North Carolina, Catholic Church in

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NORTH CAROLINA, CATHOLIC CHURCH IN

One of the 13 original states of the United States, North Carolina was inhabited primarily by Tuscarora, Catawba, and Cherokee people when the first attempts at colonization by English settlers were begun in the 1580s. It is located on the Atlantic seaboard between Virginia and South Carolina, and bordered on the west by Tennessee. Charles II granted a charter for the territory lying between Virginia and Florida, running west to the "South Seas," to eight "absolute lords proprietors" in 1663. North Carolina was established as a separate royal colony in 1729. In addition to the English, there were smaller groups of Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German, Swiss, and French settlers. Blacks, both slave and free, became a significant minority as the colony grew in population, and labor-intensive crops of rice, cotton, and tobacco formed an important sector of the economy.

While there is evidence that Hernando de Soto passed through the territory during his explorations of 1539 to 1543, and speculation by a few historians that some of the first colonists at Roanoke Island in the 1580s were Catholic recusants from England, the first explicit mention of Catholic residents in the colony was made by John Brickell (The Natural History of North-Carolina ) in 1737. There was no official toleration of Catholicism in the colony until after independence, and much of the population, though Protestant, was unchurched. According to the diary of Bishop John england of Charleston, in 1821 there were only about 150 Catholic adults in a statewide population of 650,000. The first priest on record as having resided in the state (178490) was a native of Ireland, Patrick Cleary, who originally came to settle his brother's estate in New Bern.

Dr. Thomas Burke of Hillsboro, elected a member of the first Provincial Congress in 1775 and later of the Continental Congress, was known to be a Catholic. In 1781 he became the state's governor, though the North Carolina Constitution of 1776 contained a test oath, barring from public office those who would deny the existence of God or "the truth of the Protestant Religion." This provision stood until 1836. The most famous Catholic legislator and jurist of the period was William J. gaston of New Bern (17781844), who was also the first student to enroll at Georgetown College in 1791. As early as 1823 Bishop England had sought Gaston's assistance in eliminating the offensive test oath, and in the Convention of 1835, Gaston, who by that time was a state supreme court justice, contributed to the effort which eventually resulted in substituting the word "Christian" for "Protestant."

John England, a native of Ireland, was named bishop of Charleston in 1820. At that time, the diocese included both North and South Carolina, as well as Georgia. By the time of his death in 1842, there were only four Catholic churches to be found in the state: in Washington, Fayetteville, Raleigh, and New Bern, each with small congregations. The number of adult converts was small, but it included both free blacks and slaves, who worshipped together with whites when a priest was present. England himself preached throughout the state, often using courthouses and Protestant churches as venues. In addition, he promulgated a Constitution of the Diocese of Charleston, which established elected representatives of the several congregations to govern the local church and to meet in state-and diocesan-wide conventions. His successors in office quickly abandoned the system he had established.

The spirit of tolerance in the state dissipated during the antebellum period, which saw the rise of the nativist and anti-Catholic know-nothing movement. Public lectures denouncing Catholicism, and the 1852 conversion of Levi Silliman ives (17971867), the second Episcopal bishop of North Carolina, to Catholicism, contributed to religious tensions and prejudice. An exception to this trend was seen in the invitation of the graduating class of 1856 at the University of North Carolina to Archbishop John J. Hughes of New York to speak at their commencement. Unable to do so that year, he was again invited and gave the address at graduation in 1860.

Pope Pius IX established the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina on March 3, 1868, and he named James gibbons of Baltimore (18341921) its first vicar apostolic. He was assisted by three priests to serve the estimated 700 Catholics present throughout the state. When Gibbons was named bishop of Richmond in 1872 he retained responsibility for the vicariate until 1877, when he became coadjutor archbishop of Baltimore, with the right of succession. During his administration of the vicariate, the number of Catholics in North Carolina surpassed one thousand. In addition, the Sisters of Mercy from Charleston were established at Wilmington in 1869, and Benedictine monks from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, founded a monastery (and later a college) at Garibaldi, N.C. (later Belmont), in 1876.

