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American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church
"A cracking good story with a wonderful cast of rogues, ruffians and some remarkably holy and sensible people." --Los Angeles Times Book Review
Before the potato famine ravaged Ireland in the 1840s, the Roman Catholic Church was barely a thread in the American cloth. Twenty years later, New York City was home to more Irish Catholics than Dublin. Today, the United States boasts some sixty million members of the Catholic Church, which has become one of this country's most influential cultural forces.
In American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church, Charles R. Morris recounts the rich story of the rise of the Catholic Church in America, bringing to life the personalities that transformed an urban Irish subculture into a dominant presence nationwide. Here are the stories of rogues and ruffians, heroes and martyrs--from Dorothy Day, a convert from Greenwich Village Marxism who opened shelters for thousands, to Cardinal William O'Connell, who ran the Church in Boston from a Renaissance palazzo, complete with golf course. Morris also reveals the Church's continuing struggle to come to terms with secular, pluralist America and the theological, sexual, authority, and gender issues that keep tearing it apart. As comprehensive as it is provocative, American Catholic is a tour de force, a fascinating cultural history that will engage and inform both Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
"The best one-volume history of the last hundred years of American Catholicism that it has ever been my pleasure to read. What's appealing in this remarkable book is its delicate sense of balance and its soundly grounded judgments." --Andrew Greeley
Before the potato famine ravaged Ireland in the 1840s, the Roman Catholic Church was barely a thread in the American cloth. Twenty years later, New York City was home to more Irish Catholics than Dublin. Today, the United States boasts some sixty million members of the Catholic Church, which has become one of this country's most influential cultural forces.
In American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church, Charles R. Morris recounts the rich story of the rise of the Catholic Church in America, bringing to life the personalities that transformed an urban Irish subculture into a dominant presence nationwide. Here are the stories of rogues and ruffians, heroes and martyrs--from Dorothy Day, a convert from Greenwich Village Marxism who opened shelters for thousands, to Cardinal William O'Connell, who ran the Church in Boston from a Renaissance palazzo, complete with golf course. Morris also reveals the Church's continuing struggle to come to terms with secular, pluralist America and the theological, sexual, authority, and gender issues that keep tearing it apart. As comprehensive as it is provocative, American Catholic is a tour de force, a fascinating cultural history that will engage and inform both Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
"The best one-volume history of the last hundred years of American Catholicism that it has ever been my pleasure to read. What's appealing in this remarkable book is its delicate sense of balance and its soundly grounded judgments." --Andrew Greeley
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
19 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
About the author
Charles R. Morris
49 books49 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Charles R. Morris
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Charles R. Morris
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 9, 2010
I enjoyed this book. This was no oh-the-church-is-so-great whitewash. A fair and balanced analysis of the history of the Catholic church is the US, warts and all, written by someone with an overall positive view of the institution. The sex abuse scandal is discussed, but this book was published in 1997, before the big wave broke over the past decade. I was surprised to learn that I am in the majority not the minority with the doubts (to put it mildly) I have with several of the church's teachings. The title of the book is misleading, the book is not focused on "saints and sinners," but rather on some of the many people involved in building the American church. Some editor probably thought the title would sell the book better.
May 19, 2008
This book was all the rage when I read it a few years ago. It was an exhaustive study of the Catholic Church in the US, including ideas about the future of the American Catholic Church. It was written before 2002, so the scandal that is currently plaguing the Church isn't touched upon. For anyone interested in learning about the development of the Catholic Church in America, though, this is the book to read.
September 14, 2007
Looking for personal insight, I was dismayed to discover that my own Catholic experience (at St. Rose parish, in East Hartford, CT) didn't seem to dovetail with this absorbing account at all! Where were the Asian-Americans? The French Canadian immigrants? The blue-collar Connecticut and Nebraska Catholic fuck-ups? Still, very well-researched.
March 28, 2013
I read this book many years ago and was extremely impressed. I was not raised Catholic, but this history of the church in America kept me on the edge of my seat. This book is also about immigration, violence and the growth of America's cities. Always relevant!
