Undoing the Knots: Five Generations of American Catholic Anti-blackness

by Maureen O'Connell

Maureen O'Connell was raised by devoutly Catholic parents with a clear moral and civic guiding those to whom much is given, much is expected. Descended from five generations of Irish Catholic Philadelphians, for most of her life, she thought that to be holy she needed to be good and give back. O'Connell became a theologian steeped in social ethics, engaged in critical race theory, and trained in the fundamentals of anti-racism. And yet, still she found herself failing to see how her well-meaning actions affected the Black members of her congregations and Black members of her university community. It seemed that whenever she tried to undo the knots of racism, she only ended up getting more tangled up in them. Excavating her Irish Catholic family’s entanglements with race and racism from the time they immigrated to America to the present, O'Connell traces, by implication, how the larger Irish Catholic population became white and why, despite the tenets of their faith, so many white Catholics have lukewarm commitments to racial justice. Undoing the Knots weaves together narrative history, theology, and critical race theory in an attempt to begin undoing these to move away from doing good and giving back to dismantling the white Catholic identity and the economic and social structures it has erected and maintained.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, American History, Catholic, Politics, Education, Theology

Audio CD

Published December 14, 2021

Reviews

[Emma Di Pace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having taken classes with O’Connell at La Salle while she was working on this project, I enjoyed getting to read the “final product” that we had been hearing bits and pieces about as it wove into our classes. She so beautifully weaves her own story with the hard truths of the decisions made by her family, institutions, churches, and herself that further propagate anti-blackness. I found especially compelling the section on Catholic Higher Ed as I got to learn a little bit more about La Salle. The epilogue really tied the book together as O’Connell shares the five knots she gets caught up in. Yay Dr. O’C!

[Drick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maureen O'Connell has written a powerful analysis of the role of anti-Blackness in the formation and growth of Roman Catholicism in Philadelphia through the telling of five generations of her family history. The book goes through in-depth study of church newsletters, county deed documents, primary historical sources and an in-depth study of her family's immigration from Ireland into Philadelphia. She expertly weaves together four subplots in this story: (1) the immigration, assimilation and movement up the socio-economic ladder of her Irish ancestors from the early 1800s to the present; (2) the strategic growth of the Roman Catholic church through strategic real estate purchases and a committed effort to keep white and Black Catholics in separate racially defined parishes; (3) Her ancestors knowing and unconscious participation in this effort at strategic structural racism and how it impacted their ideas and feelings about Blacks; (4) Scholarly work on the various ways to this day structural racism manifests itself in American life in housing, economics, education, employment and religion.

While O'Connell is a historical and theological scholar, she also relates her own struggles with internalized racial superiority both in her family of origin, in herself and in her interaction with students and other individuals of color. Like Edward Ball's Slaves in My Family, Undoing the Knot, displays in vivid detail how past acts of racism and enslavement continue to live on in the lives of individuals both white and Black, and cannot just be relegated to historical events that have no contemporary relevance. O'Connell in her own examples and her overarching story shows how much undoing racism is an ongoing life battle both individually and corporately.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book prompts many thoughts about my own role in ongoing dialogue and action to address the stage of racism in Catholicism. It is difficult to grapple with because the structures and history described parallel directly to my own, right down to the Irish heritage and that same shared heritage of the very white parish I belong to. The same parish I spend a lot of my time trying to make better and more inclusive just of the people that are there already, one that has a large focus on “giving back” and possibly perpetuating the relationship of only seeing people of other ravens as “those in need.” I’m not sure the next step for me personally, but to continue to learn more specifically about how my life has been shaped and what I can do to reshape communities in the future is important. This book paints an incredible, detailed, and researched picture of how things came to be in Catholicism today.

[Lynne]

DNF....there was a lot of repetition; the publisher chose quite small print (which seems to be the trend, at least in non-fiction books these days) which made it difficult to read, even with decent eyesight.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

TBH: Read parts, but not all. Incredibly important history, told from a unique perspective. I

[Marylee Raymond Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not just a personal story -- important read for every Catholic.