteenth century?
Shannon: This issue follows directly from the colonial situation that I just mentioned. Independence brought with it religious toleration. The Catholic Church eventually became legal in all the thirteen founding states, yet the old English traditions of anti-Catholicism persisted. To the traditional accusation of divided loyalties (pope vs. king) was now added the charge that Catholics in America could not be loyal or trustworthy citizens because of papal hostility to republican governance and modern democracy. The immigrant waves beginning in the mid-19th century provided more ammunition for Anglo-Protestants who viewed Catholics as foreign or un-American. Throughout this period, Catholics kept insisting that they could be good Catholics and good Americans.
CWR: Your study demonstrates that there was not a single immigrant Catholic experience, but several, including perhaps most significantly in terms of demographics, the Irish, German, Polish, and Italian. Those experiences had some overlap but also were quite unique and even independent. What are some of the most salient markers of those variant experiences, and how do you see them still influencing Catholicism today?
Shannon: The issue of ethnicity was perhaps the most contentious internal conflict within the Church up through the 1920s, when Congress passes, for the first time, severely restrictive immigration legislation.
The biggest division was between the Irish and everyone else. The Irish dominated the clerical ranks of the Church. As clerical leaders and English speakers, they were on the front lines of dealing with a hostile Anglo-Protestant society. While refusing to compromise on the basic doctrines and practices of the faith that so offended Protestants, Irish American Catholics were willing to sacrifice much of Old-World cultures in order to appear more American. This was particularly the case with language, where the Irish expected Germans, Poles, Italians, etc. to give up their native languages and speak English.
Beyond language, the non-Irish groups were more likely to hold on to Old-World folk traditions, rural peasant practices that the popes were trying to replace with a set of new, standardized devotional practices, the kind people today are most likely to associate with “the pre-Vatican II” Church. Alas, that program of standardization was largely successful, and much of the ethnic distinctiveness of the Euro-American Church has been lost. If there is any influence today, I would see it in the attraction of Catholics and non-Catholics alike to those few older traditions that survive, such as the San Gennaro Festival in New York. The broad appeal of the still vital Mexican folk traditions is yet another instance of the continuing influence of older practices.
CWR: The heresy of Americanism is either little known, or often misunderstood. Can you explain the story of this heresy, what it is, and its continued relevance today?
Shannon: The problem of Americanism, identified by Pope Leo XIII in his Testem Benevolentiae, grows out of the issues addressed in the previous questions. As Church leadership in America struggled to find some way to be both Catholic and American, some feared the Church was compromising the integrity of the faith in order to better conform to America. Of the many fronts of this battle, the two most important were ethnicity and education. Germans complained to Rome that the Irish were driving Germans out of the Church by forcing them to abandon their language and practice the faith in a manner foreign to them. At the same time, some Irish American leaders complained to Rome of other Irish American leaders who seemed willing to abandon the parochial school system and embrace the public school in the name of proving that Catholics were good citizens.
Rome’s greatest fears were that Catholics in America would adopt Protestant standards of democratic Church governance and the primacy of private judgment in matters of Church teaching. All of these issues got mixed together in Leo’s condemnation of “Americanism.” This issue is still relevant today. Whatever a proper American Catholicism might look like, Catholic principles—theological, cultural and political—must guide the synthesis. Even moreso than in Leo’s time, Catholics across the political spectrum today too often look instead to American politics as their guide.
CWR: An often overlooked part of the American Catholic experience is the role played by black Americans. What have you found to be some of the most interesting and/or surprising stories or trends related to the black Catholic experience in America?
Shannon: Yes, the experience of African-American Catholics often gets lost in the big story of the Church in America. On the one hand, African Americans make up only a small percentage of the Church in America; on the other, the African-American experience is central to American history as a whole, far beyond their minority numbers within the overall population of the United States.
