The American Catholic Parish:
Sullivan, Robert E.
THE INSTITUTION THAT REFUSES TO DIE THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC PARISH A History from 1850 to the Present Vol. I: The Northeast, Southeast, and South Central States Vol. II: The Pacific,...
...The American Catholic Parish offers ample evidence that reports of the imminent death of that institution were indeed exaggerated...
...The South Atlantic region long failed to attract great numbers of immigrants...
...Working against a tight deadline, they had little time for original research...
...The American Catholic Parish is valuable both as a prod and as a survey of existing literature...
...As recently as 1936 they contained fewer Catholics than Connecticut spread over an area five times as large as California...
...Even before 1900 Texas and Oklahoma were the center of Catholic population growth...
...The crucial role of German-Americans in the region's parochial life-above all, in the founding of its parochial schools-is perhaps the major connecting thread...
...Carol L. Jensen writes evocatively about frontier parishes animated by a stoutly missionary spirit...
...He writes sensitively of the Hispanic folk Catholicism which so frequently irked Anglo clerics...
...Even so, they were affected by the centralization and bureaucratiza-tion which have marked the twentieth-century church...
...He recognizes that the "Midwest" is a portmanteau concept: "The development of the Church [there] was as varied as its cities and plains...
...and building and fund-raising have been "the heart and soul of . . . parish life...
...In the face of nativist hostility parishes became ' 'fortresses" harboring a range of protective institutions and services...
...Dolan wisely allowed his contributors latitude in organizing their essays...
...If the historians who cover the heartland of American Catholicism sound rather breathless, those assigned its vast perimeters occasionally struggle to fill their pages...
...It has emphasized community, experience, and intelligibility...
...Regionalism has declined...
...The tension between allocated space and demographic reality shows...
...In a survey of the Northeast, John J. Casino introduces four recurrent themes: the parish as a major institution for the Americanization of successive waves of immigrants...
...Although the postconciliar era proved wrenching for many Northeastern parishes, Mr...
...One of them might have been describing the entire project when he characterized his own essay as "intended to be incomplete and a prod to future historians...
...They lacked the resources to become massive, clerically managed institutions...
...He lacks, however, his colleagues' appreciation for the intricacy of earlier popular religion...
...Jensen's sophisticated treatment of the Hispanic "little tradition" invites imitation...
...Burns's essay...
...Michael J. McNally suspects that its small Catholic minority was frequently lukewarm...
...Their prose is clear and generally well-edited...
...His feel for the effects of tenacious ethnic diversity on Midwestern Catholicism is sure...
...and 423 pp...
...Because of the weakness of organized religion in the Pacific Northwest, the endurance of missionary conditions in the newest states, and sheer numbers, California is central to Mr...
...A map showing the present-day distribution of American Catholics and their parishes would have enriched the books...
...In some cases, he thinks, this has resulted in "robbing the ritual of its impact...
...Robert E. Sullivan The social history of American ecclesiastical institutions has been largely ignored...
...McNally recognizes the paradox of postconciliar collaborative structures: "Not only is the parish council a triumph of American democratic traditions, but it is also a triumph of American bureaucracy...
...They are intelligent...
...Eager to dispel " the myth that American Catholicism is Chicago or New York Catholicism writ large," Mr...
...For most of the period covered by these volumes, over 70 percent of the Catholic population and the majority of its parishes were located in the fourteen states east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio...
...Nolan skillfully blends statistics and stories to explore the impact of current national trends on South Central parishes...
...Casino's tone is even and his sympathies generous...
...According to Charles J. Nolan, parish growth in the South Central region followed a "twofold direction": gradual expansion into the heavily Protestant countryside and multiplication in an increasing number of cities...
...the shifting balance between lay and clerical initiatives in parochial life...
...Since 1960 the Catholic school system has diminished, interreligious marriages have become more common, and the proportion of children being catechized has apparently fallen...
...the slow rise of regular Mass attendance as a majority practice...
...Parish construction boomed, particularly after World War II...
...His portrayal of the area as the American seedbed for the conciliar reforms is convincing...
...Because they were unable to follow the lead of European church historians and lavishly exploit social science, their method tends toward the anecdotal...
...The years between 1850 and 1880 were decisive for Northeastern Catholicism...
...Stephen J. Shaw's essay on the parishes of twelve North Central states ends the book...
...Until the flight to the Sunbelt and urbanization transformed the area, most of its parishes had a rural, missionary character...
...For much of the twentieth century they seemed disposed to write off the Mexican-American community...
...In fact, the historical shape of the church in America suggests the New Yorker's "Map of the United States...
...With a fine eye for ambiguity, Rev...
...II: The Pacific, Intermountain West, and Midwest States Edited by Jay P. Dolan Paulist, $24.95 each vol., 359 pp...
...Casino, like the other contributors, judges the overall result positively...
...In the Southeast as elsewhere, diocesan authority over parish life has swelled...
...and the wide variety of parishes...
...Shaw has a number of strengths...
...Professor Jay P. Dolan of Notre Dame University is thus justified in asserting that The American Catholic Parish is "a new type" of work...
...The eight states of the Intermountain West offer a particular challenge...
...Burns is also sensitive to the complex implications of recent liturgical change...
...Dolan commissioned six scholars to write regional histories as part of a large-scale study of contemporary parochial life under way at South Bend...
...She depicts longing for "collegial authority and a communal self-image as the People of God" as the motif of the postconciliar era in the region...
...Jeffrey M. Burns sees two constants in the parochial history of the Pacific region: "the typical . . . parishioner has been ethnic, working-class, and urban...
...A series of retrospective analyses of such a map based on the available federal religious censuses could have yielded revelations...
...Dolan allocated virtually equal space to each contributor...
...That model prevailed until the eve of Vatican II...
Vol. 115 • October 1988 • No. 17
