Catholic Heritage

If you know anything about American history, you know the country was founded on the principle of religious tolerance. If you're more advanced, you know it depended on which religion.

Strange as it may seem today, it was illegal to practice Catholicism in Massachusetts until 1780, and the first public Mass wasn’t celebrated until eight years later. However, by 1808, so much progress had been made that Pope Pius VII created the Diocese of Boston, which then encompassed all of New England. The community continued to grow throughout the 19th century, and by the early 1900s was a significant part of the Boston community, greatly bolstered by the waves of Irish and Italian Catholics immigrating in the US. The Catholic community had come of age, from newcomers with customs often perceived as strange, to being ever present at public events and in local, state, and national politics. This book traces the evolution of the Catholic community and its relationship with the larger Boston community, from its very humble beginnings in the 18th century through the death of influential Cardinal Richard J. Cushing in 1970.

The arrival of Franciscan friars of the Jalisco Province in Mexico escaping religious persecution in 1926 to Hebbronville, a rural community in South Texas, is an enduring story that still resonates in the hearts of many. Since then, Franciscans have been dedicated to the cultural, educational, and spiritual needs of Hebbronville and surroundings communities that have supported them over the years.

One of the many remarkable contributions of the Franciscan legacy in Hebbronville is the Scotus College, a majestic four-story seminary building considered a Texas historic treasure and a preeminent local architectural landmark. This book is the pictorial account of these events that led a group of Franciscans to offer their lives, full of unwavering faith and boundless hope, to a community that embraced them. It is an inspiring story that becomes a lesson about love, devotion, and sacrifice in appreciation to the people of Hebbronville that helped persecuted Franciscan friars survive. 

Fr. Juan Jose Ibarra, OFM, founder of the Franciscan Museum of Hebbronville whose archives have contributed to this book, has worked closely with the Archivo Histórico Franciscano de Zapopan in Mexico and the Jim Hogg County Historical Commission. He currently serves as pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and guardian of the Franciscan Friary in Hebbronville, Texas.

Emerging from the former Indiana Territory, the state's early population was in need of education, health care, and social services to assist young families, the poor, the infirm, and the elderly. These needs were frequently met by Catholic religious orders, including the Benedictines, Sisters of Providence, Franciscans, Daughters of Charity, and other established organizations of dedicated religious men and women.

Better than a bucket list—a guide to growing your faith!

The demands of modern society often create distance between Catholics and their cultural heritage. Earl J. Higgins, a New Orleans native and lifelong Catholic, offers ways to embrace Catholic influences in everyday life. Suggestions range from such simple activities as putting a “Keep Christ in Christmas” bumper sticker on your car to more devout practices, including lighting an Advent wreath or making the Sign of the Cross in times of trial and joy. In addition, Higgins provides historical backgrounds on Catholic holidays such as Mardi Gras. Feeling like you’re drifting from your faith? From the St. Joseph’s Day Altars to Midnight Mass, let these 100 tips reconnect you!

Pioneers in Ministry/

When six Ursuline nuns stepped off a train in September 1874, they encountered a smoky industrial town still reeling from a recent economic downturn. Yet, the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown went on to staff more than a dozen parochial schools, while organizing the city’s first Catholic high school.

Over the next century, they compiled an extraordinary record of community service. When the Mahoning Valley’s fortunes eroded in the wake of deindustrialization, the Ursulines gradually expanded their mission to address a host of new challenges.

Today, the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown are celebrated for their groundbreaking efforts to assist the urban poor, single mothers and people living with HIV-AIDS. They remain more committed than ever to meeting the needs of the community, in the face of ever-changing social, political, economic and religious circumstances.

Since 1845, along the River Raisin in the southeastern Michigan town of Monroe, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) have distinguished themselves as educators, activists, and Catholic pioneers.

At the congregation’s peak, the motherhouse dispatched nearly 1,600 nuns to more than 100 schools across metropolitan Detroit and several states.For 175 years, the sisters taught the three Rs and the meaning of faith to nearly 700,000 students and established important metro Detroit institutions such as Marygrove College, Immaculata and Marian High Schools, and St.Mary Academy.Widely known by their initials, the IHMs have extended their reach worldwide.Monroe IHM members have served in key roles at the Vatican, as leaders of organizations representing Catholic sisters in the United States, as missionaries in Third World countries, and as groundbreaking activists and theologians.The Monroe IHMs today also attract lay women and men who dedicate themselves to the congregation’s values and goals by becoming IHM Associates.

