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For God and Country: the Origins of Slavic Catholic Self-Consciousness in America1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Victor R. Greene
Victor R. Greene
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Kansas State University
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Extract

America made its immigrants ethnocentric. Except for the travelers from England, every other nationality sensed its cultural distinctiveness soon after settling here with countrymen. The process of identity-consciousness went on continually with every group. In a strange and unknown environment, newcomers, particularly the least Anglo-Saxon, joined their fellows for a security of continuity, yearning for that Old World basis of religion, language, and social customs. Although these fresh ties could not restore their European community exactly, they could offer a reasonable substitute for adjustment, the American immigrant society. To latecoming arrivals the reconstructed ethnic colony moderated the differences of the original and destined community and made the contrast less jarring. The immigrants had refashioned the old primary settlements in America and struggled to maintain them. In the recent debate over the acculturative process, how the “melting pot” worked, certainly the ultural pluralists describe best the first-generation communities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , December 1966 , pp. 446 - 461
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1966

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References

2. Even for the British nationalities, Berthoff, Rowland T., British Immigrants in Industrial America (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), 170–176Google Scholar says the Welsh were also exclusive. Handlin, Oscar, The Uprooted (New York, 1951), 170–200,Google Scholar describes the general feeling.

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6. On this transformation see Ostafin, Peter A., “The Polish Peasant in Transition: A Study of Group Integration as a Function of Symbiosis and Common Definition” (Ph D dissertation, University of Michigan, 1948), 27;Google ScholarGreene, Victor R., “The Attitude of Slavic Communities to the Unionization of the Anthracite Industry Before 1903” (Ph D dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1963), 86–87Google Scholar; Gerson, , Wilson, 9Google Scholar; and a reading of Reddaway, W. F. et al. , The Cambridge History of Poland (Cambridge, 1941)Google Scholar, passim, 366–460.

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35. I have no first-hand proof of their feeling but see Ibid., 31; Kriiszka, , Historya, X, 58Google Scholar and succeeding events.

36. Not the condemnation when he blessed the PNA home in 1896. Pamiatka… Sztacki, 33, 38; Holy Trinity Album, 24–25, 108.

37. Pamiatka …Sztucki, 36.

38. See the banquet in ibid., 34; and especially Holy Trinity Album, 35–37.

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42. The author is indebted to Rev. Dr. M. J. Madaj of St. Norbert's College for permitting him to see his manuscript on the Polish independent movements in America.

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46. Jubileusz … Sw. Jadwig.

47. But Kozlowski found little sympathy there, either. He and his followers were officially excommunicated in April, 1898. Kruszka, , Historya, X, 143.Google Scholar

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50. The Lithuanian difficulty is in Gineitis, Kazys, Amerika ir Amerikos Lietuviai (Kaunas, 1925), 272–277Google Scholar; Kamesis, K., “Ideologines Kovos Lietuviskoje Siaures Amerikos Iseivijoje,” in Krikscionybe Lietuvoje (Kaunas, 1938), 112–120Google Scholar; Kucas, Antanas, Lietuviu Romos Kataliku Susivienijimas Amerikoje (Wilkes-Burre, Pa, 1956), 113–138Google Scholar; and locally, Istoria Chicagos Lietuviu Ju Parapiju … (Chicago, 1900), 19–21, 31–33, 36, 46, 48–49,Google Scholar and passim; and Suziedelis, S., Sv. Pranciskaus … Parapijue (Lawrence, Mass., 1953), 352.Google Scholar Slovak divisions are in Zatko, James J., “The Social History of the Slovak Immigrants in America, 1823–1914 (M.A. thesis, Universityof Notre Dame, n.d.), 94–5Google Scholar; and for Croats, and Slovenes, , Govorchin, , Yugoslavia, 117, 204–206.Google Scholar

51. Wytrwal, , Heritage, 156–163 is a typical example.Google Scholar