The Power of the Parish: Catholic Influence on Irish Immigrants

By Madeline Schlehuber

In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrated to the United States in hopes of a better life and more opportunity for their future, bringing little with them in material items, but retaining a strong sense of identity and Catholic faith. The Irish immigrant experience to the United States was not easy; tenement buildings and urban living was dirty and bleak, American nativism was rampant, and families had to make a life out of very little after abandoning their homelands. However, due to the influence of the Catholic Church, the Irish made their mark on America through the various supports and networks offered by their parishes, with Irish Catholics becoming both prominent and successful contributors to America by the turn of the twentieth century. The Catholic Church and her leaders helped create community and identity for Irish immigrants thanks to the effects of the Devotional Revolution, which impacted the opportunities for social connection, labor activism, and education. In these three ways, the Irish experience in America was greatly improved thanks to the contribution and opportunities by the Catholic Church’s networks. 

To understand how the Catholic Church came to be such a powerful network in America for the Irish, it is important to address the changes in society that helped establish the Church as such a central pillar in life: the Devotional Revolution. In Ireland prior to 1850, Catholicism was still the main religion, but it was not practiced as it is today. Mass-going was not yet as popular, and Catholics were less fervent in their Catholic personal identity. After the leadership of Archbishop Paul Cullen, from 1852-1878, Ireland and Catholics experienced a renewed passion for their faith, incorporating it into their daily lives with Mass, into their homes with religious figures, and with a greater interest in celebrating Holy Days (1). Additionally, images like the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Eucharist, the Passion of Jesus, and the crucifix became much more popular, adorning Catholics’ homes and parishes. Practicing Catholics’ homes included shrines to Jesus and Mary, holy water, bibles, art, and more to visually cue their faith (2).“The parish church, not the holy well,” argues historian Jay Dolan, “became the center of religious practice. No more baptisms at home or wakes and burials of the dead without a Mass at church,” indicating this significant shift in Catholics’ lifestyles (1). All of this propelled the Church to a higher importance in the identity of the Irish, who, at this time, were emigrating to the United States in high numbers after the difficult Famine years. As they left Ireland, they brought the devotion instilled in them by Archbishop Cullen, whose legacy helped create the famed networks of Catholicism the Irish would establish in their new American homes. To emphasize the passion for Catholicism that the Irish brought with them, “no other European Catholics matched the Irish in religious zeal, loyalty to Rome, and generosity to the Church,” according to one historian (3). Clearly, the Irish brought this zeal to the neighborhoods and pockets of settlement in the United States as they emigrated in large numbers from the mid to late nineteenth century. 

By the mid-nineteenth century, Catholics were the largest denomination in the United States with 1.6 million people as the Famine pushed families to leave Ireland. Within ten years, the population would be over three million Catholics (1). These numbers meant that within any given parish, social connection was a large part of the Catholic experience. New churches were being put up to accommodate the growing population, despite the poor congregations being served. Mid-nineteenth century parishes were not grand or ornate, but served the purposes of mass, weddings, and baptisms with a couple social groups during the week (1). However, this population boom stimulated the networks of the Church, importantly, for the laypeople. Sodalities were a strong example of these networks: they served either men or women to meet during the week, likely in the parish building, to socialize, talk about their faith, and find common ground as immigrants. Besides socializing, churches serve as a resource for those struggling. Immigrants could help each other, providing assistance and charity to those in their community who needed it, but also by being charitable as a parish. The social scene around churches expanded, and societies “were founded with a greater diversity of purpose,” including social, recreational, charitable, and educational goals (1). Hosting events and fundraisers was a way to invigorate the community and bring in needed donations. One famous parish in Chicago advertised their largest event in the Chicago Times in 1895, saying “if anyone wants to buy a horse, a piano, a dress pattern, a cook stove, a bicycle, a barrel of flour, a cabinet organ, or any article whatever of use or ornament, he could not do better than to visit the bazaar of the Catholic Church of the Holy Family” (1). This kind of event was crucial for a parish, bringing members together with the goal of easing debts on the Church and sharing community. Sodalities for young men and women as well as married men and women all contribute to these kinds of events. For many immigrants, the Church was a place to retain a sense of Irishness, or even meet their future spouse. 

