Missionary Priests and Faithful Parishioners in Southern New Jersey: A Regional Perspective on Nineteenth-Century Catholicism
American historians in recent years have paid greater attention to regionalism as a key analytical concept. Some Catholic historians also have embraced this trend, shifting their focus away from the urban northeast and toward scattered communities of congregants throughout the American south and far...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Catholic Historical Society
2008
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| In: |
American catholic studies
Year: 2008, Volume: 119, Issue: 3, Pages: 45-63 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | American historians in recent years have paid greater attention to regionalism as a key analytical concept. Some Catholic historians also have embraced this trend, shifting their focus away from the urban northeast and toward scattered communities of congregants throughout the American south and far west. These historians also have discovered the persistence of what James O'Toole has characterized, in his new book The Faithful, as "the priestless church" with its thin institutional presence, circuit riding missionaries, and distinctive spiritual practices. New Jersey Catholic historians traditionally have emphasized the urban immigrant roots of their subjects, concentrating for the most part on the large cities and working-class communities that dominated the northern portion of the state. Father Edmund Q.S. Waldron's manuscript "Short History of the Condition of the Catholic Church in the Southern Half of New Jersey in 1848," which he prepared at the request of Newark's bishop Michael Corrigan in 1879, significantly alters that perception and tells a very different tale. Waldron, a native-born convert, was a Philadelphia diocesan priest who practiced an itinerant ministry throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland during the mid-nineteenth century. His reminiscences offer insight into Catholic life and worship in a sparsely settled area of southern New Jersey where institutional manifestations appeared absent, priestly ministrations proved irregular, and isolation produced complex relationships with local Protestants. |
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| ISSN: | 2161-8534 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic studies
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