Epilogue: Catholicism, Regions, and American History

Abstract

Themes of creative adaptation and uneven synthesis have undergirded the history of Catholicism in the Pacific Northwest but are also evident throughout the histories of transnational, regional Catholic cultures analyzed in this book. Such a tension between the Catholic tradition rooted in Rome as well as in various Catholic immigrant homelands versus the desire or need to adapt to the American environment not only drove the Americanism controversies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but also informs ongoing aspects of the American Catholic experience. On the U.S. Supreme Court, where Catholics have composed a majority of justices since 2006, a similar uneasy tension exists between cultural Catholicism and American judicial and political ideologies that do not align easily with Catholic teaching. Catholic participation in U.S. electoral politics also continues to reflect the regionally inflected uneven synthesis evident in the making of Catholic cultures and American society analyzed in this book. Region has made and continues to make a significant difference in American Catholic history and American Catholic cultures.