The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1958-02-14

have blossomed into six flour
ishing dioceses. The problems
with which Bishop Fenwiek was
concerned were those of a from
tier settlement. The chief need
was one of providing elemen-
tary services of religion. His
Astounding zeal, his broad vision,
and his sanity memory are the
common patrimony of all the
Churches Of Ohio.
Bishop Fenwick was succeed
ed by an unusually gifted pre-
late in the person of John Bap-
Ntist Purcell who ruled the des-
TIMES of the Church for half a
century. The problems during
this long span of years we're
essentially those of providing
churches and schools, priests
and religious communities to
meet the needs of a vast influx
of Catholic immigrants. This
rapid increase of Catholics, rep
resenting an immense diversity
in national origins, threatened
for a time our Catholic unity
and placed even the Faith itself
in jeopardy. There was constant
danger of splitting up of the
Church intolnationalistic groups.
The fact that the seamless gar.
ment of Christ was not rent
asunder by schism is one of the
remarkable achievements of the
era. Too rapid an assimilation
of the American people was al
so a constant danger of loss of
faith.
Over and beyond the dangers
which arose from within the
Church itself there was the dan
ger from without. The native
American population distrusted
the immigrants, their strange
customs and their strange relig-
ion. The Church was looked up
on by those of the Protestant
tradition as an alien institution
which should not be allowed to
take root here in America. AS
a result, there ensued a pro-
longed period of persecution
either open or clandestine. We
need only turn the pages of his
tory and read the record of the
violent antagonism of those days
to appreciate the trials which
our forefathers endured.
This was the period of social.
ed Nativism and Know-Nothing
ism. This was the period wher
Archbishop Bedini, the Apostol
ic Nuncio to Brazil and a guest
at the time in United States, was
threatened with violence at the
Cathedral in Cincinnati; wher
the church at Sidney, Ohio, wa:
dynamited and when Catholic.
in general suffered discrimin
) alton in political, economic ant
, social life. The vehemence o.
t this early opposition gradual,
subsidized, but serious opposition
J remained always below the sur
7 face. Hence we had a succession
of outbursts such as that of tn,
l APA about the year 1890. thu
Guardians of Liberty in 1912
the Ku Klux Khan in the 1920's
and the present feeble echo o
the POAU. Happily the latte
seems to be on the way out.
Among the Catholics themseI
YES there was a difference il
policy. The so-called Liberals
|. were in a hurry to accelerate tn
process of assimilation, wit.
the hope that this would reliev
the tensions. The Conserve
tives," on the other hand, he'll
on to the traditions Of the in
migrants, with the hope the.
would be more effectively safe
guarded in their Faith and relis
ious practice by a more gradua
absorption into American life.
The very fact that Catholi
Immigrants were thrown in uI
on themselves in defense Q
their Catholic religion and ns
tional traditions had both goo
and bad results. II made for
certain independence but ais
for a kind of inferiority con
pick. This attitude reveals itsel
even today in a tendency to isl
late ourselves from the CON
munity as a whole. When w
think of the public welfare, W
are apt to think of it primaril
in relationship to ourselves. Thi