American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church [Paperback]

Charles Morris (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 27, 1998

"A cracking good story with a wonderful cast of rogues, ruffians and some remarkably holy and sensible people."       --Los Angeles Times Book Review

Before the potato famine ravaged Ireland in the 1840s, the Roman Catholic Church was barely a thread in the American cloth. Twenty years later, New York City was home to more Irish Catholics than Dublin. Today, the United States boasts some sixty million members of the Catholic Church, which has become one of this country's most influential cultural forces.

In American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church, Charles R. Morris recounts the rich story of the rise of the Catholic Church in America, bringing to life the personalities that transformed an urban Irish subculture into a dominant presence nationwide. Here are the stories of rogues and ruffians, heroes and martyrs--from Dorothy Day, a convert from Greenwich Village Marxism who opened shelters for thousands, to Cardinal William O'Connell, who ran the Church in Boston from a Renaissance palazzo, complete with golf course. Morris also reveals the Church's continuing struggle to come to terms with secular, pluralist America and the theological, sexual, authority, and gender issues that keep tearing it apart. As comprehensive as it is provocative, American Catholic is a tour de force, a fascinating cultural history that will engage and inform both Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

"The best one-volume history of the last hundred years of American Catholicism that it has ever been my pleasure to read.  What's appealing in this remarkable book is its delicate sense of balance and its soundly grounded judgments." --Andrew Greeley

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In journalistic fashion, Morris (The AARP & You, Random, 1996) unfolds the story of the growth of the American Catholic Church and its reshaping by the faithful. He emphasizes culture over theology and focuses on leading figures of the day, especially bishops and their governing styles. A fluid writer and "cradle Catholic," Morris chronicles U.S. church history in the two parts of his work and draws from numerous archives, interviews, and popular and scholarly publications. The third part focuses on the development of major issues confronting the institutional church; he fairly objectively delineates so-called conservative and liberal views. The work is more personal in content and style than Jay Dolan's The American Catholic Experience (LJ 10/15/85) or Patrick Carey's The Roman Catholics (Greenwood, 1993). The author argues for what is most hopeful in the church, particularly its grassroots and increasing lay responsibility. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Anna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In magazine essays and books, Morris has covered many topics, from the arms race to AARP. Here he writes about "the rise and triumph of a culture, and of the religious crisis that has ensued in the wake of that culture's breakdown." Morris focuses on the construction of the large system of Catholic institutions that "reinforced religious/ethnic identity and protected lay people from the virus of freethinking," the goal of the Irish diaspora that arrived in the mid-nineteenth century. The "Americanist" battles of the '80s and '90s centered on these institutions, which "finessed . . . the old conundrum of how to adapt to American-style separation of Church and State by building a Catholic ministate." But the powerful U.S. Catholic Church of the 1940s and 1950s was weaker than it seemed: Catholics had assimilated; their less passionate ties to the church and its institutions encouraged current turmoil over theological, sexual, and other issues. Likely to stir debate. Mary Carroll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Softcover Ed edition (October 27, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679742212
• ISBN-13: 978-0679742210
• Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 5 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles R. Morris is a lawyer and former banker. He has written fourteen books, and is a regular contributor to Politico, Newsweek, Reuters, and many other publications.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An illuminating examination of Catholics in the U.S. July 15, 2001

By Matt McGuiness, M.A.

Format:Paperback

This book has been needed for some time. If America has ever been a "Christian nation," it has certainly never been a Catholic nation. In fact, "Christian" by definition (for many Americans) excludes Catholics. (It is still common to hear evangelicals say, "I was Catholic before I became a Christian.")

Morris sheds much light on the hostility and suspicion that Catholics in America have faced. He also illustrates in a masterful way how Catholics have attempted to find a way between the desire for acceptance by the larger, Protestant culture and the desire to retain a sense of Catholic identity. This latter stance has sadly resulted in various forms of isolationism and is characterized by a failure on the part of Catholics to evangelize American culture.

Morris writes clearly and avoids unnecessary Catholic jargon. His insights are often penetrating. Throughout most of the book Morris is fair to various perspectives within American Catholic culture.

