Steven M. Avella . Sacramento and the Catholic Church: Shaping a Capital City.(The Urban West Series.)Reno : University of Nevada Press . 2008 . Pp. xv, 368. $39.95.

Abstract

Religion, a powerful and often overlooked motivating force, deserves investigation, but its ephemeral nature makes it an elusive and difficult subject. Making sense of religion's influence in the life of the capital city of the most populous and arguably most powerful and influential state in the United States over the course of 150 years is a task even more worthwhile and difficult. Steven M. Avella brings considerable and unique talents to this inquiry into the Catholic Church's influence in the history of his hometown from 1850 through 2000. This crisply written, engaging book shows how Sacramento and the Catholic Church shaped each other and offers a model for writing about religion's influence in western cities. This book amounts to a dual biography. It tells Sacramento's history and the Catholic Church in Sacramento's history sometimes simultaneously, but most often alternately. In some sections it tells the city's story better than the church's and in others the roles reverse, but in the end the reader leaves knowing each much better and appreciating their coexistence. Avella focuses on the roles played by Catholic Sacramentans who actively and deliberately aligned with what he calls the “urban agenda” or the “urban consensus” set by the city's leaders. That agenda, present from the city's origins to the present, includes economic development, city modernization, and social stability. The book also addresses the influence of religious institutions, with attention paid to roles of important leaders. Avella justifies book-length scrutiny for the topic by pointing to the church's expansive civic footprint. The founding generation's Roman Catholics ranked as the largest denomination in the city, the church has maintained large membership and a high rate of participation by members, and it has a breadth of civic involvement represented by schools, hospitals, an orphanage, a settlement house, and other institutions unmatched by any other denomination.