John J. keane, who succeeded Gibbons as bishop of Richmond in 1878, also inherited the responsibility for the administration of the Vicariate of North Carolina. Mark S. Gross, the vicar general, refused the appointment as vicar apostolic in 1880, and Henry P. Northrop, a native of Charleston, was then consecrated a bishop for the vicariate in 1882. The following year Northrop was named bishop of Charleston and, like Gibbons before him, was responsible for the administration of the church in North Carolina while also resident bishop of a diocese, until 1887.

The fourth vicar to be appointed was the first abbot of Maryhelp Abbey in Belmont, Leo M. haid, O.S.B. (18491924), who was ordained a bishop by Gibbons in 1888. In 1891 the monastery community obtained the assignment of nine counties, which included the city of Charlotte, for a period of 50 years, to the pastoral care of abbey. During Haid's tenure, a motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy was established in Belmont (1892); an orphanage, named Nazareth, was founded outside of Raleigh (1897); and many churches were built. Father Thomas F. price (18601919), a native of Wilmington, N.C., and in 1911 a cofounder of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), had been ordained (1886). Authorized by Haid to function as an itinerant preacher in 1896, Price established a base at the orphanage, where in 1901 he founded the "Regina Apostolorum," an association of secular clergy whose goal was to evangelize North Carolina and foster vocations to the priesthood there. He also founded and edited Truth (1897), a national monthly magazine with more than 17,000 subscribers by 1905.

Pius X, by a papal bull of June 8, 1910, erected the abbatia nullius diocesis of Belmont, assigning eight counties from the vicariate to the new jurisdiction. Haid, now abbot-ordinary of Belmont, remained both abbot and vicar apostolic until his death in 1924. While the monastic community found the arrangement reasonable, providing for its own security as well as the financial and pastoral stability of the vicariate, the secular clergy, including Price, strongly objected to the arrangement, especially the provision that the monastic chapter had the right to nominate all future vicars apostolic of North Carolina, and they petitioned the Holy See for the establishment of a regular diocese within the state.

It was only after Haid's death that the Diocese of Raleigh was erected by papal decree on Dec. 12, 1924, leaving the abbatia nullius diocesis of Belmont with its unique status, as given in 1910. In 1944 seven of its eight counties were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Raleigh, and in 1960, Gaston County, with the exception of the monastery property, was incorporated into the Diocese of Raleigh. Finally, in 1977, the abbatia nullius diocesis was suppressed by papal decree, at the request of the U.S. hierarchy.

William J. Hafey, a priest from Baltimore, was consecrated as the first bishop of Raleigh and took possession of his see in 1925. He led a small and largely scattered Catholic population, which had relatively little social, cultural, or political influence in the state. He made an intense and somewhat successful effort to secure the assistance of religious men and women in order to support his pastoral efforts. By the time he was transferred to the Diocese of Scranton in 1937, the number of religious priests working had increased from eight to 26, and the number of sisters from 84 to 199. The total number of churches had also increased from 61 to 91, and the number of "stations" where Mass was at least occasionally celebrated, including private homes, grew from 60 to 154. The Catholic population rose from a little more than 6,000 to over 10,000 people during a time of little immigration into the state. Efforts were made for the evangelization and conversion of the black population, especially by some of the religious congregations of men which had been recruited for this work, with some small successes.

When Eugene J. McGuinness, a priest of Philadelphia who had been working with the Catholic Church Extension Society, was named the second bishop of Raleigh in 1937, he continued much of the pastoral direction of his predecessor, and the number of religious priests serving in the diocese rose to 59. The number of secular clergy continued to climb as well, from only 23 in 1925 to 53 in 1937, and to 83 in 1944, the year in which McGuinness was made the bishop of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The Catholic population experienced a modest rise during those years, to nearly 13,000, as conversions continued and national wartime mobilization brought greater numbers of military personnel and their families into the state.

