As a priest, missionary, pastor and bishop, Saint John Nepomucene Neumann (1811-1860) frequently confronted anti-Catholic persecution.
Catholic thinker and man of action Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira made many commentaries on this aspect of American history and the role of Saint John Neumann in fighting against this persecution. The Brazilian author of the work Revolution and Counter-Revolution was a master of connecting historical events and delineating the processes that played out over years, decades, or even centuries.
This article weaves his thoughts, recorded in diverse places, into a single narrative. The founder and inspirer of the first Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) in Brazil had many helpful insights into the problems of the early American Catholic Church. His words are in italics. Where necessary, this author adds segues and explanatory notes in plain text.
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Increasing Catholic Immigration
“In the early nineteenth century, the Catholics were a tiny minority in the United States. True, there were concentrations of Catholics in Louisiana and some towns sprinkled across the country in small pockets. However, the great majority of Americans were Protestant. Moreover, they were strongly influenced by the errors and spirit of the French Revolution. They were steeped in the ideas of egalitarian democracy.
“As technology advanced and transatlantic crossings became easier and more frequent, there was a surge in immigration from Europe to the United States. Many left their homelands for economic benefits or to enjoy the “religious liberty” of America. Millions came from Ireland, Germany and Italy to America in the nineteenth century. Many were Catholic. Most were poor.
When they first arrived, Catholics did not openly clash with the prevailing Protestant culture. This does not mean, however, that they got along well with the Protestants.”
A complete picture of the situation requires a description of the attitudes of American Protestants.
Intransigents and Accommodators
“The American establishment did not want the Catholic Church to take root here. This attitude prevailed despite the generic principle of religious liberty that they proclaimed, and which is an inherently Protestant idea. Although the American establishment professed religious freedom, they did not want to apply it to Catholics.
“At the same time, there was division amongst American Protestants regarding Catholic immigration.”
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Professor Corrêa de Oliveira divided each camp into two large groups. Each group shared certain common attitudes with its opposing counterpart.
“In sum, there were the intransigent party and the accommodators on both Protestant and Catholic sides. The accommodators considered the best policy was to form a ‘melting pot,’ where all races and religions could lose their individual identities and learn to live by side in peace and prosperity.
“The intransigent party of both sides did not like the accommodators who wanted the ‘melting pot.’“
The Protestant Division
“Some Protestants detested the presence of Catholics and Latins in America. They looked down on them as weak, passionate dreamers.”
This attitude was most dominant among Calvinists in New England. They learned most of what little they knew about Catholicism from books like Fox’s Book of Martyrs and the Tales of Huguenots. Seeing statues and stained glass windows as idols, they had little regard for the communion of saints and none for the intercessory power of the Churches Suffering and Triumphant. Any mention of the Blessed Mother was met with derision.
“They saw Catholics as a lying, drunken, morally questionable and unworthy race to whom no cold calculating Englishmen should ever mix.”
Other Protestants—those leaning toward a Baptist or Methodist line—were more compromising. After all, Irish, German and, later, Italian Catholics were good for business. They would do jobs and accept wages that more established Americans rejected. These Protestants urged a more conciliatory—but no less anti-Catholic—position. They trusted that the “melting pot” would gradually eradicate Catholicism from the immigrant’s cultural life.
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Catholic Accommodators
“The new Catholic Americans took two attitudes towards America’s Protestant culture.
“Some wanted to adopt the ‘American Way of Life.’ This would allow them to make money and fit in with the prevailing culture. It also meant accepting Protestant and egalitarian attitudes, even though most never formally renounced the Faith. These Catholics remained Catholic in name and practice to some extent. However, they would be deeply influenced by Protestantism. They were men of order, in general terms. But their souls were deeply influenced by egalitarian ideas.
“They believed the best policy for the newly arrived Catholics was to adopt American egalitarian manners and customs. In so doing, they could “infiltrate” the United States, mix in with the culture, and hope to become more accepted by the Protestants. These were the accommodators.”
Catholic Intransigents
“A second group wanted no accommodation. Instead, they believed that being a faithful Catholic in America meant keeping a sharp, defined anti-Protestant and anti-egalitarian stance. This second group we will call the intransigent party.
“Saint John Neumann was very much a member of the intransigent party. He taught that the Catholic Church must remain pure and unsullied in all the essentials.
