American Catholic Culture?

Working towards a more effective catechesis for native-born Catholics in the United States living in the first half of the 21st Century involves arriving at an understanding about the culture in which Catholics are living and participating and, therefore, the culture within which that catechesis takes place. At the same time many Catholics talk about establishing Catholic culture or re-establishing Catholic culture. Both discussions require a definition of culture and some idea of the purpose of culture. From understanding these then can come a broader discussion as to whether or not the current culture in which Catholics are participating is beneficial for them, whether a Catholic culture existed in the United States, and whether one could exist now and how does that develop. This conversation must begin, though, with an understanding of culture and the reasons for culture.

Dr. Amos Wilson defines culture as the "...set of rules and procedures together with a supporting set of ideas and values...a culture involves a set of rules and a procedure for meeting needs...The ultimate thing culture must do is solve problems....culture comes into existence as a way of solving problems and meeting needs." In providing this definition, Dr. Wilson was speaking to the relevance of importing or borrowing aspects of the different cultures found in Africa by American Descendants of Slaves, which speaks to the common understanding of culture as something associated with a particular ethnic or national group, such as Ethiopians or Estonians. Something similar is true of the Catholics who immigrated to the United States in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Up until after the Second World War Catholics in the United States "...were predominantly immigrants who lived in urban areas and were of European 'ethnicity'.... American Catholics at the time mostly belonged to the working class and were sometimes poor or near poor. Many lived in neighborhoods that were densely populated with other Catholics, sometimes in neighborhoods so segregated by religion that they were experienced as urban Catholic ghettos" (Christian Smith, Young Catholic America, p 10). While Dr. Smith describes these neighborhoods and ghettos as Catholic, and the inhabitants' Catholic faith was undoubtedly a core aspect of the cultures found in these neighborhoods, the neighborhoods and ghettos in which Catholics found themselves gathered were further divided by ethnic, national, and regional identities. Rather, the manner in which that Catholic culture was expressed depended entirely on the fact that it was being expressed within the particular national or regional or ethnic identity of the inhabitants, even to the extent that these national, regional and ethnic identities trumped their Catholic identities. This is the reason, for example, for the existence of national parishes. Until after Vatican II, for example, Huntington, IN had a Catholic parish for the Irish and a Catholic parish for the Germans and never (or rarely) the twain did meet. To be clear about the issue, there never was the culture in these neighborhoods solely or uniquely Catholic. There was an Italian culture within which the Catholic faith played an important role or there was an Irish culture within which the Catholic faith played an important role or there was a German culture within which the Catholic faith played an important role. Also, it must be remembered, that many of the countries we know today did not exist until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For example, immigrants from Germany (nominally 1871), Italy (nominally 1861), and Ireland (nominally 1921) were coming to the United States long before their respective countries existed and, therefore, identified with regions rather than with countries. A cursory review of many cities' census data recorded at the ward level reveals the inclination of respondents to many times identify their regions rather than their countries. Using Dr. Wilson's definition, the culture found in these immigrant Catholic neighborhoods and ghettos solved the problems of maintaining a cultural identity, an identity which included their Catholic faith, in the midst of a hostile native-born, non-Catholic (WASP) majority, yet their Catholic faith alone was not the culture. Their ethnic culture included their Catholic faith and some even to the extent that the ethnic cultures were considered indistinguishable from their Catholic faith, such as the Poles or the Irish. While these immigrants were Catholic, protecting and passing on their ethnic, national, and regional identities was, at least, as important. Hence, immigrants from one country chose to live with each other and very rarely mixed with immigrants from other countries. Again, to the reason for developing and maintaining a culture, such segregation was understood as necessary to protect the family, to access physical, emotional, and financial support from those one knew and trusted, and to develop and maintain a "ready-made" community into which newcomers could be injected with a minimum of disruption. Up until after the Second World War, the culture found in these neighborhoods and ghettos was not a monolithic, universal Catholic culture. These were a large number of ethnic cultures for whom a significant part of their cultures was their Catholicism.  When Catholics today, then, talk of returning to the Catholic culture of the pre-Vatican II Church in the United States, with which national or regional or ethnic perspective do they want to bias their Catholic culture? More importantly, since these various ethnically-bound Catholic cultures existed for very specific reasons during a very specific time in the history of Catholics in the United States, do any of these ethnic Catholic cultures from the early 20th Century solve the problems and meet the needs of Catholics today?