I consider this text to be "required reading" for religious studies students and students of theology; it is also highly recommended to anyone who wishes to understand the role of Catholicism in American public life.

Nevertheless, the following omissions make this a less than perfect book: (1) He limits his discussion of Catholicism to the Latin (Roman) Rite; (2) there is a curious silence concerning the questions "what is Catholicism?" or "how does Catholicism differ from Protestantism?"; (3) despite the fact that a good third of the book is devoted to events since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the fact that Morris draws from a variety of theological points of view, he fails to address the Church's own self-understanding as articulated in the documents of Vatican II: communio ecclesiology.

EASTERN CATHOLICS. While Morris duly notes the insensitivity of Irish-American bishops toward Italians, Poles, Germans, and other ethnic groups, there is no mention of the conflict between these bishops and Catholics of other rites (Byzantines, et al). Nor is there mention of how the Irish-American bishops lobbied Rome to prevent Eastern Catholic bishops from ordaining married men (a discipline that is still in place in this country).

WHAT IS CATHOLICISM? Being Catholic, Morris writes as an "insider" and this provides for a richness and depth that would be lacking were he an agnostic or a Christian of another denomination. On the other hand, Morris fails to address many of the fundamental claims of the Catholic Church: her origin as from Jesus Christ (and hence, her claim of universality); the presence of the Church in the world as the continuing presence of Christ for all of humanity; the sacraments of the Church as mediating the love of God in Christ to the world.

Put another way, Morris fails -- sometimes at critical points -- to allow his narrative to be shaped by theology and thus gives a secular, sociological reading of the Church.

I can't recall any statement by Morris concerning Catholic doctrine that was "wrong," but there are numerous points where a better explanation of Catholic theology would have provided the reader with more understanding.

For example, when Morris discusses the encyclical "The Splendor of Truth" and John Paul II's insistence that some actions are always and everywhere wrong (intrinsically evil), Morris says that John Paul II places contracepting couples in the same category as "Hitler and Pol Pot" (p. 367).

Of course, the Pope does no such thing. What John Paul does insist upon is the fact that some actions can never include give glory to God: murder, abortion, theft, and yes, contraception. The Pope is wise enough to recognize the difference between objectively evil actions and one's subjective responsibility for those actions. Morris should have known better than to accuse the Pope - renowned for his Christian personalism - of falling into a crude legalism that equates gravely sinful matter with personal guilt/culpability.

COMMUNIO ECCLESIOLOGY. One rightly gets a sense from Morris that Catholicism since the Second Vatican Council has been interpreted by the majority of Catholics (clerical and lay) through two discrete lenses: liberal or conservative, democratic or authoritarian, the Church as the "People of God" or the Church as hierarchical institution. Both perspectives have an element of the whole truth in them. The difficulty arises (as it does continuously) when people insist on emphasizing one element to the exclusion of the other.

Thus we find some "liberals" questioning whether or not bishops are really part of the Church and "conservatives" resorting to conspiracy theories to explain why the Pope allows (gasp!) female altar servers. It is sad phenomenon that has originated in a selective reading of the documents of Vatican II, especially "Lumen Gentium" (On the Church).

Morris correctly notes that the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council placed the Mystery of the Church at the forefront of their discussion. It is only after discussing the sheer gratuitousness of God reaching down to save humanity in Christ and continuing this presence through his body, the Church, that the themes of People of God and Hierarchy are broached. The Church's reason for being is to put all of humanity (indeed, the entire cosmos) in touch with, in intimate communion with the God-who-is-love.

So long as one approaches the Church in terms of power and control versus love and service, one will forever misunderstand her. Sadly, Morris fails to grasp the importance of the Church as communion and it negatively affects his discussion of topics such as women's ordination, moral theology, the role of the Pope, etc.

Other books that might help thoughtful readers get to the essence of Catholicism include Alan Schreck's "Catholic and Christian" (very accessible) and David Schindler's "Heart of the World, Center of the Church" (a more academic text, but one that is richly rewarding - especially for understanding the nature of the Church in the modern world).

