Analyzing the Reciprocal Relationship Between the Catholic Church and Industrial-Era Milwaukee
This study is based on the premise that a reciprocal relationship existed between the Catholic Church and capitalist entrepreneurs in the industrial era Midwest. In nineteenth-century Europe, the Catholic Church was a long established entity. The European Church benefited from the goodwill of powerf...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Catholic Historical Society
2009
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| In: |
American catholic studies
Year: 2009, Volume: 120, Issue: 4, Pages: 29-51 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This study is based on the premise that a reciprocal relationship existed between the Catholic Church and capitalist entrepreneurs in the industrial era Midwest. In nineteenth-century Europe, the Catholic Church was a long established entity. The European Church benefited from the goodwill of powerful monarchs and wealthy nobility. Yet, the republican values of the United States of the nineteenth century had no place for such old world institutions, and the American Catholic Church had no such titled philanthropists to rely on in its search for stability. What America did have were entrepreneurs, eager to increase their fortunes and establish themselves in a rapidly expanding nation. For these men, religion had a very secular effect. When properly cultivated and supported, religion was good for business. A flourishing local parish was just as important as a well-managed local bank for the stability and growth of the urban community. In Milwaukee's period of heavy industrialization, lasting roughly from 1870-1929, this link between church and industry became especially pronounced. The Cream City during the industrial era provides an excellent case study of this distinctly American way of "doing" religion. Milwaukee industrialists, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike and spanning the entire spectrum of commerce and industry, became the local church's greatest benefactors. The financial assistance that Milwaukee industrialists offered Milwaukee churches was small and large, and came from a wide assortment of individual agendas. Some of these motivating factors were purely philanthropic; others masked self-serving interests, while most fell somewhere in between. |
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| ISSN: | 2161-8534 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic studies
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