I find the unique experience of Africans within the French and Spanish city of New Orleans as one of the most fascinating examples of how Catholic culture made a positive difference in race relations. Yes, French and Spanish Catholics owned slaves, but the racial lines were never as sharp as they were in Anglo-Protestant America—at least, until Anglo-Protestant America imposed its norms on New Orleans. A thriving community of free black Catholics developed in New Orleans. For years, free blacks of the Faubourg Tremé neighborhood made the long trek to Sunday Mass at St. Louis Cathedral, where they worshiped with white Catholics. Still, in the spirit of neighborhood and local community, free black leaders such as Louis Barthelemy Rey petitioned their bishop to have a church built in Faubourg Tremé; this church still stands today as St. Augustine’s parish. One of St. Augustine’s proud sons, Homer Plessy, would be the plaintiff in a major legal challenge to Jim Crow segregation, culminating in the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision that, despite Plessy’s efforts, ruled in favor of segregation.
CWR: Perhaps one of the most arresting elements to the story of American Catholicism is how the Church went from tremendous cultural influence in the mid-20th century with such examples as the popular Venerable Fulton Sheen and the remarkable number of male and female clergy, to its dramatic decline in influence in the last several decades of the 20th century, continuing into the present. What factors do you think are most relevant in explaining why that happened?
Shannon: Yes, the transition from seeming triumph to near-total collapse still staggers the imagination. Before addressing issues specific to Catholics, it is important to keep in mind that the rest of America was going through a similarly dramatic shift. As much as this shift in the Church was a dramatic break from its previous conflicts and struggles, it is perhaps a sign that Catholics had finally become full Americans, with their experiences tracking alongside those of non-Catholic Americans.
Catholics had always somehow been different, now they seemed the same. Even non-Catholic commentators were struck by the changes in the Church. It seemed to deprive them of an indispensable enemy. As to why these changes occurred, I think one key is the achievement of middle-class prosperity and the break-up of the old urban ethnic neighborhoods. For Catholics, the faith was lived more than thought, and suburbanization, along with the new cultural influences of television and pop music, deprived Catholics of that common life.
Some other apparent indicators of cultural strength have revealed themselves, in retrospect, to be somewhat superficial. Fulton Sheen was a wise and holy man, but it is hard to deny that his Life is Worth Living show too often came dangerously close to the feel-good, “positive thinking” religiosity that passed for a religious revival in the 1950s. The collapse of vocations is a more serious matter, though it is important to remember that the numbers on the eve of Vatican II were unprecedentedly high, some might even say inflated. So too, most of these vocations were female religious performing social service tasks increasingly taken over by lay people and judged by secular professional standards. We definitely need more vocations to the priesthood and religious life, but how these function in the Church today requires serious reflection beyond a longing for the “good ol’ days.”
CWR: You discuss how American Catholics, in their aspiration for middle-class, bourgeois respectability, domesticity, and material prosperity, abandoned many of the communities and practices that had invigorated earlier generations of “ethnic” Catholics. What consequences stemmed from that exchange, and what can Catholics do to resist its negative effects?
Shannon: I think the collapse of ethnic Catholicism is the real collapse of Catholic culture. The great error of the postwar Church was to think that “education” could do the work of culture. That education was very heavy on theology and philosophy. Beyond these, literature, particularly the work of modernist Catholic writers such as Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy, were supposed to fill out the broader Catholic “culture.”
There is nothing wrong with theology, philosophy and literature, but these are no substitute for the broader notion of culture as “a whole way of life” embodied in the earlier ethnic cultures. Education is a culture for people on the go, without roots, but true culture requires roots in place over time. The ethnic cultures of pre-war America were themselves relatively new creations, born out of the disruptive experience of immigration, yet carrying on the older principle of rootedness in place.
To my mind, figuring out an economy that enables people to live in one place across generations is the necessary first step toward any meaningful renewal of Catholic culture.
CWR: You write in your conclusion that Catholics should not hide their particular Catholic agenda “under the cover of ‘neutral’ moral principles,” but instead “explore the possibilities of expanding Catholic particularity based on the constitutional protection of the free exercise of religion.” What do you mean by that and what might it look like?
