Father Andrew Greeley called it America 's “ugly little secret.” John Higham labeled it “the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history.” And for Arthur Schlesinger Sr., it has been “the deepest bias in all the history of the American people.”

The “it” referenced by all three scholars is anti-Catholicism, and it will be the subject of a three part series offered by Saint Francis University's Catholic Studies at a Distance Program. During this series, attendees will discuss whether anti-Catholicism is indeed a "dirty little secret," or if there are better ways to characterize it. By the final session, students will be familiar with the major events, people, and ideas associated with anti-Catholicism. Attendees will be asked to reflect on what they think the importance of this information is, and whether it is well-known among the general public. They will also have an opportunity to identify parallels between historical happenings mentioned in this series and current events.

The pilot will show attendees a new way of doing distance learning, one that involves live audio/visual contact between attendees and the instructor. To learn more about this, please visit the websites of Horizon Wimba and Ilinc. To watch a demonstration of Ilinc, click here (you will need Windows Media Player).

This three part series will formally launch Saint Francis University's effort to unite Catholic learners throughout the nation. During the Fall 2007 semester, the Catholic Studies at a Distance Program will begin offering credited courses to students from New England to California. For a schedule of the courses being offered in the coming semesters, please click here. We would also like to develop an adult education program, one that would offer short non-credited courses. This is still in a developmental stage, so please contact the coordinator for more information.

Class One

Session Title: From "Popish Idolatry" to the "True Christian Spirit"

This session will trace the development of American anti-Catholicism from the Colonial era through the Revolution. People, events, and ideas of importance in this lecture will be:

The European roots of Anti-Catholicism

Puritan attitudes toward Catholics

The "Great New York Conspiracy" of 1741

The Dudleian Lectures

George Calvert and the Founding of Maryland

The alliance between French Catholics and the Protestant American Revolutionaries

Bishop John Carroll

Session Two

Session Title: "To Inculcate Gospel Doctrines Against Romish Corruptions”

This session begins in early America and continues through the Civil War, paying particular attention to how Irish immigration sparked an anti-Catholic response. People, events, and ideas of importance in this lecture will be:

Nativism (Knownothingism)

The "Pope's Stone"

Maria Monk and Rebecca Reed

The Ursuline Convent Riots

The Philadelphia Bible riots

The Civil War and anti-Catholicism's decline

Session Three

Session Title: Class Three: "The True Americans are un-American"

This session will move from the post-Civil War revival of anti-Catholicism to the election of John F. Kennedy. It will conclude with a discussion of the "new anti-Catholicism." People, events, and ideas of importance in this lecture will be:

Guardians of Liberty

Father James E. Coyle

Sidney J. Catts

Al Smith

Father Charles Coughlin

Dorothy Day

John F. Kennedy

David H. Bennett, The Party of Fear: The American Far Right from Nativism to the Militia Movement (1995)

Ray A. Billington, The Protestant Crusade, 1800-1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism (1963)

Lee Belser, "What Happened to the Pope's Stone?," Baltimore American (May 1968)

John Corrigan, Religion in America, 7th Ed. (2004)

Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present (1985)

Jenny Franchot, Roads to Rome: The Antebellum Protestant Encounter with Catholicism (1994)

Andrew M. Greeley, The Catholic Experience: An Interpretation of the History of American Catholicism (1967)

-----------, An Ugly Little Secret: Anti-Catholicism in North America (1977)

James Hennesey, American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States (1981)

John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (1965)

Philip Jenkins, The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice (2003)

Dale T. Knobel, “ America for Americans”: The Nativist Movement in the United States (1996)

Martin E. Marty, Pilgrims in Their Own Land: 500 Years of Religion in America (1984)

John T. McGreevy, Catholicism and American Freedom (2003)

Walter Benn Michaels, Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism (1995).

“Anti-Catholicism on the Net,” Compiled by David Cruz-Uribe of Trinity College

Lyman Beecher, Plea for the West (1835)

Julie Byrne, “Roman Catholics and the America Mainstream,” National Humanities Center Website

Philip Jenkins, Lecture given at Boston College on his book The New Anti-Catholicism

Edwin Hoey, “Terror in New York – 1741,” American Heritage Magazine (June 1974)

“Knownothingism,” Catholic Encyclopedia

Carmine A. Prioli, “The Ursuline Outrage,” American Heritage Magazine (February/March 1982)

Nancy Lusignan Schultz , “Burning Down the House The Ursuline Convent Riot, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1834,” Sextant (1993)