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  • "Send Sisters, Send Polish Sisters"Americanizing Catholic Immigrant Children in the Early Twentieth Century
  • Sarah E. Miller (bio)

In the 1920s, Father John Hewelt of Dearborn, Michigan, complimented Mother Adelaide Sandusky and the Sisters of St. Francis, Sylvania, Ohio, in their efforts to teach the students of their parish schools the English language. He wrote, "I am deeply impressed with the American spirit of your reverend sisters. All spoke the English Language perfectly. Of course we love our Polish, but we are educating American children to make their bread in America."1

The sisters, like many other contemporary orders, understood the importance of preparing immigrant children for a successful future in the United States. The Polish background of many of the Sisters of St. Francis, Sylvania, initially drew them to their mission of education in the Polish parish of St. Hedwig in Toledo, Ohio, and also allowed them to empathize with students as they eased them into American society through their teaching.

A growth in immigration during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries developed two opposing views pertaining to immigrant Catholic parishes. The immigrant communities strove to retain their old-world customs, language, and religion while the established society hoped to "Americanize" these immigrants into mainstream culture. Catholic immigrants throughout the United States formed parish schools to retain their native culture and to buffer the Americanization process. However, public pressure caused even the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to call for a reduction of nationalism [End Page 46] in the parish and for English to be the language of these schools during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

Many religious orders had learned that survival in America meant speaking English and conforming to American norms in public situations. Although immigrant parish neighborhoods preferred to retain old-world culture, the immigrant teaching-sister facilitated the transition of children into American culture through the parish school without uprooting them from their national culture. The sisters taught English, civics, and customs but did not take away or ignore the ethnic customs important to the community. Parish schools throughout the United States sought out first- and second-generation immigrants to be teachers because of their old-world connections. At St. Hedwig of Toledo, the sisters increased the children's probability of success in American society while maintaining many of the old-world traditions of the Polish neighborhood.

The teaching-sisters of the early twentieth century had developed from a long tradition of Catholic service dating from the Middle Ages. Catholic nuns pledged vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience and lived among their sisters and essentially governed themselves. The ability of these women to operate in society in this way was unique. They were not confined to traditional roles given to females; the church allowed women-religious to work outside the home and to have administrative responsibilities, which created a level of respect from others despite their sex. The Nineteenth Ecumenical Council at Trent, which met between 1545 and 1563, mandated that women-religious be confined to "strict enclosure," meaning they must stay cloistered. In defiance of this Council, new communities of noncloistered nuns emerged throughout Europe and became involved in teaching, nursing, and charitable work. These new communities called many women into the Catholic sisterhood and allowed them to escape the restrictive roles within the family and to work actively outside the home in service to others. Within the convent, women could develop and employ all of their talents and abilities. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many immigrant women joined religious orders based in America to serve in the United States.2

The increase in the number of European immigrants amplified the need for Catholic services for a population that did not speak English. The Catholic Dioceses in America requested different religious orders to come to the United States and minister to the growing immigrant population. Soon these religious colonies of orders based in Europe actually outnumbered the orders already in existence. These immigrant orders realized the need to Americanize to accomplish their mission goals, especially teaching and social services.3

Various immigrant women-religious across the United States saw the need to communicate in English to fit into American...

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