February 17, 2009
As a Catholic who often struggles with "official" positions on issues of personal morality and interspecies ethics, I found Morris' historical account of the American Catholic Church to be comforting. Far from the monolithic institution sometimes portrayed in films and tv, the Church, according to Morris, is comprised of fairly autonomous clergy who tailor their dioceases and parishes to the needs of the people.
My only gripe about the book is that *I* read it ten years too late. I found myself wondering what Morris would think about what appears to be the increasingly heavy hand of Rome in the affairs of the American Church and what he would say about the rise of the man he calls "Father Ratzinger" or "Cardinal Ratzinger," whom we now know as Pope Benedict XVI.
My only gripe about the book is that *I* read it ten years too late. I found myself wondering what Morris would think about what appears to be the increasingly heavy hand of Rome in the affairs of the American Church and what he would say about the rise of the man he calls "Father Ratzinger" or "Cardinal Ratzinger," whom we now know as Pope Benedict XVI.
May 13, 2023
got at wfb book sale
first half is relatively engaging history of preconciliar catholicism in america. really more just irish american catholicism though. plus two stars for the irish bias, and plus one star for ignoring the italians
second half covers v2 through ‘97 or whenever and shifts into first person slightly preachy long-form journalism with bland takes that are even blander now. minus one star
someone please recommend me a book that has nothing to do w religion
first half is relatively engaging history of preconciliar catholicism in america. really more just irish american catholicism though. plus two stars for the irish bias, and plus one star for ignoring the italians
second half covers v2 through ‘97 or whenever and shifts into first person slightly preachy long-form journalism with bland takes that are even blander now. minus one star
someone please recommend me a book that has nothing to do w religion
December 4, 2007
As a recent convert to Catholicism, I wanted to learn about the Church's experience in America. This book fit the bill. The interplay between ethnic groups was particularly interesting, and gives me a lot of insight on present-day Chicago and New York.
January 3, 2008
i read the hardcover edition
June 3, 2024
This narrative starts early in the 1800s. The Irish potato famine chases millions of Irish to North America. The Irish were nominally Catholic which the Americans feared. They feared not only their religion but their ethnicity. They were an unknown quantity and so were considered second class citizens. Despite being persecuted, the Irish stuck together and slowly worked their way into the Democratic Party machine in New York. Later, more immigrants came from Germany, Poland, Italy, and other European states. Each wave suffered its own persecution well into the twentieth century. Catholics developed their own culture within the United States and showed they were not the great threat other Americans were fearful of. They reached a peak in the 1930s through the 1950s. Then they became more assimilated in American secular culture and the Vatican Council II caused more upheaval within Catholicism between conservatives and liberals.
This is a good book to get informed about Catholics in America and how they affected the religion worldwide. There are good stories of the major figures and how they had human foibles that had good and bad effects. In the later half of the twentieth century, events such as sexual scandals and AIDS impacted how Catholics are seen and the issues that came to the forefront for Catholics and their relationship with secular Americans. The third part of the book gets into some detail of these and other issues that were present in the middle of the 1990s, which is when this book was written. It is interesting to see how they compare with the middle of the 2020s. This book is written from a Catholic view so it helps if the reader knows a good amount about the religion.
This is a good book to get informed about Catholics in America and how they affected the religion worldwide. There are good stories of the major figures and how they had human foibles that had good and bad effects. In the later half of the twentieth century, events such as sexual scandals and AIDS impacted how Catholics are seen and the issues that came to the forefront for Catholics and their relationship with secular Americans. The third part of the book gets into some detail of these and other issues that were present in the middle of the 1990s, which is when this book was written. It is interesting to see how they compare with the middle of the 2020s. This book is written from a Catholic view so it helps if the reader knows a good amount about the religion.
June 14, 2019
Saints and sinners built America’s most powerful church. The success of Catholicism in the United States is remarkable because the fluidity, individualism, and experimental style of the American character oppose the dogma, authority, hierarchy, and medievalism of historic Catholicism. American prelates made compromises with democracy that allowed the Church to flourish on free soil.
Catholicism is as much a culture as a religion. In its glory days (1940's and 50's), Catholicism was a state within the American state, and Catholics spent their entire lives nestled within the cozy cocoon of Catholic institutions. Morris recounts the rise and triumph of that culture and how it floundered when forced to make its way solely as a religion without cultural supports. Rather than blaming Vatican II for the today’s problems, Morris blames the downturn on modern sociological trends that dispersed the Catholic village.
