Reflecting on the Trajectory of American Catholic History

Abstract

Reflecting on the Trajectory of American Catholic History David O'Brien1 In this brief essay I would like to offer my faith community, American Catholics, some thoughts about the trajectory of our history.2 I make no apology for emphasizing the American side of that history. Indeed, I have always found the American side of American Catholics—the out there—as interesting and important as the Catholic side—the in here—almost always associated with the personal and communal. I am not a theologian or a church historian; I am an American historian. Theologians and church historians think most of all about the church, as they should. For them American Catholics are first of all Catholics, who happen to live in the United States. Now I do love this ever changing and always interesting church, but my vocation, my work, and the things I care most about always drew me to the American side of American Catholics. The church, I was taught, is the people of God, the Body of Christ, "the way" through which Jesus remains present in and for the world. That means that we Catholics and other Christians are the Body of Christ all the time, not just when we are in church. I decided to think about how the faith and the church in here helped or hindered Catholic Americans out there, as they wove their American lives.3 So there are American as well as Catholic reasons why we need to think, together, about the trajectory of our history. The most important outcome of the American Catholic history for many of us is that we American Catholics now have a full share of responsibility for our [End Page 1] country and, far less evidently, for our church.4 In each case, Catholic and American, shared responsibility is a fact and not an option.5 What is an option is whether we will take up those responsibilities. And that depends in turn on how we understand the trajectory of our history. American Catholic Studies American Catholic Studies is a flourishing interdisciplinary academic field which has produced a body of work that has come to play an important role in the self-understanding of Catholics and, less noticed but at least equally important, in understanding American life as well.6 After all, what happens in the United States is important, and what happens in the Catholic Church, including the church in the United States, also matters, quite a lot actually. And what is very interesting is that each is part of the other. Catholics are profoundly influenced by what happens in their own American society, whether they acknowledge that or not. And American society is just as profoundly influenced (and always was) by what happens among its Catholics. There are a lot of them, they play a big role in all sectors of U.S. society, and their institutions have been at the center of American education, health care, and social services, as well as religion. So American Catholic Studies is important certainly for the life and work of the church but also for all who care about the United States. So how one tells the American Catholic story really matters. If the American Catholic story is primarily an American story, told in and with the American people, it may encourage Catholics to draw on their Catholic heritage to find meaning and purpose in their social [End Page 2] experience. That American story of American Catholicism may even open hearts to one or another form of solidarity, even civil religion, endowing the shared experience of Americans with Christian religious meaning. On the other hand, if the American Catholic story is told, as it usually is, "from the heart of the church," its narrative and outcome may be quite different, emphasizing the dangers posed by the culture, the boundaries separating "real Catholics" from others, and selected "non-negotiable teachings" that constitute Catholic identity and whose affirmative defense is required for the integrity of the church and its members. This Catholic story reinforces identity with and loyalty to the church, as it is intended to do, and it may strengthen family and communal bonds, but it also risks...