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating for predictions about Benedict XVI too! April 20, 2005

By John L Murphy TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I put down this book the night before the papal election, exactly at the point where Morris discusses how Ratzinger actually put the rein on some of John Paul II's more forceful moves towards declaring statements blocking women's ordination as infallible; carefully nuanced exegesis by Morris reveals very subtle but nonetheless wiggle room for future movement away from some of the last pope's more dogmatic pronouncements. He fits this into a battle between cardinals and the episcopate promoting a collegial right to establish doctrine based on their accumulated experience as part of the Church's magisterium against the centralisation of papal power. This data which may indicate the new pope's ability to create flexibility despite what on surface may appear to the casual observer only more rigidity, buried inside a footnote on pg. 349, is typical of the wealth of detail--you must read the extensive endnotes as well as the text proper to appreciate how thorough has been the author's research--found in this popular yet scholarly treatment of the Church from about the mid-19 c to the late 1990s.

In retrospect, some of the concerns Morris finds diminishing in his 1997 study have only increased, such as the pedophilia (or more often adolescent boys rather than pre-teens with priests, Morris and many critics parse) scandals that grew more prominent rather than less so in the beginning of the current decade. Vocations appear to keep tumbling at least in the West; non-compliance with Catholic teaching by the rank-and-file grows in the American segment due to democratic tendencies constantly eroding the earlier, pre-assimilationist culture that codified American Catholicism mid-20 c. These tendencies, as Morris shows, created tension from the later 19 c onward, and the battles with Rome by the U.S. bishops are far from new. Also, the role of the Hispanic church seems, despite many references, to be diminished (perhaps reflecting an East Coast orientation naturally taken for the majority of the narrative). As a related correction, St Thomas the Apostle parish in L.A. is not on its Eastside--typical of Morris's scholarship, this was a rare mistake in an admirably solid resource that taught me an enormous amount about everything from John Stuart Mill's liberalism to moral theology to John Ireland's far-reaching impact upon the course of the national Church. However, I was disappointed to find that two sources that would've aided Morris' often moving depiction of life in the triumphal, dogmatic, and secure mid-20c decades were absent from his notes: Garry Wills' "Bare Ruined Choirs," and Jubilee Magazine, a forerunner of the liturgical and cultural renaissance that the post-Vatican II era either expanded or truncated.

When describing how Fulton Sheen lectured, how the old Mass flowed, or how theologians battle it out over birth control, Morris never loses sight of the telling quote to illuminate larger issues. His discussion of subsidiarity and how polarised opposites Dorothy Day and Fr Coughlin could argue from this same basis of natural law and social justice doctrine fascinated me! From the Irish famine to Americanist vs. separatist controversies, through the dispersal of urban ethnics into suburbia, the connection between sex and rural ethos in traditional Catholicism, to current dichotomies in various dioceses in a time of fewer priests and more lay people running parishes, Morris is excellent. He's fair to all sides, although he shows a bit of bias against the hardest right-wing and left-wing factions both. His model is one of adaptation without dilution, certainly a challenge for such a vast institution on the one hand suffering losses to not only non-practicing millions but evangelical sects, on the other struggling to avoid the fate of mainstream Protestantism, which has, according to Morris, seemingly lost its moral and cultural clout in today's nation. Although on the Americanist controversy and the labor movement in the mid 20c, he bogs down in too much detail, at other moments, as in his travels in late-20c American parishes, his mastery of minutiae to explain big issues winningly works well.

As he warns, the tug of secularism--whatever one's view on the current state of Catholicism--presents a warning to those who want the Church to adjust totally to its surroundings. He takes heed of the fate of Episcopalians--fewer in all of America than Catholics in Los Angeles: "Once a religion assimilates to the culture, it almost invariably diminishes into a social center or a low-cost therapy program." (411)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent view of the Church in America March 14, 2003

By Alexis Coxon VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I greatly enjoyed this well-written history of American Catholicism. The earliest chapters, primarily about the influx of Irish immigrants (and the reasons behind it) were particularly fascinating.

However, this book primarily focuses on America from the Victorian age on. There is almost no discussion of Catholicism in the colonial period (the founding of Maryland, the denial of rights to Catholics, etc.), which I feel should have been included.