Catholicity in America

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, or so the song goes. Christopher Columbus, a Catholic, is credited with discovering America for Queen Isabella, a Catholic. Columbus’ ship was the Santa Maria. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, one of the signatories was Charles Carroll, a Catholic, of Carrollton, Maryland. Therefore, it has gone throughout history in the United States of America.

While many times persecuted and marginalized in society Catholics have always risen to the top and have been involved in virtually every landmark decision and movement in America since the beginning. Up until the mid 1800’s, the Roman Catholic population of the United States was a small minority of mostly English Catholics, who were often quite socially accomplished. However, when several years of devastating potato famine led millions of Irish Catholics to flee to the United, the face of American Catholicism began to change drastically and permanently. I

n the space of fifty years, the Catholic population in the United States suddenly transformed from a tight-knit group of landowning, educated aristocrats into an incredibly diverse mass of urban and rural immigrants. By the turn of the twentieth century, Catholics constituted the single largest religious denomination in the country. In the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Catholic Church nearly self-destructed in terms of maintaining itself as a self-perpetuating organization. Large numbers of priests left the priesthood, candidates for the priesthood dwindled dramatically, and seminaries began to close down. Most of the clergy who remained embraced liberal views and practices justified as being supported by distorted, misleading, or downright contradictory interpretations of the teachings or purported "spirit" of Vatican II. The minority of faithful priests who remained were often persecuted or exiled to the smallest rural parishes. Entire congregations of nuns began to shrink in size or disappear altogether.

As we have seen, beginning in the late 1960s, the Church in the United States was severely damaged over a period of two generations. Yet out of the tiny minority of faithful Catholics remaining, countertrends surfaced almost immediately in the 1970s,

Pope John Paul II was elected in 1978 and over the next three decades installed virtually all of the hundreds of current, more faithful American bishops as old guard liberals retired or died. An achingly slow and often painful reform of seminaries began. His wildly popular Theology of the Body is just one example of how the Church responded effectively to modern intellectual and cultural attacks on families. Additionally, he embraced the Internet, reformed the Code of Canon Law, and introduced the supremely successful Catechism of the Catholic Church, which continues to be an invaluable resource for faithful Catholics.

The new Catechism's impact cannot be underestimated. For the first time in decades Catholic teaching was clear, detailed, annotated, and issued from an unimpeachable source. It became more problematic for liberal pastors and educators to frustrate initiatives by faithful Catholics by flatly denying what the Church actually teaches

In the mid-1980s The Rosary made a comeback for many Catholics, while the Divine Mercy message and Chaplet, a gift of Jesus to the world through Saint Faustina of Poland in the 1930s, initially suppressed through the 1960s, became part of the orthodox Catholic spirituality.

Since at least the 1960s, Catholics have been the single largest denomination in Congress. Unfortunately far too many of these elected servants of the people deny their faith by their actions. Protestants, particularly Baptists, tend to vote for and stand by the principles of pro-life more often than the Catholics. Currently, there are between 70 million to 80 million baptized or self-identified Catholics in the United States, representing roughly 25 percent of the overall population. There does appear to be a definite trend back towards the more orthodox in young Catholics, however they need constant nurturing and reassurance.

In recent years, space shuttle astronauts Thomas Jones, Kevin Chilton, Sid Gutierrez and Bob Cabana have carried on the tradition. Jones is one of a select few who have spoken openly about his faith. He authored the 2006 book, Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir. As one of six crewmembers aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, Jones spent spare time reading the Bible, praying his Rosary, and even received the Eucharist while in space. In a 2004 article, Jones recounted receiving the Eucharist on the shuttle’s flight deck. “Kevin shared the Body of Christ with Sid and me, as we floated weightless on the flight deck, grateful for this moment of comradeship and communion with Christ,” wrote Jones. “Our silent reflection was interrupted by a sudden burst of dazzling white light. The sun had risen just as we finished Communion, and now its pure radiance streamed through Endeavour’s cockpit windows and bathed us in its warmth … I rolled away from my crewmates, unable to stem the tears evoked by that singular sunrise.” The Catholic character of astronauts has persevered, despite the fact that NASA does not provide a Catholic chaplain.

Who knows, there might be a future Christopher Columbus, Charles Carroll, or Thomas Jones out there just waiting to be catechized.