By establishing these tight-knit communities centered around the church, many of these groups and parishes inherently began to adhere to certain political and social issues through their networks. In the late nineteenth century, labor was one issue at the forefront of people’s concern. The Irish were hugely successful in American politics and organizations, since their command of the English language gave them an advantage over other immigrant groups. The Irish power in the American Catholic Church “was matched only by the success of the Irish Democratic party politics,” as they became passionately involved in issues that were relevant to their Catholic networks (5). Labor rights became popular in this time, with the famous novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair eventually shedding a harsh light on the conditions in factories and on workers. With the majority of Irish Catholic immigrants identifying as working class, they largely supported the Democratic party, seeing several Irish Catholics find success in the political realm. The Church was an advantageous way to network, secure votes, and hear their concerns. With the Church community looking largely homogeneous, some leadership knew that the institutions had to align with their members in order to retain their support. John Ireland, Irish immigrant from Kerry and archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, was considered a progressive, becoming involved in issues concerning his parish. He was right to be involved, and understood that if the Church didn’t support social justice for labor, they would lose the American working class demographic they relied upon (6). A little later in the early twentieth century, Bishops across the nation joined together in pursuit of greater workers’ rights through the Program of Social Reconstruction of 1919. These Bishops sought several reforms to the workplace: a minimum wage, child labor laws, and even wage equality between men and women (7). Through policies like these and their work in Catholic parishes, the Irish made a significant impact on American Labor. 

Surprisingly, women were also important in shaping the involvement of the Irish Catholic community in political action. Through the Sodalities, women had a place in the Catholic Church, giving them a platform they didn’t necessarily have in greater American society. The Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) worked on real legislation by collaborating with the ‘National Council for Catholic Women, the National Catholic Welfare Conference, and Father John A. Ryan, who assisted in drafting the Children’s Amendment and powerfully defended it in Massachusetts,’ proving the efficacy of Catholic Networks in politics in the late nineteenth century (7). Individuals like Mary Kenney O’Sullivan (1864-1943) also fought in the labor rights movement. Born to Irish immigrant parents, she grew up in a devout Midwestern Catholic parish, where she participated in the Sodality of Mary group in her church (7). President of the Bindery Girls Union, board member of the Industrial Commision of Illinois, President of the Working Woman’s Improvement Association, AFL’s first woman general organizer, and Inspector for the Massachusetts Department of Labor, O’Sullivan was incredibly influential (and incredibly busy) throughout her career in activism (7). O’Sullivan was ultimately passionate about the dignity of workers, as an active advocate for fair wages, children’s labor rights, and the eight hour workday, connecting to the Catholic ethos of human rights and identifying with the struggles of Irish immigrants in the workforce (7).

Perhaps the most widespread effect of Irish Catholicism for immigrants in the United States was through the implementation of parish schools. Again, in just the mid-nineteenth century, Catholic churches were not impressive or well established. They looked like “spartan wooden buildings or plain stone structures, second-hand churches that served a poor Irish congregation,” handed down from protestant congregations (1). However, by the late nineteenth century, parishes expanded tremendously, and through expansion into schools, “Irish pastors found a cause that cut across class lines, uniting Irish congregations and diminishing old country factionalisms” (5). In Chicago, for example, the Holy Family Parish was arguably a city in itself: it had “a massive Gothic church…four grammar schools, a convent academy, and St. Ignatious College, the forerunner of Loyola University,” and by 1881, the parish had over twenty thousand members (5).  With the vast number of educated Irish Catholics pouring into society, one estimate by Archbishop Mindelein claimed that by 1920, seventy percent of public school teachers in Chicago had graduated from Catholic high schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many of which would be daughters of Irish families (5). With the second-generation immigrant successes as a result of tight-knit parish communities, the Irish immigrant experience improved with each generation in the United States, thanks to strong networks of education. 