In 1776, two Mexican Franciscans trekked into what is now the state of Utah. While they said the rosary and offered litanies to the saints, they did not linger in what was to them unknown territory. It would take almost 100 years for the first parish church of St. Mary Magdalene to be built in 1871 and a Catholic community established. The small number of Catholics maintained and cultivated their religion in a territory dominated by the Latter-day Saints by building churches, starting schools, and maintaining hospitals. Key to their success was the leadership of Fr. Lawrence Scanlan, who served for 42 years, first as pastor and then as bishop. Scanlan ministered to a multiethnic array of Irish, Italian, Slovak, and Mexican Catholics who came to work in and support the dangerous (but lucrative) mining industry. Utah’s population expanded after World War II, and Catholic educational and medical institutions increasingly cared for the growing needs of the state.

In 1855, Rev. David W.Bacon became the first bishop of the Diocese of Portland, which included Maine and New Hampshire.

Between the two states, six priests and eight churches ministered to a few hundred Catholics. In the following years, Bacon founded 63 churches, ordained 52 priests, built 23 schools, and attended to a Catholic population of about 80,000. In 1884, New Hampshire became an independent diocese. By 1903, founding bishop Denis Bradley introduced over 30 missions; parishes; schools, including Saint Anselm College; and charitable services. Since its inception in 1884, ten bishops selected from New Hampshire and other states have honored the Diocese of Manchester with their leadership. Throughout most of the 20th century, New Hampshire experienced growth in vocations and education. Starting in the 1970s, there was a decline of parochial students, vocations, and sacramental reception.Today, over 250,000 Catholics worship in the Granite State within 89 parishes.

Barbara D. Miles, former archivist for the Diocese of Manchester, is currently assistant archivist for the Diocese of Portland, Maine. She serves the church as archivist, author and lecturer, and consultant. Diocesan archives, parishes, and private collectors provided sources for this publication.

In the 20th century, the rapid ascent of the automobile industry after World War One and the tremendous increase in Detroit's population triggered a parallel growth in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Witness the lean years of the 1930s when the Depression gave rise to Detroit's most famous cleric, Father Charles Coughlin, the radio priest of Royal Oak. March to the battlefront in the 1940s as Monsignor Joseph Ciarrocchi used the printed word as his weapon in America's fight against fascism. Relive the prosperous 1950s as the post-war baby boomers made their presence felt in every parish school. Finally, reflect on Catholic Detroiters during the turbulent 1960s.

Franciscan friars entered the religious landscape of the United States in 1539 and remained part of colonial history in Georgia, Florida, New Mexico, Texas, California, and Louisiana until they were no longer colonies.

A Franciscan mission revival began in the 1840s when groups of Franciscan friars arrived with Irish, German, Polish, Italian, and eastern European immigrants.In the 20th century, the friars began to accompany Latin American and Vietnamese immigrants.The number of Franciscan friars peaked in the United States in the 1960s.In the midst of that boom, they engaged in such issues as civil rights and the changes that came to the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council.Despite aging and declining numbers in the last 50 years, the Franciscan friars remain active.Franciscans were—and still are—woven deep into the fabric of US history, and in their archives, they have the pictures to prove it.Images of work with Native Americans, in soup kitchens, with social service agencies, and in parishes, schools, and universities provide a compelling look at this little-known part of US history.

Explore the fascinating history of Detroit’s Gesu Catholic Church and Schoolthrough the images and stories of the people who were there.

In a reconfigured farmhouse just a mile outside of the city limits of Detroit, a Jesuit priest and 25 men, women, and children gathered to celebrate Sunday mass on March 19, 1922.

The Reverend John McNichols named the Catholic mission church Gesu, the Italian word for Jesus.Gesubecame one of Detroit's landmark parishes. Its history illustrates the Motor City'sboom, bust, resilience, and resurgence. It was the home parish of four Detroit mayors, powerful members of Congress, auto industry titans, sports legends, artists, authors, and actors. At its peak in the mid-1960s, GesuSchool enrolled 1,600 students. Because of Detroit's decline and its racial and economic struggles, Gesuis one of only four Catholic elementary schools that remain in the city. But as Detroit rebounds, Gesu Schoolis growing again.

