A look at the American Catholic

Despite the looming exams that are sending Boston College students running to study lounges, the last "Agape Latte" of the semester filled Hillside Café to the brim.

The well-known Rev. Kenneth Himes, O.F.M. and chairman of the theology department, spoke animatedly on the topic of the night; "Being Catholic and American: Compatible or Conflicted."

Whether being a Catholic and being an American are compatible, said Himes, is a question that has prevailed throughout history. Himes referenced three specific moments in American history that have helped to shape the answer to this question.

Before elaborating on these moments Himes described how Catholicism was viewed in 18th and 19th centuries.

"The thing to understand about American Catholics is that they saw themselves as a minority within the greater Protestant America. Catholics were looked down upon," said Himes.

In the 1800s, massive waves of Irish, German, Italian, and Eastern European Catholics flooded the country. And so, the Catholic community became one of immigrants.

The Catholic faith became something "foreign," and the Protestant fear in immigrants was transposed onto the Catholic faith as a whole.

As Catholics assimilate into American culture, the church feared that this new identity would bring a loss of faith. And so, they created institutions that allowed them to assimilate into the community on their own terms: Catholic school systems, Catholic health care, and Catholic charities. A parallel culture to the Protestant community was created.

With this brief historical background in mind, Himes presented the foremost event shaping American and being Catholic identity: the 1924 passage of the Johnson Immigration Act, in which the government set quotas on immigration into the United States.

Prior to this, "Catholics maintained the image of being an ethnic, blue-collar, urban church. The first generations of Catholics were assimilating, but new ones were still coming in, which perpetuated this image," said Himes.

The second important historical incident was the combined effects of the 1944 GI Bill and World War II.

"Protestants were thrown into the war with Catholics, and they found out, 'Gee, they're not odd. They're not sending telegrams back to the Pope,'" said Himes.

"A blue-collar church churned out white-collar managerial people. The educational standing and thus the economic standing of Catholics improved ... past WWII, there was an easy wedding with the Catholic faith and American culture," he said.

The third shift in American Catholic identity came with the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and the Roe v. Wade decision. These movements left people with the uneasy feeling that there was an inherent, violent aggression within America's imperialistic and racist tendencies.

"Just as Catholic and American values started assimilating, people started questioning the American story," said Himes.

From the left, said Himes, came the thought that "maybe this is a culture that Catholics don't want to blend in with. The Catholics no longer stood out on these issues, something that used to be a point of pride," said Himes.

These issues bred people like Dorothy Day who suggested "the only way to be Catholic is to oppose American culture. America is at war with Catholic values," said Himes.

The fact remained that people came to America not only for religious freedom and political freedom, but for economical freedom and to live a better lifestyle than they might have in their country of origin, however.

In the mid-1900s, these things seemed to be coming true. People were living better than their parents had, so they were not willing to make the strong critiques of American culture put forth by the extreme right and left.

"Given this history," said Himes, "the question we can push ourselves to answer is, 'how do we relate our faith to our culture? Is it supportive, or inimical? Do we need Catholic institutions, or can we work with existing ones?"

Himes also related this historical background to the new wave of Catholic immigrants coming into the country today. These immigrants, however, are coming not from Western Europe, but from places such as the Caribbean, Central America, and Asia.

Catholics immigrating into the country today are "mostly people of color, poorly educated, who are much worse off financially [than Catholics in America today]," he said.

This gap creates a conflict between Catholics. This, said Himes, raises the question: "can minorities effect change, or do they water down their message and join forces with the majority?"