Morris profiles colorful bishops like John Hughes, New York Archbishop (1837-1864), who rejected the accommodation of his predecessors and forged a powerful Church using patronage, centralization, and building (e.g, St. Patrick’s Cathedral). Hughes was an unapologetic Catholic who threatened to turn New York City “into a second Moscow” if Protestant mobs continued to attack Catholics. We also meet, Cardinal William O’Connell, Archbishop of Boston (1907-1944), a “Prince of the Church” who “epitomized the danger of ecclesiastical power untethered by religion.” O’Connell lived like a “Gilded Age buccaneer” and looked like a “Soviet Premier.” “His mendacity was as consistent in small matters as in big.” No prelate pursued separation more aggressively than Philadelphia’s Cardinal Dennis Dougherty, “God’s Bricklayer” who carried himself like a military commander and exercised his genius for real estate.
But the rise and transformation of American Catholicism is due mainly to the Irish diaspora after the potato famine. The Irish (with their skill for organization, bureaucracy, and politics) quickly dominated Church leadership positions. Having suffered oppression, Irish clergy tended to be more militant, rigorist, obedient, and fatalistic. After dominating the Church, the Irish proceeded to dominate urban political machines. When the “The Whore of Babylon learned how to vote,” she handily outmaneuvered her Protestant opponents within the large cities.
Although Catholics had great success at the urban level, they were shocked by the ugly treatment of 1928 Presidential candidate Al Smith, whom Middle American voters rejected solely (Catholics believe) because he was an urban Catholic. Catholics were also aggrieved by state educational bureaucracies that placed burdensome regulations on Catholic schools.
These challenges at the state and national level reinforced separatist impulse on Catholics, who withdrew from secular institutions to build parallel Catholic organizations: schools; universities; newspapers; radios; magazines; books; clubs and professional guilds. Morris argues that this aggressive “self-ghettoizing” laid the foundation for the triumphal era, and he emphasizes that, despite their separatism, Catholics were hyper-patriotic and nationalistic Americans.
Midcentury movies gave priests spectacularly good publicity (think Fathers O’Malley and Flanagan), and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s television show had 30 million weekly viewers. The election of President John F. Kennedy, thought to be Church’s great triumph, was the beginning of the end of an era of Catholic triumphalism. “The old separatist, ethnic wellsprings were running dry.” As the sixties progressed, the Church witnessed a steep decline in vocations and lower attendance at mass due to sociological forces unrelated to spirituality. Morris argues that, despite this decline, the grassroots Church is now more vibrant, participative, and multiethnic than it ever was in its glory days.
“American Catholic” was an excellent and readable, short history of the church-- up to the time of its publication (1998); however, the massive dimensions of the sex-abuse scandal were unknown to Morris, and readers interested in the criminal and moral failure by American bishops and their Vatican overlords will have to find other sources.
Catholicism is not monolithic. It is a “big tent” that allows room for an enormous variety of religious expressions and doctrinal positions. Catholic splits over doctrine are rare. No other religion maintains “a blend of rarefied intellectualism and cultic devotional practices enriched by a panoply of concrete images and symbols.” The Church has always found multiplicity within unity, even though the differences between Progressives and Traditionalists tend to be caricatured by media, which promotes extreme voices.
According to Morris, the risk of the liberal vision is that Catholicism will go the way of mainstream Protestantism or splinter off into thousands of sects as the fundamentalists do. The risk of the conservative vision is that the Church will dwindle to narrow sect of true believers, too small to sustain the world symbolism of the Church. The Church has been here before. In fact, this challenge is the same faced by 19th Century American bishops: How to create a Church that is both American and Catholic, drawing from the best of both. The initial solution was the creation of Catholic subculture and ministate, but now that the subculture has broken down, the Church is searching for a new accommodation with American modernity.
Catholicism is as much a culture as a religion. In its glory days (1940's and 50's), Catholicism was a state within the American state, and Catholics spent their entire lives nestled within the cozy cocoon of Catholic institutions. Morris recounts the rise and triumph of that culture and how it floundered when forced to make its way solely as a religion without cultural supports. Rather than blaming Vatican II for the today’s problems, Morris blames the downturn on modern sociological trends that dispersed the Catholic village.
