The question of loss and gain in the Church has been recently studied by Shaughnessy, in his Has the Immigrant Lost the Faith? (1925), which covers the period 1790.--1920.
Racially, the Church in the United States is made up of groups from every nation in the world, with the English-speaking peoples in the majority. Up to the middle of the 19th century, the Irish and the Germans furnished the greater quota of its adherents. Later the French-Canadians, Italians, Mexicans, Poles, Lithuanians, Slovaks, Hungarians and others added notably to the number. There is also an appreciable percentage of Oriental Catholics—Greeks (Uniates), Syrians, Ar menians, etc.
This almost unprecedented growth of a religious organization which had been subject to legal and political disabilities since the i6th century was bound to give rise to misunderstandings in a country so largely composed of Protes tants. Since the rise of the American Republic several organized politico-religious movements were instituted for the purpose either of hindering the exercise of the franchise on the part of American Catholic citizens or of keeping Catholic Americans out of offices of public trust. Chief among these were the American Protestant Association (1829), the Native-American party (1837-44), the Know-Nothings (1855-61), the American Protective Association (1896), and recently the Ku Klux Klan. Being under the pro tection of the Constitution, and enjoying the advantages of the common law, Catholicism has not met with any official govern mental opposition. All such outbursts of political or religious anti Catholicism were but temporary or local and did not represent the more general attitude of American citizens. These anti Catholic movements never became national and were due to conditions in which political, social and industrial problems were closely intermingled. The political theory of an inherent antagon ism between Catholicism and Americanism has given rise to many interesting studies. Among these are : the Catholic Builders of the Nation (Boston, 1923) ; Kinsman, Americanism and Ca tholicism (1924) ; McNamara, American Democracy and Cath olic Doctrine (1927) ; Shuster, Catholic Spirit in America (1927) ; Ryan, The Catholic Church and the Citizen (1928) ; Williams, Catholicism and the Modern Mind (1928). Many writers on this alleged incompatibility between Catholicism and republican in stitutions fail to give due allowance to the racial and economic adjustments involved in these sectional antagonisms to the Church.
The internal development of the Church in the United States has been of a uniform nature. Its doctrinal history offers little of importance. The Church disci pline in vogue is similar to that of the other churches of Catholi cism. Unity of doctrine, of moral law and of liturgical observance is preserved by an intimate union with the see of Rome. The
universal canonical legislation of the Church as reorganized in the New Code of Canon Law (1918), the legislation by papal rescript, the decisions in contentious cases by the apostolic dele gation at Washington, D.C. and a certain number of customs and practices which have grown up in the American Church during the past century and a half of its organized life form the basis for its domestic relations. Every five years each American bishop is expected to pay a visit to Rome (ad limina Apostolorum) and to make a report of the spiritual condition of his diocese. A system of diocesan synods provides for kcal unity among the bishops, clergy and laity. Each province is convened into provin cial councils from time to time, and at greater intervals a national or plenary council is held. Three such councils have been held (1852, 1866, 1884) at Baltimore. It is of interest to note that a Graduate School of Canon Law exists at the Catholic University of America.
An outstanding factor in the internal develop ment of the Church in the United States has been in the field of education (cf . Burns, Catholic School System in the United States, New York, 1907-12). According to the Official Catholic Direc tory for 1928, there are 7,061 parochial or elementary schools in which 2,281,837 boys and girls receive secular and religious in struction. The principal outlay involved in the parochial school system amounts to over $70,000,000 annually. Catholics at the same time contribute their proportionate share to the maintenance of the public schools. There are 225 high schools, colleges and universities for boys, and 729 academies for girls. This system of secondary education is crowned by the Catholic University of America, at Washington, established (1887) by Pope Leo XIII. and the American hierarchy and endowed with the privileges of the old pontifical universities of Europe. The purpose of the founders of this central institution was to carry the graduates of the Catholic colleges into higher scholarship, and thus prepare teachers for the entire Catholic educational system as well as leaders in the world of science and literature. The Catholic Sisters college, founded as an integral part of the Catholic University of America (1914), gives to the religious women teaching in the Catholic schools equal opportunities for higher training. There are ten Catholic universities in charge of the Society of Jesus, three under the Vincentians, three under the Holy Cross Fathers, and one each under the Benedictines, Holy Ghost Fathers and the Brothers of Mary. The National Catholic School of Social Service for Women (Washington) sends out each year trained workers for social study and research (cf. Official Catholic Year Book for 1928, PP. 426-431).