The Borders of Integration: Polish Migrants in Germany and the United States, 1870-1924

5 Divided Hearts, Divided Faith

5 l l l divided hearts, divided Faith Poles and the Catholic Church catholicism has traditionally bound Poles together as a community . This was particularly the case for Polish migrants to the ruhr and northeastern Pennsylvania. In both regions, the local catholic parish was a visible, if highly contested, symbol that provided continuity with the past, while offering a key resource that Poles could use to build and strengthen their ethnic communities. The catholic faith served as a wellspring for Polish working-class activism, demands for social justice, and claims to cultural rights within their adopted societies. This chapter investigates the profound influence religion had on Polish life and long-term integration patterns. The challenge of Polish catholicism The relationship between the native catholic church and Poles in the 1870s and 1880s was reasonably close, especially when compared to later years. In Germany, the Kulturkampf (struggle over culture) of the 1870s and its aftermath encouraged German and Polish catholics to close confessional ranks. during the Kulturkampf, the Prussian government passed a variety of anticatholic laws in an effort to subordinate the church to the power of the state, attacks that occurred simultaneously with growing efforts by Prussia to suppress the supposed threat of Polish nationalism.1 Within the rapidly industrializing ruhr, the church also viewed the devout Polish population as a bulwark against the spread of socialism. In general, catholic officials in the 1870s and 1880s propagated a vision, at least publicly, of interethnic unity not predicated on the outright cultural assimilation of Poles. as one center Party official noted in an 1885 speech in dortmund, before a joint audience of Germans and Poles, “you [Poles] are united with us in the same 102 l Divided Hearts, Divided Faith Faith, in the same hopes and in the same love. . . . [y]ou are and remain our catholic brothers.”2 This idea of unity in difference manifested itself in two ways. The church permitted the formation at the parish level of Polish catholic worker associations, rosary societies, and, later in the 1890s, various choral, women’s, and youth organizations. It also recognized the need to recruit a spiritual caretaker to serve Poles in their native language. In 1885, the bishop of Paderborn, the primary diocese covering the ruhr region, appointed the Polish priest Józef szotowski for this task. during his tenure from 1885 to 1889, szotowski expanded the number of Polishlanguage services and Polish catholic worker associations, actions designed to ensure “proper” Polish spiritual development and limit the corrupting influences that might prey on largely young, overwhelmingly male, migrants . By allowing the formation of ethnically distinct organizations and Polish religious services, the church contributed to promoting a greater national consciousness, often for the first time, among Poles from disparate regions of Poland.3 In the United states, the Irish-dominated catholic church was also confronted with a significant, external threat in the form of nativist, Protestant groups that loudly campaigned against the danger “papists” posed to the democratic republic. Intolerance toward catholics has a long political history, and during the 1880s and early 1890s, a wave of anti-catholicism swept the nation, represented by the rise of organizations such as the Patriotic Order of the sons of america (POsa) and the american Protective association (aPa).4 northeastern Pennsylvania was not immune to this wave of nativism. at the time, the Irish bore the brunt of nativist resentment since they were the largest and most dominant catholic ethnic group; Poles were nevertheless also attacked. In 1887, the Scranton Republican endorsed the immigration platform of the aPa, describing it as “practical and effective reform” because it would “exclude from our shores foreigners who do not possess the prerequisites of good citizenship,” defined in terms of anglo-saxon Protestantism.5 In the light of this anti-catholicism, the Irish made concerted outreach efforts toward Poles in the name of a united catholic front. In august 1888, the Diocesan Record, the Irish-owned, semiofficial weekly of the scranton diocese, vigorously criticized Terence Powderly, Knights of labor leader and former scranton mayor, for his restrictionist views of the immigration of Poles and other eastern european immigrants. even more significant was Irish participation at the Polish celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the may Third constitution in Poles and the Catholic Church l 103 1891. at the gathering, Thomas hoban, the brother of the future bishop of scranton, spoke and called Poles “lovers of liberty...