“He knew that some accommodation was permissible in the non-essential issues that did not contradict Catholic doctrine. However, no concessions were possible when it came to the Faith or crucial Catholic social teaching. He believed it was their duty to convert the United States to the Catholic Church. He refused to water down Catholic beliefs to fit in with the dominant American culture.”
The Bishop and the Know-Nothings
Of course, Saint John Neumann did not become a bishop until 1852. Indeed, he received more than his share of abuse from Protestants and Catholics of weak Faith in western New York, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. However, all this abuse was nothing compared to the pressures he faced as bishop of the birthplace of American Independence.
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“During a good part of the nineteenth century, Catholics suffered real and ferocious persecutions. Saint John Neumann was an actual martyr of such persecutions. He was persecuted because he was an intransigent fighter.”
By 1854, the “Know Nothing” Party held considerable power. Officially dubbed “The American Party,” it acquired its popular nickname because the semi-secret organization advised members to simply say “I know nothing” if strangers asked about it. Among its strongholds were several communities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Both the Democrats and the rapidly failing Whigs were more prominent, but the anti-Catholic Know-Nothings were strong enough that neither of the other two parties could ignore them.
An Attractive Target
“He was disliked not only because he did not give in on certain points but because he defended the principle of intransigence. In other words, the American establishment wanted nothing to do with the intransigent party. They wanted Catholics who would compromise.”
Three factors in Bishop Neumann’s life made him an especially appealing target for Philadelphia’s nativists. The first was his unapologetic Catholicism. Second, he was an immigrant. Third, in 1854, the good bishop went to Rome to participate in the ceremonies surrounding the definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Pennsylvania newspapers spilled much ink in his absence to describe the threat that men like Bishop Neumann presented to all “true Americans.”
The Baltimore Plenary Councils
Prof. Corrêa de Oliveira’s reflections on the nineteenth-century American Church emphasized the three Plenary Councils that met at Baltimore in 1852, 1866 and 1884. He related that “The first time I heard something Counter-Revolutionary mentioned in the United States was regarding the Councils of Baltimore, which took place in that city in the nineteenth century.”
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Bishop Neumann had been a bishop for less than two months when the first Council convened on May 6, 1852. Nonetheless, he rapidly gained influence due to his piety and scholarship. The other Council fathers asked him to compose a German catechism. Priests, teachers, parishioners and students used the resulting book in German parishes and their schools for decades.
Studying the first Council introduced the Brazilian professor of history to the Bohemian-American Bishop.
“I read the decrees of the Councils of Baltimore, and they were most excellent. They were along the Saint John Neumann line. So, when I read his biography, his name was not unfamiliar to me, although my knowledge of his life was somewhat sketchy.”
Bishop Newman’s untimely death in 1860 meant his role as an intransigent bishop would be short. Others, too, carried the banner, especially New York’s Bishop John Hughes (1850-1864) and his successor, Archbishop Michael Corrigan (1873-1902). However, for reasons too complex to explain here, the intransigent spirit was weakening.
The Accommodators Gain Ascendency
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“Slowly, this good movement was destroyed. It was eradicated, stamped out, and dismantled according to the classical system that is always used by the bad elements inside the Church to accomplish their evil schemes. The desire for heroism was replaced by a spirit of correctness, by which the Catholic was no longer challenged to strive for perfection. This is how one could describe this new spirit of accommodation.
“The accommodators say to the people, ‘It’s very beautiful to be a saint or a martyr. But God hardly ever asks anyone to be a hero. Concretely, in our everyday lives as Catholics in America, there is no reason to become saints, heroes and martyrs. We can live good lives as long as we don’t break the Commandments and enjoy life by making and driving big cars and drinking huge, colorful ice cream sodas. As long as we don’t break the Commandments, we’ll go to heaven and not to Hell. Heaven is such a nice little place where everyone is so happy. This is how we can enjoy life to its fullest here on earth and later in heaven.’
“I think that if American Catholics would have been faithful to the Saint John Neumann line, it would have been one of the best things for the history of the world.
“But that did not happen.
“As a result, the Church is in a tragic and terrible crisis, which you see all around the world.”
(This article is the last of the author’s five articles about the life of Saint John Neumann. Read the first article here, the second here, the third here, and the fourth here. The Editor)