A Valuable Historical Resource

American Catholics by James Hennesey, S.J.
Oxford University Press, 1981

Historical non-fiction is often not for the faint of heart. American Catholics is no exception. While it is loaded with history of Catholics in the United States from long before it even was the United States, thrill-a-minute drama it is not. What James Hennesey, S.J., has penned, however, is an invaluable resource, one that belongs on the shelf of anyone seriously interested in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States.

Beginning in the early part of the 16th century, more than 250 years before the Declaration of Independence, Hennesey charts the triumphs and travails of those who shaped the church in the New World. The Spanish and French before the American Revolution played key roles, while new arrivals who flocked to the young nation from all over the world in the 19th and 20th centuries ultimately made countless contributions that built the church into a major social and cultural U.S. institution. Make no mistake: this is an incredible story, one often lost in the contemporary history books of our public schools. How could a group numbering a mere thirty-five thousand, less than one percent of the four million Americans after the Revolution, become one counting more than 50 million among its ranks (nearly a quarter of the U.S. population) in the latter half of the 1900s? It is no easy task, to be sure, and Hennesey expertly chronicles how this diverse group managed to assimilate into the developing American culture (despite discrimination based on ignorant fears and unfounded suspicions) while simultaneously maintaining its Catholic identity.

American Catholics often has an academic feel to it, reading at times like a textbook. As such, the entertainment value is mostly lacking and Hollywood likely won't be using it as the basis for its next blockbuster movie. That's actually unfortunate because there are a thousand captivating scripts in this little volume, all just waiting to be written. Hennesey has provided the history; it simply takes a little imagination to step into the lives of these brave individuals and share in their drama as they strove to become American Catholics.