Church and Club: Religious Parish Life

Abstract

While both cities had a thriving secular parish life, the role of religion is a vital consideration in studying the Irish diaspora. The organisation of the Catholic parish system in Melbourne and Chicago transformed the way that Irish identity was understood and presented in each city. Melbourne’s Catholic Church was almost completely Irish in make-up; to be Catholic was to be Irish during the nineteenth century, though to be Irish was not necessarily to be Catholic. In Chicago, however, the Catholic Church was diverse and parishes were organised based on ethnicity with Irish priests and nuns catering to Irish congregations. This chapter explores the ways that these differences manifested in parish life and the role of sodalities, charity, community fundraising, and religious newspapers in connecting children and their parents to each other based on location. It considers the role of institution building in claiming physical space for Irish Catholics in each city, and how religious organisations contributed to shaping understandings of ‘Irishness’ at different times in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.