Devout Catholics, Devoted Confederates: The Evolution of Southern Catholic Bishops from Reluctant Secessionists to Ardent Confederates

There remains, to the present day, a paucity of literature concerning Southern Catholics and, especially, Catholics and the Civil War. This essay treats the above in tandem. The focus is on bishops and their responses to secession and the first year of the War. Questions of allegiance are central. How did the bishops balance allegiance to the faith with secular/political issues? Could bishops—and by extension all Southern Catholics—be both devout Catholics and devoted Confederates? In addressing these questions, this essay presents the "Confederatization thesis," providing a corrective to false assumptions concerning a lack of Catholic political and social activity in the American South, in general, and during the Civil War in particular.