The first southern-born bishop of the diocese was Vincent S. Waters, a native of Roanoke, Virginia, who was the ordinary from 1945 until his death in 1974. With dedicated zeal he continued in the footsteps of his two predecessors, seeking to strengthen the institutional presence of the Church throughout the state. In addition, he boldly addressed the question of racial discrimination in an era of heated controversy. In May 1953, he issued a pastoral letter condemning the sin of racism and calling for the end of all racial barriers in Catholic institutions within the diocese. He began to implement his directive by closing the "black church" and school in Newton Grove and ordering the integration of the larger "white church" and school, a move that was widely regarded as prophetic by progressive voices, nationally and beyond, and largely decried locally. The process continued slowly, in most cases by closing churches and schools in black communities, through the 1960s.

Waters also established a diocesan paper, the North Carolina Catholic, as well as the North Carolina Laymen's Association, and he sought to extend the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, along with the most contemporary teaching techniques, into all corners of the diocese. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, having attended all the sessions, he embarked on a series of lectures and conferences, to which he invited nationally known theologians and pastors in order to educate clergy and laity on the teachings of the council. He soon encountered much opposition from some clergy and religious, however, who thought that he was impeding the pace of needed pastoral and liturgical reforms. A petition to the Holy See was formulated, seeking his removal; it was signed by several members of the diocesan clergy. Tensions were eased for some when Rome established the Diocese of Charlotte in November 1971, separating the 46 counties of western North Carolina from the Raleigh Diocese and naming the well-liked diocesan priest Michael J. Begley its first bishop.

The new diocese was made part of the Province of Atlanta, as was the Diocese of Raleigh when the former was created in 1962. Begley served from 1972 until his retirement in 1984, during a period of rapid population growth within the state and growth of Catholic Church membership. The immigration was largely from the northern states, fueled by an expanding economy, and was experienced also in the eastern part of the state. Beginning in the 1970s, and continuing throughout the following decade, another wave of immigration, bringing tens of thousands of Mexican and Central American laborers into the state, created a new pastoral reality for both dioceses, which slowly received an organized response in the form of special ministries.

The Diocese of Charlotte continued to develop its own identity under the leadership of its second bishop, John F. Donoghue, who established a separate diocesan newspaper, the Catholic News and Herald. This former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Washington was appointed the ordinary for Charlotte in 1984 and remained there until he was made the archbishop of Atlanta in 1993. He was succeeded by another Washingtonian, Auxiliary Bishop William F. Curlin, in 1994. At the beginning of the new millennium, the diocese counted more than 120,000 Catholics in its jurisdiction, served by 134 active priests, both secular and religious. The number of sisters involved in ministry continued to decline, from 249 in 1972 to 134, including those retired and infirm, in 2000.

In 1975, F. Joseph Gossman, an auxiliary bishop of Baltimore, took possession of the Diocese of Raleigh, committing himself to what he described as a collegial style of governance and to the ecumenical movement. Within 25 years, the population of the diocese had climbed dramatically to over 150,000 registered Catholics, which often did not include the number of Catholic Hispanics actually present. The number of religious communities who initiated a presence in the diocese also rose sharply. In 1975, 14 men religious from seven congregations served in the diocese; by 2000, there were 54 from 10 different communities. With regard to women religious, the number of congregations active also increased in that same time, from 16 to 28, but the total number of sisters working declined from 137 to 86, 10 of whom had been appointed "pastoral administrators" of parishes. The number of active diocesan priests during this quarter century failed to keep pace with the increased Catholic population, growing only by five, from 53 to 58 men.

Bibliography: p. baumstein, My Lord of Belmont: A Biography of Leo Haid (Charlotte, N.C. 1985); "A Conflict of Mitres: The Diverse Polities and Cathedral Abbey of Bishop Leo Haid," Word and Spirit 14, (1992), 7695. j. brickell, The Natural History of North Carolina (Dublin 1737; Murfreesboro, N.C. 1968). j. h. schauinger, William Gaston, Carolinian (Milwaukee 1949). s. c. worsley, "Catholicism in Antebellum North Carolina," North Carolina Historical Review 60 (October 1983), 399430.

[j. f. garneau]

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