Shaping American Catholicism: Maryland and New York 1805–1915 by Robert Emmett Curran (review)

In February 2012 Pope Benedict XVI elevated the archbishops of Baltimore and New York to the College of Cardinals. As this reviewer congratulated Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the new cardinal pointed across the Paul VI Audience Hall to where Cardinal Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore was receiving well-wishers: “Make sure you go and check out Ed O’Brien,” he said. “He’s wearing Archbishop Carroll’s pectoral cross!” It was an acknowledgment of the presence in Rome of an historic American Catholic artifact. Or perhaps it was an acknowledgment by the prelate of the Big Apple and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that Baltimore still has an historic prerogative of place in American Catholicism.

That dichotomy is masterfully treated in Robert Emmett Curran’s splendid new book. Curran traces the nineteenth-century leadership shift in the American Church from the genteel, measured and essentially rural Southern focus provided by the Maryland Church to a northern, urban, and more immigrant-focused leadership embodied by the bustling metropolis of New York. Professor emeritus of history at Georgetown University, Curran has been a mainstay in the historiography of U.S. Catholicism for more than forty years. The five pages of primary sources in this book underscore the author’s reputation for solid historical research and interpretation.

This is a somewhat unusual book. First, most of the chapters, in whole or in part, have appeared in earlier versions in a variety of journals and collections. As such, each of the chapters can stand alone as a window on a very particular event in American Catholic development. Second, going back as far as 1976 in their original form, the chapters are a testament to the author’s ongoing scholarly research and revision, and give us a window on the development of Curran’s own historical perspective. Finally, although the book is a Festschrift-like collection of articles, all the entries are by the same author—in a sense, this book is “Curran, edited by Curran.” Thus the author/editor is uniquely able to show us that the chapters share more than just common authorship. Rather, he demonstrates that the very different pieces fit together and form a pattern, delineating a gradual change in focus in the American Church.

One very minor criticism is the consistent reference to the first apostolic delegate to the United States as Francisco Satolli, rather than Francesco Satolli. This work is a marvelous read for students of American Catholic religious and cultural history, as well as those particularly interested in Maryland and New York. Moreover, it would be very useful as a one-volume supplemental text for college and seminary survey courses on American Catholicism.