Shannon: The whole notion of religious pluralism enshrined in the First Amendment assumed a very Enlightenment definition of religion as a set of beliefs that people carry around in their head, along with some discrete practices that can be carried out by voluntary group assemblies behind closed doors. This is certainly not how the Church traditionally understood the life of faith, which is one reason why it resisted pluralism and toleration for so long.
Dignitatis Humanae offers a modus vivendi short of surrendering to a purely private understanding of religion. In the decades following Vatican II, the Church spent a lot of time making up for lost time in singing the praises of religious freedom and couched its public interventions in the language of neutral or universal morality, as distinct from supposedly particular faith commitments. In the area of social justice, this led to Catholics abandoning distinctly Catholic understandings of proper care for the poor; in the area of abortion, it opened Catholics to the charge of advancing religion simply because the Church was the only major institution that defended life.
Rather than dismiss the social justice tradition for its past failings, I think we should reclaim “justice” from the narrow secular sense of “distributive justice” to the broader Catholic notion of “proper ordering.” Under the principle of the “free exercise of religion,” are Catholics free to advance principles of proper ordering conducive to living their faith as a community rooted in place over time? I suppose such a religious politics of place would be a good place to start a new Catholic politics. Unfortunately, I am not sure how many Catholics today would get behind such an ideal, even before we fight over the specifics.
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Shannon says: “To my mind, figuring out an economy that enables people to live in one place across generations is the necessary first step toward any meaningful renewal of Catholic culture.”
To my mind, this says it all. If a genuine Catholic culture is ever to happen in the USA, the establishment of stable Catholic communities where there are shared values, ritual expressions, and mutual support must be built. Communities are essential to one’s identity as “a Catholic.”
It is an attractive idea, but I fear that its implementation is unlikely. Far more likely is that everyone is going to be swept along in whatever economic changes the remainder of this digital century brings, just as previous generations got swept along into places they didn’t necessarily want to go and that were spiritually far more dangerous during the industrial revolution and the parallel consolidation of rural lands in some places including England and Ireland. Stability of communities can be something very difficult to achieve and maintain even by those with the highest of intentions and commitments. Witness the utter failure of the Quebec bishops in the last century in their attempts to stave off the engulfment of the rural and small town culture of that province by a toxic secular modernity. The devout young Catholic families that hunger for the sort of abiding and stable Christian communities that we all do are going to have a very difficult time ever achieving it if the present strong winds of the digital age continue. I wish them well, but I also advise that their best path may be to commit to some type of trade or other economic activity that will help them remain as free as possible from the totalitarian thought policing that are making some professions and many corporations increasingly untenable unless one wants to live with his lips zipped tight and lie now and then. There are niches in the digital world that can provide such liberty and security, but not everyone is cut out for that. A marketable trade, one that can be carried from place to place, is a path that more ought to consider, which is hard culturally to do for those raised in professional and managerial families. But necessity, as the saying goes, is the mother of invention, and the necessities of the coming decades may be very different than what we have recently experienced. With no dis-respect to Dr. Shannon, there are a lot of Ph.D.’s working at Starbucks these days, and colleges where his viewpoints would be accepted are getting fewer.
The Americanist controversy was actually a bit more convoluted than there was room for in the interview. Americanism was the most visible (and damaging) faction of the modernist-socialist movement in the United States, having been given a tremendous boost by the agrarian socialist Henry George and his Catholic confrere, Fr. Edward McGlynn, and brought into international prominence by George’s New York City mayoral campaign of 1886.
In a supreme irony, in a biography of Fr. Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulists who strongly opposed McGlynn as well as socialism and modernism (having been both a socialist and a modernist before he converted), certain passages were mistranslated in the French edition, and used by French modernists to support their position. French reactionaries exaggerated the influence of American modernism (“Americanism”) in France, and accused Archbishop John Ireland (who had also opposed McGlynn) of being the leading American modernist. Ireland downplayed the problem, especially since the McGlynn affair had been settled and he had been a friend of Hecker and knew Hecker was not a modernist.
