- Feb 5, 2002
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It has been coursing through the blood of this great nation since long before English Protestants built their first fort on these shores.
In the latter half of the 1800s, the Native American Party or “Know Nothings” began popularizing the slogan “Native Americans, Beware of Foreign Influence” as a means of opposing increasing immigration from Europe, mostly Ireland and Germany. The phrase developed a particularly or uniquely anti-Catholic connotation, casting (mostly Irish) Catholics as unfit for American citizenship and alleging that their first allegiance would always be to Rome, not to the U.S. The Nativist catchphrase, immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s film Gangs of New York, where Bill “the Butcher” Cutting has it emblazoned across an American flag, has made a comeback in recent months.
Although now more broadly used to caution against the influence of foreign governments and their lobbyists in American politics, the catastrophic surge in illegal immigration over the last four years in particular, and the increase in foreign-born politicians and judges, the old Nativist banner is still sometimes used to target American Catholics. When Catholic bishops ignore or diminish the Church’s age-old teachings on national sovereignty and harp on “refugees,” I often see my non-Catholic friends posting screenshots of Bill the Butcher staring at his flag. “Native American, Beware of Foreign Influence.”
But Catholicism is not foreign to America — not at all. In fact, a new Pew Research Center study has discovered that nearly half of all Americans have some connection to Catholicism, either personal or through their family. The study found that 20 percent of Americans are or identify as Catholic, nearly 10 percent of Americans consider themselves “cultural Catholics” (which Pew explains means that they identify as Catholic “ethnically, culturally, or because of their family background,” rather than religiously), 9 percent are former Catholics who have fallen away from the Church, and 9 percent say that they have some other connection to Catholicism, such as a Catholic parent or spouse. Additionally, 1.5 percent of American adults are converts to Catholicism.
Continued below.
spectator.org
In the latter half of the 1800s, the Native American Party or “Know Nothings” began popularizing the slogan “Native Americans, Beware of Foreign Influence” as a means of opposing increasing immigration from Europe, mostly Ireland and Germany. The phrase developed a particularly or uniquely anti-Catholic connotation, casting (mostly Irish) Catholics as unfit for American citizenship and alleging that their first allegiance would always be to Rome, not to the U.S. The Nativist catchphrase, immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s film Gangs of New York, where Bill “the Butcher” Cutting has it emblazoned across an American flag, has made a comeback in recent months.
Although now more broadly used to caution against the influence of foreign governments and their lobbyists in American politics, the catastrophic surge in illegal immigration over the last four years in particular, and the increase in foreign-born politicians and judges, the old Nativist banner is still sometimes used to target American Catholics. When Catholic bishops ignore or diminish the Church’s age-old teachings on national sovereignty and harp on “refugees,” I often see my non-Catholic friends posting screenshots of Bill the Butcher staring at his flag. “Native American, Beware of Foreign Influence.”
But Catholicism is not foreign to America — not at all. In fact, a new Pew Research Center study has discovered that nearly half of all Americans have some connection to Catholicism, either personal or through their family. The study found that 20 percent of Americans are or identify as Catholic, nearly 10 percent of Americans consider themselves “cultural Catholics” (which Pew explains means that they identify as Catholic “ethnically, culturally, or because of their family background,” rather than religiously), 9 percent are former Catholics who have fallen away from the Church, and 9 percent say that they have some other connection to Catholicism, such as a Catholic parent or spouse. Additionally, 1.5 percent of American adults are converts to Catholicism.
Continued below.
Catholicism Is Not a ‘Foreign Influence’ in America | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
In the latter half of the 1800s, the Native American Party or “Know Nothings” began popularizing the slogan “Native Americans, Beware of Foreign Influence” as a means of opposing increasing immigration from Europe, mostly Ireland and Germany. The phrase developed...
spectator.org
