Establishing the Church in the New World a unique challenge for bishops

Telling the history of Catholicism in the United States is a complex matter. The story involves much more than the 13 English colonies. From the founding of the “first parish” at St. Augustine, Fla. in 1565 to French influence in New Orleans to the missionary efforts of Spanish Franciscans like St. Junipero Serra in California, many regions have their own distinct flavor. This is to say nothing of the contribution of massive waves of European immigrants from the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries. In a well-researched, collaborative effort, authors George Marlin and Brad Miner provide an engrossing review of both the Church in New York City over the past 210 years and the shepherds called to lead her.

Immediately after the Revolutionary War, there was one Diocese of Baltimore serving the sparse flock of Catholics in America; this made sense, since Maryland was the state with the lion’s share of Catholics. Not until the first decade of the 1800s did the Vatican establish four additional dioceses in Boston, Philadelphia, Bardstown (Kentucky), and New York. The reader quickly gets the sense of how stressful the role of a Bishop in America was at that time. Compared to our standards, the travel of communication was painfully slow. With the population rapidly increasing, providing basic infrastructure of parishes, schools, hospitals, and orphanages was a constant concern. Religious orders of men and women offered a good deal of support, but to sufficiently meet the enormous pastoral needs, each bishop looked to recruit priests to cross the Atlantic Ocean. And among them, which ones were fleeing past assignments to make a new start in the New World? Which of them were prone to eccentricity or unpredictable in their methods? Owing to the mysterious workings of grace, each one contributed in his own way to the task of sanctifying the people of God.

Marlin and Miner also paint a vivid picture of the creeping problem of “trusteeism” in numerous early parishes. While the input of lay leaders was essential in helping meet the temporal needs of their fellow Catholics, some of New York’s prominent Catholic families exerted too much influence in questions of which priests would serve them and how. One imagines the mighty struggle involved in those first Archbishops negotiating a tenuous balance of empowering people to boldly defend the teachings of Christ without usurping ecclesiastical authority.

While, on one hand, Irish clerics made up the huge majority of the Archdiocese of New York’s leadership, many neighborhoods in both the five boroughs and Long Island came to have their respective ethnic parishes (Italian, Polish, German, etc.) with pastors who spoke the native language and advocated for the improvement of the welfare of their faithful. All of these people the Archbishop needed also to assist and oversee as they pursued their vision of the American dream.

As for the Archbishops themselves, each one needed to possess a strong will to make hard decisions. But their personalities ran the gamut, from the combative John Hughes, the reserved and studious Patrick Hayes, the energetic extrovert and current Archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, to all the others. One particularly entertaining section sheds some light on the contentious relationship between Cardinal Francis Spellman and his renowned “media figure” Auxiliary Bishop Fulton Sheen in the 1950s, both of whom had egos to spare.

Of course, none of these men were perfect, nor will any others be who are still to come along. But Marlin and Miner have woven together a large number of anecdotes and observations which illustrate how, by divine Providence, each man provided what Catholics in the “Big Apple” most needed at the time.