Author Patricia Montemurri is an award-winning Detroit journalist whose in-laws were the church's architects and stained-glass designers.Gesu'shistory unfolds here through vintage photographs from the parish archives, the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the University of Detroit Mercy, the Walter P. Reuther Library, the Michigan Catholic, and the albums of Gesuparishioners and graduates.

Experience the brilliant mind of a man who sacrificed his life for the people of Shreveport.

From 1854 to 1873, Servant of God Father Louis Gergaud, native of Heric, France, served as a dedicated missionary priest in northeast Louisiana. These years, often fraught with hardships, culminated in his decision to offer his own life for the people of Shreveport during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1873. The narrative of his life during these years, drawn from his own letters and papers, provide insightful commentary on issues as diverse as Catholic-Protestant relations in the nineteenth century South, the economics of commerce in an expanding nation, and the social impacts of the Civil War. Most importantly, these papers provide context to understand the character of a man whose heroic virtue led him to the sacrifice of his own life for strangers.

A century of blessings at a sacred site in Euclid, Ohio

Tucked away under stately trees in Euclid sits Our Lady of Lourdes National Shrine, a peaceful sanctuary steeped in history that draws thousands of people from around the world each year. The land was farmed by the Harms family, and in 1870, the Blessed Mother appeared to Julia Harms in the spot where a statue of Mary stands today. In 1926, a replica of the original Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine was built on the property, featuring a grotto with water flowing over a stone on which Mary stood when she appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France.

Join authors Joanne Boresz and Jennifer Boresz Engelking as they share stories of reported shrine healings, including a child regaining the ability to walk, and of the dedicated Sisters who have called the shrine home, including the Sisters of the Good Shepherd (1920–52) and the Sisters of the Most Holy Trinity (1952–present). 

The Chaldean Church is among the ancient Eastern Churches serving the Chaldean people around the world.

Present-day Chaldeans are the descendants of the ancient people of Mesopotamia (Iraq)—the cradle of civilizations, the bedrock of the Old Testament prophets, and the land of the first Christians outside the ancient Roman Empire. Chaldeans are Catholic in faith, using the ancient Aramaic liturgical rite with the language that Jesus spoke during his earthly ministry. The Chaldean Church has a glorious history with countless martyrs and great missionary enterprises. By the start of the 20th century, Chaldeans increasingly began to flee Iraq in search of freedom and stability. Today, although several generations have been born and raised in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and Australia, Iraq remains an important religious and cultural region. This book portrays important events during Chaldean history, with a focus on the migrant groups in the United States and Canada.

The Catholic University of America is the only national university of the Catholic Church in the United States. Discover the university's history, triumphs, and crises.

Founded by U.S. bishops in 1887, the project of a national university was approved by Pope Leo XIII, and after considerable debate it was decided to put the school in the nation's capital on a hilly plot of land in Northeast Washington, D.C. Classes opened on November 13, 1889, with a distinguished faculty of eight professors. Since then the university has grown exponentially, greatly expanding the number of students, teachers, and schools. The Catholic University of America has celebrated educational triumphs, suffered fiscal crises, rejoiced in two papal visits, and earned itself a place as one of the country's leading educational institutions.

A Century of Faith

The first Mass was offered for what would eventually be known as St. Rita Church in the humblest of places, a cobbler’s shop on East Custis Avenue in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria. The ladies of the yet-to-be-established parish provided its name—St. Rita of Cascia is the patron of impossible causes. The first small church was built on Hickory Street in Mt. Ida and a parish was founded on September 21, 1924. Through depression, war and post-war growth, political and social change and into a new millennium St. Rita Church has grown under its namesake’s patronage. A beautiful new church was built in 1949 and a school was founded in 1952. The St Rita Centennial Committee tells the stories of a century of community.

Father Jean Pierre, a missionary priest from Brittany, France, answered a call to serve in sparsely populated Shreveport, where he chose to remain when a yellow fever epidemic struck in 1873. From a perspective told largely through his own words, Father Pierre provides the reader a glimpse of his “fearful steps strengthened by hope.” His unique insights extend even to the secular history, framing the development of Shreveport and the surrounding region in the middle of the nineteenth century. Gradually emerging as someone widely respected and admired for his intellect and ability, Father Pierre’s story culminated in a heroic choice to sacrifice his life in the service of strangers when the epidemic ravaged the city. A trio of authors celebrates the life of this Shreveport martyr.