Nineteenth-Century Catholic Immigrants

The Irish and Germans migrated to the US due to various reasons among them poverty and hunger. America was seen as a land of opportunity. However, this was not the case as they were met with hostility from the natives. Matters got worse because most of the migrants were Catholics.

The experience of the German and Irish immigrant Catholics was a bit different. For instance, the Irish were highly despised and were viewed solely as servants (Gleason, 2015). Therefore, they were employed to work in the industries as well as in households of the American elite class. Further, The Irish experienced stereotyping from the natives as well as black Americans who saw them as competition hence getting jobs was difficult as most employers were unwilling to work with them.

On the other hand, the language barrier between the natives and the Germans was a major problem which made communication impossible. However, they were not that disrespected like the Irish because of their diverse nature hence identifying a non-Catholic from one was not easy. Nevertheless, the American Puritan culture made them be suspicious of the Germans and could not involve them in significant events.

There was a high level of intolerance for the Catholic religion in the US. For example, American nativists started riots against a Catholic church in Philadelphia. The immigrants, as well as native Catholics, were criticized for practicing the religion in a Protestant-dominated society (Gleason, 2015). For instance, the nativists ridiculed the Catholic’s practice of saying the rosary and meditative prayers to the mother of Jesus, Mary as well as using oils and paying respect to statues and saints. Additionally, they clashed with the Native Americans in public schools over the use of Protestant Bibles which was a form of discrimination.

Reference

Gleason, P. (2015). The Historiography of American Catholicism as Reflected in the Catholic Historical Review, 1915–2015. The Catholic Historical Review , 101 (2), 156-222.