Morris profiles colorful bishops like John Hughes, New York Archbishop (1837-1864), who rejected the accommodation of his predecessors and forged a powerful Church using patronage, centralization, and building (e.g, St. Patrick’s Cathedral). Hughes was an unapologetic Catholic who threatened to turn New York City “into a second Moscow” if Protestant mobs continued to attack Catholics. We also meet, Cardinal William O’Connell, Archbishop of Boston (1907-1944), a “Prince of the Church” who “epitomized the danger of ecclesiastical power untethered by religion.” O’Connell lived like a “Gilded Age buccaneer” and looked like a “Soviet Premier.” “His mendacity was as consistent in small matters as in big.” No prelate pursued separation more aggressively than Philadelphia’s Cardinal Dennis Dougherty, “God’s Bricklayer” who carried himself like a military commander and exercised his genius for real estate.
But the rise and transformation of American Catholicism is due mainly to the Irish diaspora after the potato famine. The Irish (with their skill for organization, bureaucracy, and politics) quickly dominated Church leadership positions. Having suffered oppression, Irish clergy tended to be more militant, rigorist, obedient, and fatalistic. After dominating the Church, the Irish proceeded to dominate urban political machines. When the “The Whore of Babylon learned how to vote,” she handily outmaneuvered her Protestant opponents within the large cities.
Although Catholics had great success at the urban level, they were shocked by the ugly treatment of 1928 Presidential candidate Al Smith, whom Middle American voters rejected solely (Catholics believe) because he was an urban Catholic. Catholics were also aggrieved by state educational bureaucracies that placed burdensome regulations on Catholic schools.
These challenges at the state and national level reinforced separatist impulse on Catholics, who withdrew from secular institutions to build parallel Catholic organizations: schools; universities; newspapers; radios; magazines; books; clubs and professional guilds. Morris argues that this aggressive “self-ghettoizing” laid the foundation for the triumphal era, and he emphasizes that, despite their separatism, Catholics were hyper-patriotic and nationalistic Americans.
Midcentury movies gave priests spectacularly good publicity (think Fathers O’Malley and Flanagan), and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s television show had 30 million weekly viewers. The election of President John F. Kennedy, thought to be Church’s great triumph, was the beginning of the end of an era of Catholic triumphalism. “The old separatist, ethnic wellsprings were running dry.” As the sixties progressed, the Church witnessed a steep decline in vocations and lower attendance at mass due to sociological forces unrelated to spirituality. Morris argues that, despite this decline, the grassroots Church is now more vibrant, participative, and multiethnic than it ever was in its glory days.
“American Catholic” was an excellent and readable, short history of the church-- up to the time of its publication (1998); however, the massive dimensions of the sex-abuse scandal were unknown to Morris, and readers interested in the criminal and moral failure by American bishops and their Vatican overlords will have to find other sources.
Catholicism is not monolithic. It is a “big tent” that allows room for an enormous variety of religious expressions and doctrinal positions. Catholic splits over doctrine are rare. No other religion maintains “a blend of rarefied intellectualism and cultic devotional practices enriched by a panoply of concrete images and symbols.” The Church has always found multiplicity within unity, even though the differences between Progressives and Traditionalists tend to be caricatured by media, which promotes extreme voices.
According to Morris, the risk of the liberal vision is that Catholicism will go the way of mainstream Protestantism or splinter off into thousands of sects as the fundamentalists do. The risk of the conservative vision is that the Church will dwindle to narrow sect of true believers, too small to sustain the world symbolism of the Church. The Church has been here before. In fact, this challenge is the same faced by 19th Century American bishops: How to create a Church that is both American and Catholic, drawing from the best of both. The initial solution was the creation of Catholic subculture and ministate, but now that the subculture has broken down, the Church is searching for a new accommodation with American modernity.
June 3, 2025
I enjoyed most of this book. it was a really interesting historical perspective on the Catholic Church in America, though the last third of the current state of the church is dated. I got lost in certain passages so that's why it's a lower rating
December 20, 2025
pretty dense but an intriguing read!
