1 gen 1920 anni - almost two million children attended Catholic elementary schools nationwide, and Catholic dioceses operated fifteen hundred high schools.

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Arriving in the United States in large numbers, Catholics and Jews wrestled with questions based on their similar experiences. To what degree should they adapt to Protestant-dominated American society? Should the education of clergy be changed? Should children attend religious or public schools? What happened if they married outside the faith? Among Catholic leaders, Bishop John Ireland of Minnesota argued that “the principles of the Church are in harmony with the interests of the Republic.” But traditionalists, led by Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan of New York, disagreed. They sought to insulate Catholics from the pluralistic American environment. Indeed, by 1920, almost two million children attended Catholic elementary schools nationwide, and Catholic dioceses operated fifteen hundred high schools.


Faithful immigrant Catholics were anxious to preserve familiar traditions from Europe, and they generally supported the Church’s traditional wing. But they also wanted religious life to express their ethnic identities. Italians, Poles, and other new arrivals wanted separate parishes where they could celebrate their customs, speak their languages, and establish their own parochial schools. When they became numerous enough, they also demanded their own bishops. Since agitation for ethnic parishes implied local control of church property, the Catholic hierarchy, dominated by Irish Americans, felt that the integrity of the Church was at stake. With some strain, however, the Catholic Church managed to satisfy the diverse needs of the immigrant faithful. It met the demand for representation, for example, by appointing immigrant priests as auxiliary bishops within existing dioceses.

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