The Catholic Studies Reader

13. Asian American Catholic Experience and Catholic Studies

13 Asian American Catholic Experience and Catholic Studies linh hoang, o.f.m. A standard narrative of American religious history has relied on the Puritan sense of a common purpose. John Winthrop’s famous ‘‘City on a Hill’’ speech to the Pilgrims is emblematic of this. This narrative of election and purpose has shaped the way other religions have been measured. But in doing so it has neglected the voice of religious dissenters and the significance of racial diversity within the ranks of American Christians. Likewise, social science and historical studies of immigrants and refugees tend to gloss over religious affiliation and focus mainly on adaptation or assimilation processes into American culture. Both religious history and immigration studies tend to compartmentalize the full range of experience of immigrants and refugees to the neglect of the importance of religion in their transition to American life. The eminent scholar of American Catholicism Jay P. Dolan observes that the recent turn in interest to immigration in American religious history has been attributed more to attention paid to social history and other social developments rather than an explicit attention to the religious impact on immigration.1 Even with this promising turn, there is still rather little attention paid to the study of immigration in American religious history. In discussing the social mobility and acceptance of American Catholics, Sydney Ahlstrom states that individual Catholics adapted better to America but as a ‘‘group had been greatly retarded by a constant incoming tide of immigration which actually reached its peak in the early twentieth century.’’2 He adds that by the end of War World II, American Catholics were no longer seen as an ‘‘immigrant faith.’’3 Catholic immigrants blended into the American landscape and were wholeheartedly embraced as ‘‘normal’’ Americans. This complex process of immigration is seen as only a process of a one-sided assimilation to become Americans. The oversight and even antipathy toward the asian american experience and catholic studies 283 immigration needs to be rectified, especially since immigrants and refugees continue to knock at the doors of America’s borders, bringing with them a host of religious expressions and practices that are not easily assimilated. The reality of American history is that immigrants and refugees have contributed not only to the identity of American religions, but also, and especially, to American Catholicism. From the beginning of the foundation of America, down to our own time, the American Catholic Church, first established by English, Irish, German, and Italian immigrants , has been continually reshaped by newcomers down to the most recent arrivals of Vietnamese, Indonesians, and Filipinos. The immigrant presence in the Church, however, has involved many enduring challenges. These challenges include learning to adapt and live within the dominant culture, which at times has required excluding other immigrant groups or even denying one’s own cultural background. As these enduring challenges resurface now among Asian immigrants, it is not only a reminder of the immigrant history of religious America but also reemphasizes the continual need of the American Catholic Church to welcome the newcomers. This essay will describe the present situation of Asian American Catholics in reference to the complicated history of Asians in America, focusing upon the distinctive features of their immigrant experience within the larger Catholic story. First, a description of the presence of Asian Americans within the larger U.S. population will be given. This sets the scene for understanding the specific issues and challenges that will be presented. Connected to this is a brief introduction to the racial factor in Asian American experience, beginning with a discussion of the racially charged label ‘‘Asian American.’’ This label perpetuates ‘‘Asians’’ as racially ‘‘other’’ and as ethnically homogenous despite their cultural diversity. Second, an examination of how Asian Americans are considered generally in American religious histories reveals a relative neglect of their experiences. Only recently have these histories included the Asian American religious communities but then only by paying attention mainly to ‘‘Asian religions’’ in a way that effectively intensifies the invisibility of the Asian American Christian expression. Third, a diagnosis of generational identity issues will show how second and subsequent generations oscillate between single ethnic and pan-Asian 284 linh hoang, o.f.m. identities—something that did not happen with European immigrants. Fourth, there will be a discussion of the way different Asian ethnic groups have responded to the American Catholic Church. The focus...