In this comprehensive history, Fr. Charles Connor details the life of Catholics in the American Colonies. It’s a tale that begins with the flight of English Catholics to religious freedom in Maryland in 1634, and continues through the post-Revolutionary period, by which time the constitutions of all but four of the first 13 states contained harsh anti-Catholic provisions. Catholic readers will be proud to learn from these pages that despite almost two centuries of ever-more-intense religious persecutions and even harsher legal prohibitions, American Catholics in the colonies simply refused not to be Catholic. These pages show that from the Jesuit manor houses that planted the seeds of faith in Maryland to the solitary missionary priests who evangelized the New York regions, Catholics kept the faith . . . even unto death. Pioneer Priests and Makeshift Altars is indispensable reading for souls interested in the deep roots of Catholicism in America, and in the holy courage of scores of Catholics who kept remorseless forces from snuffing their faith out. Among other things, you’ll learn here: Why Catholics left the old world for America: their reasons were often not religiousThe tale of The Ark and The Dove that carried the first settlers to MarylandThe Puritan ascendancy that too soon outlawed Catholicism in MarylandThe sole Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence: Can you name him?The surprisingly powerful anti-Catholic sentiments of most of the Founding FathersThe friend of George Washington who became the first Bishop of BaltimoreThe great Catholic post-Revolutionary War migration from Maryland to KentuckyThe cosmopolitan colony whose robust religious liberty was more favorable that Maryland to CatholicismThe Quaker/Catholic alliance that promoted both religionsThe role of persecuted Catholics in the Revolutionary WarWhy, in that War, many Catholics favored the anti-Catholic BritishThe French Jesuits who evangelized New York and its frontier areas, and the saints who were martyred thereThe Iroquois maiden who converted and became a saintThe years in which, throughout the colonies, Catholics became an endangered speciesPlus: much more to acquaint you with the proud heritage of Catholics in the earliest years of our nation!

In the bloody Civil War that split our nation, American bishops worked for the success of the Union . . . and of the Confederacy! As Catholics slaughtered Catholics, pious priests on both sides prayed God to give success in battle. . . to their own side. Men in blue and men in gray flinched at the Consecration as cannonballs (fired by Catholic opponents) rained down on them during battlefield Masses. Many are the moving – and often surprising – stories in these pages of brave Catholics on both sides of the conflict – stories told by Fr. Charles Connor, one of our country's foremost experts on Catholic American history. Through searing anecdotes and learned analysis, Fr. Connor here shows how the tumult, tragedy, and bravery of the War forged a new American identity, even as it created a new American Catholic identity, as Catholics—often new immigrants—found themselves on both sides of the conflict. Fr. Connor's account shows that in the nineteenth century and on both sides of the conflict, the Church in America was a combination of visionary leadership and moral blindness – much as is the Church in America today. From consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, Catholics today will discover ways to bridge the gulf that today divides so many in our Church – and in our nation.

By the end of the Civil War, barely four million Catholics lived on American soil. A century later, more than 43 million Americans were Catholic, making the Church a dominant force in American culture and politics. The twentieth century was a springtime for the American Church, which witnessed the dramatic expansion of American dioceses, with towering new churches erected even blocks apart. Catholic schools were swiftly built to accommodate the influx of Catholic schoolchildren, and convents and monasteries blossomed as vocations soared. The Catholic hierarchy and laity factored into many of the great stories of twentieth-century America, which are told here by one of our country's foremost experts on Catholic American history, Fr. Charles Connor. In these informative and entertaining pages, you'll learn: What motivated the virulent

LGBT, faith, and academic thought-leaders explore prospects for laws protecting each community's core interests and possible resolutions for culture-war conflicts.

Although most Catholic priests are devout men who have sincerely committed their lives to Christ and His Church, they are also human beings with faults and failings. Some are cranky and stern, and others can be weak or indifferent. Some grapple with alcohol or sensuality, and others are controlled by money. In our day, thousands of priests have been exposed for committing the gravest of sins: abusing those who have been entrusted to their care. In these searingly honest and insightful pages, EWTN host and author Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., brings consolation to all those who have been abused, wounded, or scandalized by the wickedness of priests and bishops. He takes you on a reassuring exploration of the Gospels to show how Christ anticipated the sins of the clergy and the hierarchy—and gives us examples of how to deal with them spiritually emotionally, rationally, and practically. Fr. Mitch reinforces what Christ’s parables teach us: that good and evil will co-exist in the Church, and that spiritual blindness will affect the moral life of the clergy and the lay faithful alike. The solution, he says, lies in the power of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection and the Apostles’ response to the Risen Lord: authentic conversion to faith in Jesus, which reorients our lives toward selfless service of others.

Kevin Starr has achieved a fast-paced evocation of three Roman Catholic civilizations Spain, France, and Recusant England as they explored, evangelized, and settled the North American continent. This book represents the first time this story has been told in one volume. Showing the same narrative verve of Starr's award-winning Americans and the California Dream series, this riveting but sometimes painful history should reach a wide readership. Starr begins this work with the exploration and temporary settlement of North America by recently Christianized Scandinavians. He continues with the destruction of Caribbean peoples by New Spain, the struggle against this tragedy by the great Dominican Bartolom矤e Las Casas, the Jesuit and Franciscan exploration and settlement of the Spanish Borderlands (Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Baja, and Alta California), and the strengths and weaknesses of the mission system. He then turns his attention to New France with its highly developed Catholic and Counter-Reformational cultures of Quebec and Montreal, its encounters with Native American peoples, and its advance southward to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. The volume ends with the founding of Maryland as a proprietary colony for Roman Catholic Recusants and Anglicans alike, the rise of Philadelphia and southern Pennsylvania as centers of Catholic life, the Suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, and the return of John Carroll to Maryland the following year. Starr dramatizes the representative personalities and events that illustrate the triumphs and the tragedies, the achievements and the failures, of each of these societies in their explorations, treatment of Native Americans, and translations of religious and social value to new and challenging environments. His history is notable for its honesty and its synoptic success in comparing and contrasting three disparate civilizations, albeit each of them Catholic, with three similar and differing approaches to expansion in the New World.