Frontiers of Faith: Bringing Catholicism to the West in the Early Republic

1. The View to the West

chapter 1 the View to the West Moving away from the east coast to find opportunity, some catholics settled in or immediately across the Appalachians in the southwest part of Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. others traveled down the ohio River to Kentucky, where new lands were opening up in the 1780s. Few settled in between, preferring the company of their fellow religionists at either the eastern or the western end of the ohio River valley. Although they tended to group together, catholics in the trans-Appalachian frontier found themselves in the midst of Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, nonbelievers, and others. Careful Beginnings the climate of public opinion during the 1780s was uncertain, requiring Father John carroll, superior of the American missions, to keep an eye on what he called the Protestants’ “extreme circumspection ” toward catholicism in America. he would continue to do so throughout his episcopacy. Assessing catholic/non-catholic relations at the time he assumed command of the church in 1784, carroll’s conclusion was somewhat sobering: “to dissipate these prejudices will take time.” the clergy, he believed, should be attentive to not giving “pretexts to the enemies of Religion to deprive us of our actual rights.” carroll believed catholics should treat the Protestants’ “circumspection” by proceeding cautiously, or else face a legal and political backlash. Given their minority position, American catholics also were in danger of being overrun. During his first 8 the View to the West 9 sermon as bishop (December 12, 1790), carroll outlined his own obligations as prelate in this regard, emphasizing his role in preserving the faith “untainted amidst the contagion of error surrounding” catholics “on all sides,” and amid the “fatal and prevailing indifference ” toward the dissimilarities among religions. nevertheless, carroll remained assured about sectarian relations. in the same inaugural sermon the new bishop pledged to help catholics “preserve in their hearts a warm charity and forbearance toward every other denomination of christians.”1 Still, by the mid-1790s, Bishop carroll perceived a broader spectrum within which the catholic church could operate with regard to non-catholic opinion. this range extended from a cautious sensitivity to not offend on the one hand, to a commitment of directly engaging Protestants and other non-catholics on the other. in 1793 carroll wrote to cardinal leonardo Antonelli, prefect of the congregation for the Propaganda of the Faith, seeking permission to change the words in the oath used when consecrating new bishops in the United States. carroll’s duties had burgeoned in the Baltimore diocese, and he wanted to share the burden by appointing lawrence Graesl or leonard neale to be his coadjutator (a co-bishop who would become his successor). Specifically, he wanted to discard any reference in the text of the bishop’s oath to the word “heretics, etc.” otherwise, carroll thought, “the heterodox” noncatholics would probably use it “to arouse ill will towards our religion ,” since they tended to “decry” it “as so opposed to the religious liberty to which we catholics in the United States are so indebted.” American Protestants, he asserted, should not be given any reason to think that catholics were a threat. Being outspoken about a new bishop’s responsibility to counter heresy would be counterproductive in America. So carroll asked that the reference to heretics be dropped as it had been in consecration oaths in other countries, such as ireland. otherwise, “without a doubt,” explained carroll, “non-catholics in great numbers will witness the ceremony of episcopal consecration; they will weigh everything, and they are apt to interpret unfavorably.” As one historian has put it, “carroll and his co-religionists understood that the very survival and growth of the catholic church in the United States depended upon its ability to accept and become a part of the American way of life.”2 carroll realized blending in was essential. 10 Frontiers of Faith Finding the optimal point between avoiding unnecessary conflict and maintaining open channels of contact with non-catholics would be difficult, however. carroll and his mainly European clergy had no models to follow in a post-revolutionary nation trying to build itself anew in contradistinction to Europe. in 1795 carroll wrote to the new prefect of the congregation for the Propaganda of the Faith thanking him for the congregation’s willingness to be flexible and for approving efforts to deal with the special conditions in America. “the peculiar form” of the U.S. government, “the frequent contacts of...