American Catholic History

A leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance, poet and author Claude McKay had an idyllic childhood in Jamaica until his first experience of racism when he was 21. After emigrating to the United States in 1912 he became convinced that socialism held the answer to what ailed society, especially what kept black people down. His poetry and novels explored the themes of racial tension, the plight of poor black people in Harlem, and social struggle. He traveled extensively in Europe and Russia to find support for his efforts, but only became disillusioned with socialism. Eventually back in the U.S. his health failed and he was forced to seek help at a Friendship House, a Catholic endeavor. He became enamored of the Catholic approach to social justice and became active in both the Friendship House and the Catholic Worker movements. He came to believe in the Catholic faith, seeing in it the answers to the questions of justice and charity that he’d been seeking his entire life. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1944, four years before he died of heart failure.

Father Augustus Tolton was the first black priest in America who identified as black. He was born a slave in Missouri in 1854, but his mother escaped with him and his two siblings to freedom in Illinois after the Civil War began. He endured racism among the children and parents at two schools, but also experienced great acceptance and love from the priests of his parishes and the nuns at the school. One of the priests, the Irishman Father Peter McGirr, took a special interest in "Gus," as he was known, and made sure he received a good education. Eventually, Father McGirr recognized the possibility that Gus had a vocation to the priesthood. After a few false starts, Father McGirr and the local Franciscan superior got Gus into the seminary of the Propaganda Fidei in Rome. Gus excelled as a seminarian in the Eternal City, and expected to be sent to Africa as a missionary. But the day before his ordination he found out he'd be returning to the U.S. He came back in 1887 and served as a beloved pastor in his home town of Quincy, Illinois, until a change in the local Church leadership made life very difficult for him, and he was transferred to the Archdiocese of Chicago. There he was once again a beloved pastor until his untimely death in 1896. In 2019 Father Augustus Tolton was declared Venerable by Pope Francis.

Explore the vibrant history of Mardi Gras and Carnival, tracing their roots from Catholic origins to modern celebrations. Discover the colorful traditions of New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, where krewes orchestrate the festivities. Learn the whimsical tale behind bead tossing and the establishment of iconic colors in 1872. The podcast highlights the significance of Carnival as a joyous farewell to meat before Lent, inviting listeners to reflect on community and cultural heritage amidst the celebrations.

St. John Neumann was born in 1811 in Prachatice, Bohemia (in present-day Czech Republic). He was a good student, and while in seminary determined to become a missionary in the United States. But after completing his seminary studies he found difficulty in getting ordained or gaining passage to the U.S. But once in the U.S. he proved to be a tireless pastor. He was ordained in 1836 by Bishop John Dubois of New York. After time in diocesan parish work in the Buffalo area he joined the Redemptorists and was stationed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Norwalk, Ohio, New York City, and Baltimore, Maryland. In 1851 he was consecrated the fourth bishop of Philadelphia. He oversaw a period of incredible growth and construction in the Diocese, establishing so many schools that Phildelphia had the first diocesan school system in the country. His sudden death at 48 years old stunned and saddened everyone. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1977.

John von Neumann invented Game Theory, redefined ordinal numbers, contributed mightily to quantum mechanics, and developed the architecture which enables modern computing. He also designed the trigger mechanism which detonated the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and he was key in developing "Mutually Assured Destruction" as a means of balancing the world order as the nuclear age dawned. He possessed an intellect rivaled by only a handful of other persons, and he was, without doubt, one of the most important individuals of 20th century. He also was agnostic for the majority of his life, though he was baptized Catholic at 30 years old in order to marry his Catholic fiancee. But when suddenly facing his own death at just 53 years old, he had to face the questions of the afterlife and the existence of God. Ever the gamer, Pascal's Wager gave him the argument that convinced him to return to the Catholicism of his first wife, and then significant conversations with a learned Benedictine priest helped him to understand the faith and desire the sacraments. He died with the Last Rites in January 1957.

The Land of the Cross Tipped Churches is a region in west-central Ohio. German Catholics fled the wars and upheaval of their homeland in the early- and mid-19th century, and many settled in the United States. A number of these groups settled in a region of western Ohio, and in the 1840s Archbishop Purcell invited the Fathers of the Most Precious Blood to come and minister to these German-speaking Catholics. Father Francis de Sales Brunner led 14 confreres over, and over the ensuing decades the Precious Blood Fathers built more than 60 churches, schools, a seminary, convents, and rectories in a relatively small area. Over the years the construction became more elaborate until many of these churches had tall, slender steeples tipped with crosses. And since they were built so near to each other across a very flat landscape, the area became known as "The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches." Nowadays road signs mark out a scenic byway that would take the pilgrim on a journey through the region, seeing 50 of the churches and other structures. The most prominent of them, the former convent of Mariastein, is now the home of the second-largest collection of relics outside the Vatican. 

In 1854, a slab of marble gifted by Pope Pius IX arrived in Washington, D.C., but it sparked outrage from anti-Catholic groups known as the Know Nothings. They believed the stone posed a threat and stole it in a midnight raid, dumping it in the Potomac River. Despite efforts to recover it, the stone vanished for years, reflecting the tensions of its time. Eventually, a different stone from Pope John Paul II found its place in the Washington Monument, connecting a rich history of faith and American identity.

Frederic Baraga was the first bishop of the Diocese of Marquette, in Michigan’s upper peninsula. He had come to northern Michigan as a missionary in 1831, after immigrating from the Austrian Empire — an area of it that is in modern day Slovenia. Baraga proved a tireless missionary, traveling hundreds of miles by foot, including in snowshoes during the long, harsh winters, as well as by boat. He converted thousands of Chippewa and Ottawa and other natives, and he ministered to the settlers, including those who came north for the copper boom. He faced resistance from Protestant missionaries, French fur traders, and the U.S. federal government, all of whom had their own agendas for the natives. Devotion to him began shortly after his death in 1868. He was declared Venerable in 2012.

Dom Virgil Michel, OSB was a visionary leader who recognized some problems affecting the Church of his day and believed that the way to fix those problems was through the liturgy. He recognized that by improving knowledge of and participation in the liturgy, and making the liturgy central to both catechesis and social justice, more people would come to know Christ more deeply, and would thereby be motivated to do great good. He spearheaded the liturgical movement, wrote texts to reform catechetics and religious education, and was active in the emerging social justice movement. He firmly believed “lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi,” which means “how you pray is how you believe is how you live.” Through founding the journal Orate Fratres and the Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minnesota he had a profound influence on many who came later, but he died unfortunately young in 1938.

Mary Virginia Merrick was a child of wealth, and of deep prayer and a special love for Christ. From an early age she understood that the way to do things was to do every thing — every small thing — with great love. Eventually one is doing great things, even if unintentionally. The day she received her First Holy Communion whe vowed to become a religious sister and to help Christ by helping the poor. But an accident when she was 14 left her paralyzed from the neck down. She didn't let her painful and debilitating ailment stop her. From her bed and lounging wheelchair she organized others to help the poor. Eventually she and her helpers founded the Christ Child Society to help expectant mothers, orphans, and those whose parents could not afford to give them a good Christmas. The Society grew to a regional, then a national, and eventually an international organization under her leadership. She led the Society until she was 82 years old, while also authoring several books for children and publishing a regular column for children. The Christ Child Society still helps many thousands of families every year.