The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire by Katherine D. Moran

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire by Katherine D. Moran Anne M. Martinez The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire. By Katherine D. Moran. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020. 330 pp. $48.95. Katherine Moran's The Imperial Church joins a growing body of literature that challenges the late nineteenth and turn of the twentieth century narrative of uniform suppression of Catholicism in the United States. Beyond national Catholic narratives, The Imperial Church expands American Catholic history alongside American empire to the Philippines in the aftermath of the Spanish-Cuban-American War. Moran analyzes narratives used by local boosters and officials about Jacques Marquette in the Upper Midwest, Junípero Serra in California, and Spanish friars in the Philippines to show that Catholic figures represented a historical order than could be inherited and promoted by Protestants in establishing their own deeper imperial roots to justify and sustain American Empire. The Imperial Church seeks to show that "American Protestants … integrated Catholic missionaries and explorers into their efforts to commemorate a meaningful past" in the face of a rapidly changing U.S. present (7). Moran challenges historians to rethink how American empire and religion are assumed to interact in this era. The book is divided into three sections, with two chapters each. Section one centers commemorative culture honoring Marquette, "the first white man" in the Upper Midwest, whose gentle braveness civilized indigenous peoples (18). Marquette's peaceful conquest leant Midwesterners a bloodless imperial domination to guide their growing [End Page 63] economic strength and identity. Section two casts Serra and the California missions as a civilizing influence built around hospitality and labor management, reimbodied in the contemporary tourism industry. Moran rightly notes that this narrative erased Mexicans claims on California and, of course, the Mexican bodies that remained in the region. Section three focuses on the ways Spanish friars of centuries past were embraced by Americans seeking to harness those civilizing forces in support of an American imperial future in the Philippines. "Americanized Catholicism was embraced by Protestants and Catholics alike as a potential carrier of Christianity and American civilization," Moran writes (200). The book is well-organized and well-argued. Each section analyzes the commemorative culture of the relevant site and then considers the shifting discourse from anti-Catholicism to imperial foundations. Each section is strong and sections one and two work well together in reframing Marquette and Serra as "founding fathers" in their respective regions. For me, there is a bit of slippage between these sections based in the United States and the final section on the Philippines. The first two sections correlate more closely with the idea of founding fathers, while the third section more closely adheres to the notion of an American Imperial Catholic Church. Moran notes that the "buffer" between lionizing local Catholic historical figures "without fully embracing the idea of Catholic clerical authority" collapsed in the Philippines case; "Americanized priests and prelates were envisioned as replacements for the friar" (174). The "local" element of the Philippines case does not correlate well to the self-promotion projects carried out in the Upper Midwest and California. The transition between these different forms of Catholic reclamation might be better articulated in the text. In spite of this friction, this is a compelling study, firmly based in diligent archival research. This would be a fine contributor to courses on U.S. colonialism and empire, as well as American and U.S. Catholic history. [End Page 64] Anne M. Martinez Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Copyright © 2022 American Catholic Historical Society