Catholic Immigration Research Paper

Words: 1405
Pages: 6

Catholic immigrants moved to the United States of America in the 19th century because they hoped for a better life, where they initially faced discrimination but were able to persevere and establish Catholicism as the most popular religion in the United States. I am interested in this topic because my family are Catholic immigrants who immigrated from Europe to the United States. My grandparents on my dad’s side of my family immigrated from the Azores, Portugal to Fall River, Massachusetts in the 1900’s. My great-grandparents on my mom’s side of my family immigrated from Ireland to Boston, Massachusetts in the 1930s. They sought greater economic opportunity and settled in Boston because there was already a sizable Irish-Catholic population, …show more content…
Even though the number of Catholics in the United States continued to grow throughout the 19th century and early parts of the 20th century, Catholics still faced persecution. During World War I, American Catholics established the National Catholic War Council to display their allegiance to the United States and contribute to the war efforts. Following the war, the council also supported social justice initiatives. Catholics gained more credibility during the Great Depression due to their political activism. The most notable activist group was the Catholic Worker movement, led by Dorothy Day. The Catholic Worker movement’s “goal was to make the Catholic Church the dominant social dynamic force” (Greenberg). The people who were part of the movement lived in voluntary poverty, often were involved in acts of charity, and debated many issues, especially those that involved labor. During the Great Depression, they had houses that fed and housed the poor and unemployed. Just like in World War I, many Catholics proved their loyalty to the United States during World War II. The two World Wars and the Great Depression served as examples of Catholic loyalty. The number of Catholics in the United States largely and steadily increased throughout the late 19th century and early to mid 20th century with immigrants from Europe, Latin America, and the Philippines. The change in attitude towards Catholics allowed more immigrants to want to immigrate to the United States and stay there, which in turn led to Catholicism being the most popular religion in the United States in recent