The controversy became so heated that it went to the Vatican, and Leo XIII issued Testem Benevolentiae. Ireland and Cardinal Gibbons were hurt, but submitted after some back and forth, but continued to deny that Americanism was a problem.
Ireland’s and Gibbons’s denial allowed modernists like Msgr. John A. Ryan (strongly influenced by Henry George, Fr. McGlynn, and the weird Ignatius Loyola Donnelly, a primary source for Madame Blavatsky’s theosophy) to gain and maintain a strong, even “authoritative” position and promote a modernist/socialist understanding of Catholic social teaching that persists in many cases to the present day.
With the erosion of ethnic parishes, in 2006 one Catholic sociologist held out high hopes for a continued and forward-looking RESTORATION under the new Pope Benedict: Joseph Varacalli, “The Catholic Experience in America,” part of a series under editor Phil Goff, Greenwood Press). The author is a founding member in 1993 of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists.
Other than a forward-looking restoration, other possible outcomes included an Americanist church—what has become the Pelosi/Biden duplicity. Much else also has happened since 2006. And, last week the worldwide consistory of cardinals even debated in secret (as huddling back into the Upper Room?) how to PROCLAIM the Gospel in a disinterested and lost world.
Perhaps the untried “real” Second Vatican Council versus the now tried-and-failed “virtual” spirit of the council (the council minus the actual Documents)? And, from the American post-ethnic experience, if the Catholic Church cannot lean upon a partly and evaporated folk-religion approach, then how to proclaim the Incarnation as more than any fading idea—but as an actual and even alarming EVENT in human history?
Surely the abiding and concrete (!) Real Presence in the Eucharist—yet WITHOUT diminishing a (Pope Francis’s) focus on the concrete cases of real people, BUT no longer sidestepping the very concrete (!) unity of the Faith/liturgy with the innate natural law and consistent moral theology (the moral absolutes of Veritatis Splendor).
That is, the personal, communal and coherent SACRAMENTAL LIFE—with the Successors of the Apostles as more than synodal “facilitators.” And, as more than dupes in 2023 of an obvious end game…cultural regression into German folk-religion with the LGBTQ agenda on its back.
European descended Catholics have largely left the faith in recent decades, and this is unfortunate, but is pretty much a done deal now. The good thing is that those who have held on to their faith, or drifted away and returned, tend to be more serious about their faith than in the past, where millions of church members were merely cultural catholics, who went to church because they were brought up that way, but did not really hold to the faith in their hearts. The church today in the US stills has millions of members, and they attend mass because they freely choose to, not by force of habit or tradition. The other source of hope for our American faith is the huge influx of Spanish speaking Catholics in the past few decades. I have been to parishes where the attendance at Spanish language masses is greater than those in English. These newer Catholic immigrants are a great asset to our country, as they tend to be younger than the average american, hard working, and holding to more traditional beliefs. They are a bulwark against an increasingly hostile secular culture which openly hates our faith and values. Let us all welcome these immigrants into our communities and resist the xenophobic tendencies promoted by certain voices in our society.
The immigration stories of the book of Ruth and King Solomon and his foreign wives had radically different outcomes. You might want to consider this when talking about xenophobia. I’ve read articles about Hispanic Catholics leaving the Church both in the USA and in Latin American countries.
Hispanics aren’t leaving the Catholic Church because of xenophobia. They leave for other reasons. Some might prefer a prosperity gospel. Others might want a church that prioritizes emotional styles of worship.
This author really gets it!
This is the single best insight into Catholicism in modern times
“There is nothing wrong with theology, philosophy and literature, but these are no substitute for the broader notion of culture as “a whole way of life” embodied in the earlier ethnic cultures. Education is a culture for people on the go, without roots, but true culture requires roots in place over time. “
The late Russell Kirk pointed to the increasingly deracinated nature od American society early in the 1960s. Catholic parishes then, however, did have a lot in common in the ongoing life of the Church: common sacraments, a common language (not only in the U.S.) and ritual. It was, when I was young, not that difficult to become part of a new parish or to participate in the Mass. That changed quite markedly post-Vatican II, and I would suggest that the spirit of a seemingly deracinated Church did not lend itself well to denominational stability.
