An Illustrated Framework for the History of Catholic Immigrant Aid Societies

Exodus 23:9 commands “You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt” (NASB). In response, Catholics have organized to assist migrants with issues they face in transit and resettlement. Over the years, these agencies have amassed records that document the forces shaping migration and their effect on human beings. An overview of three of the collections accessible to scholars at the Center for Migration Studies [CMS] in New York City outlines the development of Catholic immigrant aid agencies and identifies topics that might reward study.

Sending Country-Based Migrant Aid

The first Catholics to concern themselves with issues facing migrants were those in places with extensive emigration. In 1881 Charlotte Grace O’Brien, daughter of Irish patriot William Smith O’Brien, became concerned about the exploitation of Irish immigrant women. As customers of travel services, they were vulnerable to being overcharged, underserved, or defrauded, as laborers they could be underpaid and overworked, and in both situations they faced “moral dangers,” which was how nineteenth-century people described sexual harassment, rape, and prostitution.¹ At O’Brien’s urging, the Archdiocese of New York established a parish, Our Lady of the Rosary, with a church at 7–8 State Street, across from the harbor. Its pastor directed the Mission of the Holy Rosary, in which capacity he met Irish women steerage passengers as they landed, first at Castle Garden and, after 1892, on Ellis Island. He helped those with American relatives contact and travel to them, and provided space for employers of domestic servants to interview candidates, which gave him an opportunity to determine if the employment offered was legitimate and fair.²

German Catholics had been concerned about their co-religionists and compatriots earlier, and extended their work to New York City a few years later. In 1871 German merchant, parliamentarian and devout Catholic Peter Paul Cahensly helped found the Saint Raphael Society for the Protection of German Catholic Emigrants, naming it for the patron saint of travelers. Starting with an office in Hamburg, the Saint Raphael Society honored the pope at the time, Leo XIII, by opening Leo House, a hospice in New York City, in 1889, staffing it with German-speaking archdiocesan priests and Sisters of Saint Agnes from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.³

One admirer of Cahensly’s work was John Baptist Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza in northwest Italy. In 1887 he founded a congregation of male religious, now known as the Scalabrini Fathers, to minister to migrants. Scalabrini and a lay associate, Giovanni Battista Volpe-Landi, organized the Saint Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants. In 1892, Scalabrini sent Father Pietro Bandini to New York City to open a branch of the Saint Raphael Society. Founded at 113 Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, in 1901 the Italian Saint Raphael Society moved to 8–10 Charlton Street, where in addition to the services of a priest and an agent on Ellis Island, it offered a hospice staffed by Sisters of Charity Pallottine, the present day Pallottine Sisters of the Catholic Apostolate.

Center for Migration Studies has the papers of the Italian Saint Raphael Society. The annual reports make real the phrase about “caring for immigrants.” Anecdotes highlight individual cases, such as that of the bride who lost her husband aboard the Titanic.⁴ Statistics indicate a more common story. The Saint Raphael Society annually saw more females than males and more adults than children, meaning the typical aid recipient was a woman traveling alone, usually to meet a husband or fiancé. The Saint Raphael Society helped women contact their menfolk, guided affianced couples through New York State marriage paperwork, and provided a priest, chapel, and a community of nuns to witness the weddings.⁵

The stories of Holy Rosary, Leo House, and the Italian Saint Raphael Society suggest one reason why immigrant aid lagged behind other Catholic charities. Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan of New York supported immigrant aid, but his ideas on financing consisted of his personal...