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Posted on 09/02/2009 1:49:58 PM PDT by GonzoII
"The founders of America were overwhelmingly British Protestants, at least nominally."
I would add that the prayers of All our ancesters are what helped make this country great, Protestant or Catholic.
Well, I can’t disagree with that. Sure wish we had more praying today.
I try not to worry. John Carroll, another cousin, 1st archbishop of the USA, consecrated the USA to Virgin Mary (and thus is Mary the patron saint of the USA).
St. Augustine is the oldest continuing Christian settlement in the US.
New Salem, New Hampshire, is just across the border from Portsmouth, Massachusetts.
I would love to read this. Thanks for posting this.
The author is Adam S. Miller.
>> But what role did Catholics play in forming the institutions of this country? <<
Read Clarence Thomas’ discourses on St. Thomas Acquinas and Natural Law.
You’re welcome.
The anti-Catholic sentiments of early protestant settlers is understandable. My ancestors settled in Maine in 1626. One was a grandaughter of Thomas Cramner - former Archbishop of the church of England under Henry VIII. He was burned at the stake in a purge by subsequent Catholic rule. There was a whole cycle of bloody pursecution by Catholic rulers in English history. On the other hand, there was oppression by the likes of Protestant Cromwell.
Some of America’s history and a large portion of its political and intellectual origins on freedoms and the heritage of the “rights of Englishmen” has English roots. At least many permanent settlements in New England were driven by a desire to escape religious persecution.
Indeed, as a descendent of one of the immigrants on First Supply ship to Jamestown, I keep pointing out to my friends who claim descent from survivors of the Mayflower Expedition that my family was here to welcome those poor navigators. But, they don’t care.
I’m curious to know what happened to the builders of a Spanish Mission that once was in inland VA. Were all those earlier settlers absorbed into the indigenous Indian tribes, or massacred by them?
Thanks for posting that beautiful picture of the cathedral in St. Augustine. I had the privilege of visiting SA about 20 years ago, and I just love that town. I didn’t get to go to the cathedral, but I have always encouraged my friends from WI to visit historic SA. None of them ever do, however, preferring Miami, Palm Beach, and other districts.
And the Virginians had their own Thanksgiving feast at Berkeley Plantations — earlier than those poor navigators hanging out at Plymouth Rock.
I just figure that the Pilgrims had a better PR firm. After all, isn’t Madison Ave. in NY?
Worst of all is that the Yankees won the “civil war”. So, dominated by NEers, guess who wrote the history?
Thanksgiving was a very common practice. Yet it’s treated as if this was the only very special, rare Thanks to God ever presented. Heck, I find that when “history of (The) Thanksgiving” is told, suddenly they try to conflate other proclaimed thanksgivings (during the RevWar, e.g.) into the fold as if it “continued the tradition”.
Yes, and 1st they (NE pilgrims) went to Holland - from England.
So much for British tolerance!
;-)
(BTW, Henry VIII? No wonder. I don’t think Catholics liked that Henry made his own church just because he wanted divorces. The whole Anglican idea is a joke. It’s Catholicism with divorce.)
It was traditional shortly before the Revolution and in the early Republic because of the French and Indian Wars (what Churchill called "The First World War"). You can see the graves in colonial cemeteries.
By the Civil war the animus had ended in large parts of New England. When Catholics built St. Mary's on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven--the best area of the city and a short walk from Grove St cemetery where 17th c divines were buried--the local paper defended Catholics from charges in the New York Times that Catholics were being uppity.
I believe that there is a record of the founders of St. Augustine, FL holding a Thanksgiving celebration during their early years. That would’ve been in the 1500s. Perhaps somebody can add the details.
The whole Catholic school system was started because of anti Catholic discrimination in the public schools.
It was always a tradition.
MD was founded as a “Catholic” colony (i.e., by Catholics with toleration - hence “the Free State”) in 1632, but by 1700 the Catholics who granted non-Catholics “tolerance” had been dislodged from any power positions and laws emplaced to keep them out. This didn’t change until the RevWar, essentially.
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