Shannon underscores the salient feature of the collapse, the naivete of the real intent of American education. John Dewey expressed it well in so many words as essentially the secularization of America. Horace Mann 1837 and secularized non religious ed MA becomes model for Nation.
Legal precedent: Briefly, 1962 decision Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court ruled prayer in public schools to be unconstitutional. 1963 decision Abington School District v. Schempp, the Supreme Court ruled Bible reading in public schools to also be unconstitutional.
Essayist Shannon correctly targets Dignitatis Humanae and hierarchal collaboration with Courtney Murray’s ethics of free expression freedom of choice. Vat II the notorious Spirit had major role in our conflated concept of liberty, conscience, religious freedom. Added to this should be the ‘fattening’ of America post WW II. A great season of wealth, leisure time, and pleasure Christian values rationalized, slowly fading away. Education today promotes a new ethics of unprincipled freedom of choice, teachers educating children how to become sexually disoriented and perverse.
As an addendum to culture: “But these are no substitute for the broader notion of culture as ‘a whole way of life’ embodied in the earlier ethnic cultures” (Shannon). Rightly outlined perhaps requiring greater elaboration. Education as it extends to family from the parish school and within the family was deeply compromised post Vat II. Furthermore, America unique society of immigrants, exploitation by the elite, a moving ‘westward’ becoming moving into secular society for advancement.
Interesting book. A point that does not seem to be addressed is how the once dominant Catholic Culture covered up an undernourished Catechesis of the general Catholic population. The previous Catholic Culture covered up a shallow understanding of the faith by the general public. As a result the lack of a more deeper understanding of the faith, the mass, sacrements and the importance of prayer etc, created a vulnerability to the onslaught of today’s demonic culture called modernism.
Not sure what the fix would be, but think more preaching on the Mass, and importance of Prayer (rosary, Eucharistic Devotion) and offering daily Mass in the evenings (maybe once a week or so) should be considered.
i might add that a good solid Bible study within a parish is a life-changing experience that gives Catholics an edge on their faith, and the relevance of the Bible to Christians, especially Catholic Christians.
Agree this should be part of every parish. Also this should be offered on the Mass. For what its worth, the book titled “Devotional Journey into the Mass”, published by Sophia Instutute Press is something suitable for the average Catholic to develop a deeper understanding of the Mass. There are many other books on the Mass for sure. For $80.00 the Sophia Press offers 20 copies of this book, providing a simple way to provide a Catechesis Outreach.
(So too, most of these vocations were female religious performing social service tasks increasingly taken over by lay people and judged by secular professional standards. We definitely need more vocations to the priesthood and religious life, but how these function in the Church today requires serious reflection beyond a longing for the “good ol’ days.”)
What about “a preferential option for the poor”. The Catholic schools originally served primarily the immigrants. Today they serve primarily the middle class and rich.
Maybe people would come back to the Church if we gave priority to the poor.
While it was long ago, I still have found memories of our family (including my non-catholic father) watching Bishop Sheen’s LIFE IS WORTH LIVING. I enjoyed what Dr. Shannon had to say in this article, but I do disagree with his statement that, “It is hard to deny that his LIFE IS WORTH LIVING show too often came dangerously close to the feel-good, “positive thinking” religiosity that passed for a religious revival in the 1950’s.
I recall that there was more Catholic meat in those shows than one typically gets from 50 Sunday homilies today.
Absolutely, Crusader.
Bishop Sheen didn’t mince words. I watch videos of his talks on YouTube every so often. He was very clear about the consequences of sin. But he was also engaging & funny. One didn’t have to be a Catholic to appreciate his program or his message.
Dear Mrscracker:
A joy to hear you speak of Bishop Sheen. As a little boy, I would sit on the floor in front of the TV absorbed in what he was saying! He had affect and sway for even a small child.
