The Roman Catholic Church in early 20th-century Mississippi was a religious minority of fewer than 30,000 struggling in a hostile social environment. Today, with well over 100,000 members, it is an integral thread in the state's social fabric, contributing to education, health care and outreach programs for the underprivileged. Although a slow and often painful one, the story of the Catholic Church's growth in Mississippi is a tale in which common denominators prove more powerful than any perceived differences.
Examples abound, some more menacing than others.
When the Catholic Church purchased the Jackson Infirmary in 1946 and turned it into St. Dominic's Hospital, the Ku Klux Klan set a large cross afire across the street from the site in Jackson. The threatening symbol of the times did not prevail. In a small town in the northern part of the state in 1968, a neighbor welcomed a newcomer to town with friendly greetings and six bottles of Coca-Cola, only to return and retrieve her gift when she learned the newcomer was Catholic. Thirty years later, the newcomer is a respected friend and neighbor who wouldn't live anywhere else. Of course, Catholics are still a minority in the state, but vestiges of discrimination and persecution have evaporated with time and understanding, Namorato said.