Other large Irish cities like New York had also gravitated towards parochial school systems, with one newspaper title from 1908 boasting about the expansion: “From Kindergarten to University: Catholic System of Education Complete,” citing that their school system had 1,428 teachers and 65,152 children, keeping the “clergy’s ranks filled,” for years to come (8). As historian Kevin Kenny asserts, by 1900, two-thirds of the Bishops in America were of Irish birth or descended from Irish immigrants (2). These Irish dominant systems demonstrate the power of the Catholic network in creating an Irish identity, with Father Daniel Quinn and Father McGuirk serving as president and vice-president of the Catholic Fordham University in New York (8). The work of the Irish in the Catholic education system creates a multi-generational network of like-minded people, and for many immigrants and their next generations in the late nineteenth century, the establishments of these school systems are crucial to the success of the Irish in America. Besides schools, the Irish established Catholic “hospitals, orphanages, asylums, and an almost self-contained social scene,” which later contributed to the Irish political machines that were gaining power in the big cities of America (3). The Irish, through the strength of the Catholic Church’s connectedness, were able to establish themselves as Americans, while maintaining a sense of identity and community. 

In conclusion, the Catholic Church was and continues to be a powerful network for the Irish American population. It served multiple purposes for immigrants; and as Lawrence McCaffery asserts, the Church acted as a ‘bridge of familiarity between Ireland and the US,’ lessening the ‘cultural, economic, and social trauma adjustments to urban industrial America’ for the new Irish immigrants finding their way. From the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, the boom in the Irish Catholic population stimulated a vibrant Catholic network, acting as a social and political advantage for new immigrants and giving the Irish leverage to be active in American politics through the labor movement, to establish successful parochial schools for their children, and stay connected to their sense of Irish identity through social organizations run through the Church. The Church was everything in Irish immigrant communities in the United States. Cities from New York, to Chicago, to San Francisco, and so many in between, flourished around Irish Catholic communities. The Irish, as a result of the support systems from the networks of the Catholic Church, were able to find upward mobility and success in the United States, and these Catholic networks still remain strong today.  

References

1. Dolan, Jay P. “The Irish Parish.” U.S. Catholic Historian 25, no. 2 (2007): 13–24. 

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25156622.

2. Kenny, Kevin. The American Irish: A History. New York: Routledge, 2000.”Big Bazaar McCaffrey, Lawrence J. “Irish Textures in American Catholicism.” The Catholic Historical  Review 78, no. 1 (1992): 1–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25023697.
3. “Is in Swing: Catholic Church of the Holy Family to Pay Its Debts.” Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922), Oct 16, 1895. (Proquest Historical Newspapers Database).
4. Skerrett, Ellen. “The Development of Catholic Identity among Irish Americans in 

Chicago, 1880 to 1920.” In From Paddy to Studs: Irish American Communities in the Turn of the Century Era, 1880-1920, edited by Timothy J. Meagher, 117-38. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986.

5. McCaffrey, Lawrence. “Ireland and Irish America: Connections and Disconnections.” U.S. Catholic Historian 22, no. 3 (2004): 1–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25154917.
6. Lamoureux, Patricia A. “Irish Catholic Women and the Labor Movement.” U.S. Catholic Historian 16, no. 3 (1998): 24–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25146252.
7. “From Kindergarten to University: Catholic System of Education Complete in the Parochial Schools of the Diocese are 1,428 Teachers and 65,152 Children Five New Schools a Year Graded like Public Schools Keeps Clergy’s Ranks Filled.” New – York Tribune (1900-1910), Apr 12, 1908. (Proquest Historical Newspapers Database).