January 14, 2022
The chief advantage a Catholic gains from reading this book is the example of very human leadership shenanigans by bishops and pastors. We cannot expect divine behavior from ordinary mortals, but the historical examples should lead to more transparency in the present.
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Regarding page 386 and the claims of the straight-laced diocese of Lincoln, I urge readers to check surnames against the lists of accused on bishop-accountability.org. At least one big surprise lurks there. Bishop Bruskewitz did not approve the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children. Charles Morris probably learned of the multiple allegations long after he published "American Catholic" in 1997.
---
Regarding page 386 and the claims of the straight-laced diocese of Lincoln, I urge readers to check surnames against the lists of accused on bishop-accountability.org. At least one big surprise lurks there. Bishop Bruskewitz did not approve the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children. Charles Morris probably learned of the multiple allegations long after he published "American Catholic" in 1997.
Read
July 13, 2023Not a fast read but fair and illuminating.
December 19, 2015
This book is about so much more than the Catholic Church in America. It details divisions in the Church and the ebb and flow of life within the Church, and then places that all in the context of the constantly changing political and economic landscape of the United States of America. it is a macro-view of these two bodies and their changing interaction.
It demonstrates how unconventional each is in the world. Catholics were (and in many places, still are) heavily discriminated against. The tale is fascinating of how it thrived in spite of the obstacles thrown in its path. As a body, Catholics have grown into a highly eclectic group, filling all strata of life in America. If they were to act cohesively, they would control and dominate the politics of this country. That they do not is actually a testament to the similarity of the political system in the United States, and the respect of the Church for the diversity of its membership.
The word "catholic" of course means "universal." To respect the world which God made requires a healthy appreciation of the vast diversity within mankind. This is the great similarity between the country and the religion discussed in this book. Both allow for much individualism, while at the same time holding fast to core beliefs. It is the solidity of the beliefs of the Catholic Church which has enabled it to survive for two millennia and to expand its reach into far reaches of the globe. The lure of America is similar and is the reason why peoples travel to it from far reaches of the globe.
The difference between the two, however, is highly important. The foundation of the Church - Jesus Christ and the salvation He brought to the wold - never changes. Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He said that He came to testify to the Truth. The Truth does not change, even in the face of dissent. (You have perhaps seen the tee shirt "I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong") America, however, shifts according to the majority rule. The founders of this country (and many legal decisions in between) have ingeniously protected the minority status, but it is still subject to gross error by the manipulation of its foundations.
This book is now two decades old. These have been turbulent decades. It would be interesting to see an updating of the information in this book to review those decades. It also points out the sad difference between true Catholics and cultural catholics. An interesting work that it is well worth reading.
It demonstrates how unconventional each is in the world. Catholics were (and in many places, still are) heavily discriminated against. The tale is fascinating of how it thrived in spite of the obstacles thrown in its path. As a body, Catholics have grown into a highly eclectic group, filling all strata of life in America. If they were to act cohesively, they would control and dominate the politics of this country. That they do not is actually a testament to the similarity of the political system in the United States, and the respect of the Church for the diversity of its membership.
The word "catholic" of course means "universal." To respect the world which God made requires a healthy appreciation of the vast diversity within mankind. This is the great similarity between the country and the religion discussed in this book. Both allow for much individualism, while at the same time holding fast to core beliefs. It is the solidity of the beliefs of the Catholic Church which has enabled it to survive for two millennia and to expand its reach into far reaches of the globe. The lure of America is similar and is the reason why peoples travel to it from far reaches of the globe.
The difference between the two, however, is highly important. The foundation of the Church - Jesus Christ and the salvation He brought to the wold - never changes. Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He said that He came to testify to the Truth. The Truth does not change, even in the face of dissent. (You have perhaps seen the tee shirt "I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong") America, however, shifts according to the majority rule. The founders of this country (and many legal decisions in between) have ingeniously protected the minority status, but it is still subject to gross error by the manipulation of its foundations.
This book is now two decades old. These have been turbulent decades. It would be interesting to see an updating of the information in this book to review those decades. It also points out the sad difference between true Catholics and cultural catholics. An interesting work that it is well worth reading.
September 18, 2014
Fascinating account of the history of the Catholic Church in the U. S. - and the influence of Irish clergy on its development.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews