"With a Pure Intention of Pleasing and Honouring God": How the Philadelphia Laity Created American Catholicism, 1785-1
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarlyCommons@Penn University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 1-1-2013 "With a Pure Intention of Pleasing and Honouring God": How the Philadelphia Laity Created American Catholicism, 1785-1850 Jennifer Schaaf University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History of Religion Commons, Religion Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Schaaf, Jennifer, ""With a Pure Intention of Pleasing and Honouring God": How the Philadelphia Laity Created American Catholicism, 1785-1850" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 925. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/925 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/925 For more information, please contact [email protected]. "With a Pure Intention of Pleasing and Honouring God": How the Philadelphia Laity Created American Catholicism, 1785-1850 Abstract This dissertation explores how Philadelphia Catholics of the early national period sought to reconcile the conflicting forces of spiritual expression, American citizenship, and Protestant antipathy in their quest to establish an American Catholic identity. Previous historians have posited that, by the middle of the nineteenth century, a colonial and early national Catholic identity, articulated by mostly native-born American laypeople and rooted in Enlightenment and republican values, yielded to a European, Ultramontane vision of Catholic community life. It has been assumed that clergy succeeded in squelching lay-led campaigns for ecclesiastical democracy and achieved widespread acquiescence to a more elaborate, authoritarian Church hierarchy as well as a more separatist orientation to the broader Protestant American culture. This study revises the prevailing historiographical formulation by revealing the contributions of the American laity to the reorganization of devotional and parish life in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. It also explores Catholics' continued engagement with their Protestant neighbors. The experiences of Philadelphia Catholics demonstrate that collaboration between clergy and laity was crucial to the articulation and implementation of a common spiritual and social identity. Special attention to three key developments in the history of early national Catholicism shed light on how conflicts and collaborations between laypeople and their clerical superiors propelled American Catholic community formation. First, fruitful partnerships between clergy and Catholic publishers made it possible for the faith community to deploy a vibrant culture of print to bolster piety and to connect co-religionists both within and beyond Philadelphia. Second, disagreements over the future of trusteeism (the traditional means of founding and managing new parishes) forced Catholics to renegotiate the balance of power between clergy and laity. Finally, Catholics found it necessary to launch compelling apologetic campaigns in the face of rising nativist hostility. Clergy and laity cooperated to overturn popular misconceptions of Catholic doctrine and to demonstrate the community's respectability in the eyes of Protestants. When taken together, these sites of inquiry reveal that both the clergy and the laity were vital contributors to the creation of a distinctive American Catholic identity. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Daniel K. Richter This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/925 Keywords Catholicism, laity, Philadelphia, Trusteeism Subject Categories History | History of Religion | Religion | United States History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/925 “WITH A PURE INTENTION OF PLEASING AND HONOURING GOD”: HOW THE PHILADELPHIA LAITY CREATED AMERICAN CATHOLICISM, 1785-1850 Jennifer Elizabeth Schaaf A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Supervisor of Dissertation _____________ __________ Daniel K. Richter Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History Graduate Group Chairperson ________________________ Benjamin Nathans Ronald S. Lauder Endowed Term Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Michael Zuckerman, Professor Emeritus of History Sarah Barringer Gordon, Arlin M. Adams Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of History In memory of my grandmother, Rose Delserro. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is a pleasure to thank the many people and institutions that contributed to this project. As a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, I enjoyed the intellectual mentorship and kind encouragement of scholars whose work continues to inspire me. Kathleen M. Brown welcomed me into the History Department and provided a firm foundation for my graduate career. I’m grateful to have benefited from her knowledge of early American history and gender theory and to have enjoyed her input at the early stages of this project’s development. I also have benefited tremendously from study undertaken with Stephanie McCurry, Kathy Peiss, and Robert Blair St. George. I respect and admire each of them. I am very thankful for the kindness, encouragement, and wise counsel of my committee members, Michael Zuckerman and Sarah Barringer Gordon. I never could have completed this project without their generous and unstinting support. My greatest debt of gratitude is owed to my dissertation chair, the heroic Daniel K. Richter. Dan has been a kind and patient teacher from my earliest days at Penn. I have benefited from his judicious advice and fatherly solicitude more than I can say. He represents the pinnacle of teaching excellence, scholarly achievement, and collegiality to which I aspire. Penn-conferred fellowship support in the form of a Benjamin Franklin Fellowship and the Doris Quinn Foundation Fellowship made it possible for me to work with this extraordinary group of intellectuals. Along the way, scholars beyond the Penn campus have offered vital encouragement and intellectual support. I am especially grateful to James Stewart, Mary Kelley, Bruce Dorsey, and Elizabeth R. Varon for their encouragement and their fine example of teaching excellence. Charles Cohen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provided an early and important intensive in American religious history without which I could never have completed this project. In addition to Dale Light’s path-breaking scholarship on Catholicism in antebellum Philadelphia, his warmth and generosity have been gifts for which I am thankful. iii I’m grateful to the tremendously helpful librarians and archivists at the institutions where I undertook my research. Connie King, Phil Lapsanski, and Jim Green of the Library Company of Philadelphia all went above and beyond the call of duty to accommodate my many questions and requests. Todd Wilmott, director of special collections at the Ryan Library of St. Charles Seminary, exhibited remarkable endurance and serenity in the face of repeated requests to track down books tucked away in vaults and cases for which keys were not always readily accessible. Roy Goodman and Valerie-Anne Lutz of the American Philosophical Society; Shawn Weldon of the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center; and Amy Baxter-Bellamy of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies all have been extremely helpful over the years. Bobbye Burke and Father Mark Horak, S.J. of Old St. Joseph’s Church warmly encouraged this project, made manuscript materials available, and gave me a quiet place to work in the parish office. I thank them. Grants from the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania as well as the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, and very generous fellowship support from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies were crucial to funding uninterrupted time for research and writing. Wonderful friends sustained me throughout this project. I am very grateful to Katie Paugh, Vanessa Mongey, Nick diLiberto, Bill Carter, Anne Casey, Katie Oxx, Mike Carter, and especially Kyle Roberts, Laura Keenan Spero, and Nicole Maurantonio. Their pep talks when I was discouraged, enthusiasm when I did well, and diversions when I needed a break made the completion of this project possible. The friendship of all of these dear people has made me a better and more grateful person. The members of my steadfast and affectionate family managed to feign interest in my project far longer than they could have anticipated and forbore from asking when I would finish. I am especially grateful to my spiritual sister and dearest friend, Sonia Ochoa Gallant, who has been in my corner every step of the way. I can rely on Sonia to lift my spirits when I’m down, to tell me the truth when I’m out of line, and to laugh with me at the joys and foibles that are a part of iv life. Of course, I reserve my greatest wellspring of gratitude for my parents, Robert and Dolores Schaaf. They raised me in a loving and supportive home overflowing with books and infused with a deep respect for learning. Over the years, they have made more sacrifices for my sake than