223 Dr. Thaddeus Romansky: The American Catholic Odyssey, Pt. 1

On Wednesday, July 28, host Judy Comeaux spoke with RED-C’s director of education and development, Dr. Thaddeus Romansky, for the first of two conversations covering the historical experience of American Catholics. In this first installment, Dr. Romansky covered the initial arrival of English Catholics to the colonies and their subsequent settlement and later participation in the American Revolution. This period set forth a longstanding pattern for American Catholic life that would last into the twentieth century. Catholics were a minority population viewed largely with suspicion and prejudice by their Protestant neighbors because of their ethnic, creedal, and worship differences. The challenging years of the World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II began to break that mold and put American Catholics on a path to greater participation in the nation’s cultural and civic mainstream. Check back next month when Judy will have Thaddeus return to talk about how American Catholicism has weathered the chaotic years following the Second Vatican Council and the contemporaneous cultural crisis in the wider society. And remember, when choosing between the values of heaven and the values of earth, always round up.