In Christ’s glorious name,
Brian Young
What about the colonial Maryland Catholics, those who continued
cherishing the faith when leaving Maryland and settling in Kentucky
starting religious orders of sisters and generously following our Lord.
America nevr had a catholic culture and it says a lot that there is not one single saint in its 246 years of history. Solange Hertz has best described the many social conditioning of catholics in America, starting by stating that America was founded by freemasons; also ‘democracy’ and ‘republic’ aren’t what people think they are:
* http://www.catholictradition.org/masonry1.htm
* http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/americanism/democracy.htm
* https://onepeterfive.com/the-united-states-of-freemasonry/?utm_source=1P5&utm_campaign=5592df3a21-1P5_DAILYRSS_EMAIL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7ee622bcbb-5592df3a21-28314775&mc_cid=5592df3a21&mc_eid=a1d92b5812
* http://jcrao.freeshell.org/Americanism.html
Luis you are too hard as nails to one side.
Katherine Drexel was born in the US and became saint via her witness to the US in the US. You are not the only one who overlooks her importance.
In addition, I am optimistic! The blesseds of the US shared in this optimism as did she! And non-US became saint via the US expressing the same optimism!
And the US may have the “unknown” saints and it is pride that would blind us to them! I would like to point fingers!
Besides, it is not necessary anywhere to come from “Catholic culture” in order to qualify to be saint!
In addition, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was born in what is now New York state, as was Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.
And there are numerous people born in the U.S. who have been beatified or declared venerable, as well as servants of God.
The following people, native born U.S. citizens, have been beatified.
Carlos Manuel Cecilio Rodríguez Santiago (Puerto Rico)
Miriam Teresa Demjanovich (New Jersey)
Father Stanley Rother (Oklahoma)
Father Solanus (born in Wisconsin)
Father Michael Joseph McGivney (Connecticut)
The following have been declared venerable:
Cornelia Connelly
Henriette DeLille
Father Peyton
Father Nelson Baker
Bishop Fulton Sheen
Celestina Bottego
Rafael Cordero Molina
William Gagnon
Norbert McAuliffe
Antonietta Giugliano
María Consuelo Sanjurjo Santos
Augustus Tolton
There are a bunch declared Servants of God as well.
“To my mind, figuring out an economy that enables people to live in one place across generations is the necessary first step toward any meaningful renewal of Catholic culture.”
This is the best part of the interview. What is neglected is the discussion of how an immigrant Church can be reconciled with an order of charity that acknowledges the existence and rights of non-Catholic natives. (As was done in the South before the War.)
I have read and re-read Dr. Shannon’s responses in search of the word ‘Parish’ and have found none – yet the essence of the idea of ‘Catholic Culture’ resides first in the family and, in continuum, the parish.
It is my conviction that the near demise of the parish culture and the subsequent dearth of vocations caused by drastic promulgation of the so-called “spirit of Vatican II” – especially in the wide-spread irreverent and downright perversion of the liturgy – plus the virtual elimination of parochial schools largely by the abandonment of the many orders of nuns (and their habits) in favor of ‘social work’ has served as the death knell of said ‘Catholic culture’ as a parochial entity. Catholic culture in the family becomes hard to sustain in such a milieu.
Americanism, especially in the sense of patriotism, has very little to do with it.
My point is that the Church doesn’t have a lock on Hispanic Catholics. Too many in the Church hierarchy give a lukewarm version of Catholicism. The Church is based on the New and Everlasting Covenant of Christ ratified in His Own Blood on the Cross. Covenants require commitment. Too many in the Church hierarchy act like spiritual free agents who can take the Church, the Bride of Christ, and do with her as they please. Spiritual trafficking as it were. The Church has a crisis of covenant.
This comment is in reply to Cbalducc.
This all maybe true but it ignores the elephant in the room. The Church’s behavior towards its members. From sex abuse cover ups to protect itself and cash flow to a lack of fellowship that nondenominational churches seem to have. I know plenty of people who left because of church hypocrisy and seemingly only caring for itself as an institution and not its people.