"Culture cannot exist outside of ourselves. It only can exist in our minds and in our bodies as a people and, therefore, to a great extent, it is ideological more than it is physical...Ultimately, a culture must be represented in the very minds of a people. And it is only through its representation as a mental entity that a people can identify with a culture. A culture is a way of thinking, a way of attending the world, of perceiving the world, of classifying and categorizing the world, of ordering the world, of processing information, and of evaluating the world" (Dr. Amos Wilson, ). Understood in this manner, the predominant culture within which Catholics in the United States exist today is the popular, mainstream consumerist culture of the United States. Similar to their forefathers, today's Catholics keep their Catholicism subordinated to their national identity, an identity which became solidly American during and after the economic, educational, and social booms of the period after the Second World War. "...American identity was becoming reorganized around not Anglo culture and religious affiliation but the shared experiences of capitalist consumerism and national media consumption....Rather suddenly, American Catholics were no longer poor, different, discriminated-against outsiders. Catholics had rapidly moved up and inside. They had 'arrived.'"(Smith, 12.) In other words, if being Irish kept your father from moving up in society, then accepting the American culture and being accepted as an American became paramount. Accepting the American culture solved the problems of persecution, discrimination, poverty, and met the needs of status, income, and advancement. From this perspective, their Catholic faith offered very little benefit in their drives for acceptance as Americans. After fifty to seventy years of acclimatizing, today's Catholics are indistinguishable from their non-Catholic peers. Interpreting the data contained in the General Social Survey, Christian Smith concludes "from these findings that today's Catholic emerging adult, although similar in most religious beliefs to Catholic emerging adults since the 1970's, are not exhibiting a particularly vibrant, robust faith and identity" (Smith, 59). Summarizing the research contained in the National Study of Youth and Religion, Dr. Smith continues, "...Catholic emerging adults of the past four decades look remarkably similar to non-Catholic emerging adults of the same age during the same time period. Any Catholic distinctiveness among what we now call emerging adults on a variety of measures has in recent decades disappeared. Except for their lower levels of church attendance, Catholic emerging adults basically look like other emerging adults" (Smith, 265).

If nothing distinguishes native-born Catholic citizens of the United States from any other native-born citizens of the United States, what are the best practices for the Church to use in catechizing its own members? After all, if culture is "a way of thinking, a way of attending the world, of perceiving the world, of classifying and categorizing the world, of ordering the world, of processing information, and of evaluating the world," should the goals of catechesis include the development of a culture, a culture which "must be represented in the very minds of the people," since "it is only through its representation as a mental entity that a people can identify with a culture"? Additionally, should the goals of catechesis include educating Catholics to live as Catholics, even when that requires living in opposition to the popular mainstream culture? This would require presenting the Catholic faith as the most complete and beneficial solution to Man's problems and needs, irrespective of his ethnic or national identity. This is, after all, Christ's revelation to Man. Is such a transformation of Catholics in the United States possible?

Discussion around "restoring" or "re-establishing" Catholic culture in the United States must consider such a transformation and consider it fully cognizant of what culture is and its reasons for existing. Does adopting some of the dress and some of the customs of a personally-romanticized vignette of 1940's or 1950's Catholicism provide a set of rules and a procedure for meeting the needs of Roman Catholics in 2021 and beyond? What are the problems and needs of Roman Catholics in 2021 and beyond? In what specific and unique ways does the Catholic faith meet those needs and problems? It seems ludicrous for a YouTube host or a parish or a diocese or a nation to describe or advocate for a Catholic culture without first addressing these necessarily foundational questions. Whether perceived or actual, the culture of the Catholic Church of the 1940's and 1950's disappeared for a number of reasons not the least of which may be, that "at a certain point, when a culture no longer meets the needs of a people or solves the problems confronting a people, that culture must be transformed." In some ways and for some Catholics, the time for transformation may have passed. Irrespective of that, as Catholics, whose designed end is eternity with God in Heaven, we must begin the transformation now.

_________

Sources

Moe Factz with Adam Curry. Episode 30: "School of Thought." Apple Podcast, 1:12:35. March 21, 2020.

My Name Is My Name. "Dr. Amos Wilson Culture and Problem Solving." YouTube video, 7:15. February 13, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMb4zEaouHI.

Smith, Christian, et al. "Young Catholic America: Emerging Adults in, Out of, and Gone from the Church." Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash