User:Veranosa/Anti-Catholicism

In the Orange Riots in New York City in 1871 and 1872, Irish Catholics violently attacked Irish Protestants, who carried orange banners.

Anti-Catholicism among American Jews further intensified in the 1850s during the international controversy over the Edgardo Mortara case, when a baptized Jewish boy in the Papal States was removed from his family and refused to return to them.

After 1875 many states passed constitutional provisions, called "Blaine Amendments", forbidding tax money be used to fund parochial schools. In 2002, the United States Supreme Court partially vitiated these amendments, when they ruled that vouchers were constitutional if tax dollars followed a child to a school even if the school were religious.

(I need to rearrange these so that they are in more of a timeline order and flow better)

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...Fillmore won 22% of the national popular vote. -- from the anti-Catholicism page

During this period of time, discussions of public versus religious education were growing in both urban and rural settings. Protestants and Catholics alike understood the importance of educating the youth; however, finding common ground on how to approach education became a challenge with differing values mixing together.

While the push for moderated school systems increased in the mid-nineteenth century, government oversight was common, especially in less-populated, rural regions. As such, the local church and community tended to create educational systems centered on their particular faith, and education was largely seen as a group effort. In urban areas, public education was more closely monitored and at the forefront of politics since cities saw the largest increases in immigrant population which brought in new children to educate.

Many Catholic immigrants coming into the United States found it was more comforting to stay tightly-knit with those of the same nationality, leading churches to create their own educational facilities for the children within a particular community. Every immigrant group coming from a Catholic country had unique saints to venerate and views on how to educate their children, so ethnic groups tended to stick together in order to preserve their traditions. Classes were taught in the native languages of the immigrants in an attempt to keep their culture alive as well, but many American Protestants viewed this negatively, as though the immigrants were unwilling to adjust to their new lives in an English-speaking nation.

The push for public education came from a hope that America would become a more prosperous place if it were made up of well-rounded, well-educated individuals. And because immigrants made up a large portion of the population, common education had to be established. Many Catholic communities wanted to remain separate, though, since public education tended to have biblical influence from the Protestant Christian King James Bible. Major disputes erupted because the Catholic church did not want their youth to be educated under Protestant ideologies, as most public schools read bible hymns and utilized McGuffey Readers, which featured biblical passages teaching moral lessons to students from a Protestant point of view.

The disagreements between faiths led leaders of public education systems, typically Protestant in religion, to advocate for disintegration between schools. To the leaders, the Catholic community was not worthwhile and had too many differences from Protestantism; therefore, they assumed, combining educational systems would only bring about further complications. Additionally, combining systems meant leaders on either side would have to give up their authority in dictating the ideas and lessons pushed to the forefront in public education.

{Anti-Catholicism among American Jews further intensified in the 1850s during the international controversy over the Edgardo Mortara case, when a baptized Jewish boy in the Papal States was removed from his family and refused to return to them.}

1860s-1890s

The First Vatican Council convened in 1869 and caused another major rift to form between Catholics and Protestants. The Council passed the doctrine of papal infallibility, meaning that anything the pope said in relation to faith and religious practices was fact. Protestants viewed this as an attempt for the Roman Catholic Church and the pope, who was Pope Pius IX at the time, to establish greater power over their Catholic followers.

This distrust of Rome continued to infiltrate the educational facilities in the United States as well, leading to the fight for eliminating government-funded Catholic schooling. Many cities made attempts to integrate school systems, though there were varying degrees of success. One of the successful attempts was allowing Catholic teachers to find work within public schools, teaching children of countless denominations. But one of the darker attempts to limit Catholics in public education was seen in Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1873 when a law was passed that forbade Catholic garments from being worn within public education facilities--it was not repealed until 1898.

{In the Orange Riots in New York City in 1871 and 1872, Irish Catholics violently attacked Irish Protestants, who carried orange banners.

In 1875, another attempt at limiting Catholic funding came about in the form of the Blaine Amendment. It was brought into the courts after James G. Blaine, who was searching for a campaign platform for presidency, decided to create an argument for defunding parochial, or denominational, schools. Though it was not explicitly stated to be against Catholic education, Catholic versus public education had been a heated topic for several years by this point. Many newspapers argued that Blaine wanted to build his following from those who held anti-Catholic beliefs. Though the amendment was vetoed, it made lasting impacts on the United States, as many states went on to pass their own constitutional laws prohibiting tax dollars from funding parochial schools.

In 2002, the United States Supreme Court partially vitiated these amendments, when they ruled that vouchers were constitutional if tax dollars followed a child to a school even if the school were religious.}

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1840s-1850s

During this period of time, discussions of public versus religious education were coming onto the scene in both urban and rural settings. Protestants and Catholics alike understood the importance of educating the youth, and government taxes paid for some of the development of schools, religious or otherwise. However, finding common ground on how to approach education became difficult with differing values and opinions mixing together. While the push for moderated school systems increased in the mid-nineteenth century, government oversight was still stretched thin, especially in rural, less-populated regions. As such, the local church and community tended to create educational systems strongly centered on their particular faith. Education was largely seen as a group effort. In urban areas, public education was more closely monitored and at the forefront of politics since cities saw the largest increases in immigrant population, bringing in new children to educate.

Many Catholic immigrants coming into urban settings found it was more comforting to stay tightly-knit with those of the same nationality, leading to churches creating their own educational facilities for the children within a particular community. Every immigrant group coming from a Catholic country had unique saints to venerate and views on how to educate their children, so ethnic groups tended to stick together in order to preserve their customs. Classes were taught in the native languages of the immigrants in an attempt to keep their culture alive as well, but many American Protestants viewed this negatively, as though the immigrants were unwilling to adjust to their new lives in an English-speaking nation.

Because Catholics tended to remain separated from the Protestant community and had fewer opportunities to improve their living conditions, it was not hard to distinguish who was and was not Catholic. This meant that Protestants could discriminate against the people who seemed undesirable in their eyes, and it prevented many Catholics from attempting to attend the public educational facilities available.

The barriers between cultures grew stronger as debates over public funding and biblical usage were introduced.

1860s-1890s

The First Vatican Council convened in 1869 and caused a major rift to form between Catholics and Protestants. The Council passed the doctrine of papal infallibility, meaning that anything the pope said in relation to faith and religious practices was fact. Protestants viewed this as an attempt for the Roman Catholic Church and the pope, who was Pope Pius IX, to establish greater power over their Catholic followers. Much of the animosity towards Catholicism was targeted towards the pope himself rather than the followers who Protestants believed were victims to the overwhelming power of Rome.

This distaste of Rome infiltrated the educational facilities in the United States, leading to the fight for eliminating government-funded Catholic schooling. Many cities made attempts to integrate school systems, though there were varying degrees of success. One of the brighter aspects was allowing Catholic teachers to find work within public schools, teaching children of countless denominations. But one of the darker attempts to limit Catholics in public education was seen in Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1873 when a law was passed that forbade Catholic garments from being worn within public education facilities. This was in hopes that Catholics would not weasel their way into the Protestant-backed school systems and influence the children in any clever way. The law was not repealed until 1898.