This volume continues where Volumes I and II left off, but, unlike these, it is organised according to key issues that cut across nationalities, regions and generations. The concluding essay synthesises the various interdisciplinary approaches that the book presents.

This is the third volume in the groundbreaking study The Notre Dame History of Hispanic Catholics in the U.S., continues the historical investigation of the first two volumes, spanning the years 1965 to the present. Unlike the two preceding volumes, whose articles are arranged in terms of national origin (Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican), the 11 essays in Hispanic Catholic Culture in the U.S. are organized according to key issues that cut across nationalities, regions, and generations.

Mexican Americans comprise the largest segment of Hispanics in the United States. Within the American Catholic Church their legacy is the longest, as is their struggle for full acceptance in the institutional church. In this landmark volume, three well-known historians examine this important, yet neglected religious history, focusing on Mexican-American faith communities in the Southwest, California, and the Midwest.

Catholicism has had a profound and lasting influence on the shape, the meaning, and the course of American history. Now, in the first book to reflect the new communal and social awakening which emerged from Vatican Council II, here is a vibrant and compelling history of the American Catholic experience--one that will surely become the standard volume for this decade, and decades to come.
Spanning nearly five hundred years, the narrative eloquently describes the Catholic experience from the arrival of Columbus and the other European explorers to the present day. It sheds fascinating new light on the work of the first vanguard of missionaries, and on the religious struggles and tensions of the early settlers. We watch Catholicism as it spread across the New World, and see how it transformed--and was transformed by--the land and its people. We follow the evolution of the urban ethnic communities and learn about the vital contributions of the immigrant church to Catholicism. And finally, we share in the controversy of the modern church and the extraordinary changes in the Catholic consciousness as it comes to grips with such contemporary social and theological issues as war and peace and the arms race, materialism, birth control and abortion, social justice, civil rights, religious freedom, the ordination of women, and married clergy.
"The American Catholic Experience" is not just the history of an institution, but a chronicle of the dreams and aspirations, the crises and faith, of a thriving, ever-evolving religious community. It provides a penetrating and deeply thoughtful look at an experience as diverse, as exciting, and as powerful as America itself.

Jay P. Dolan's Catholic Revivalism: The American Experience, 1830-1900 details the history of the Catholic Church in America by showing that revivalism, traditionally viewed as a Protestant phenomenon, was also a central feature of Catholic life and activity in the 19th century. To cope with the widespread social disorganization caused by large numbers of Catholic immigrants, the Church sponsored parish missions during which famous preachers gave a series of emotional sermons aimed at calling sinners back to their God and their Church. Dolan documents the extent of Catholic revivalism, its European roots, and its success in reaching the working class.

When Puerto Ricans and Cubans arrived in the United States both groups presented to American Catholics the paradox of cultures pervaded by Catholic symbols, attitudes, and traditions, but out of touch with the values and priorities of the institutional Church. Furthermore, both Cubans and Puerto Ricans tend to perceive themselves as being in the U.S. provisionally and therefore insist on holding on to their language and culture, while striving to build communities of their own where these values will be preserved. In this seminal volume Jaime R. Vidal and Lisandro Perez present for the first time an in-depth historical analysis of the Puerto Rican and Cuban-American Catholic experience, beginning with their roots in the history of their homelands up to the closing of Vatican II. In the first section of Puerto Ricans, Vidal discusses the American Church's attempt to assimilate them into its structure and style, which was at cross purposes with the Puerto Rican "revolving door" migration trends that have constantly reinforced their identity. Focusing on the Puerto Rican community in New York City, Vidal demonstrates that the policies of the institutional Church have made it difficult for them to find their place within the U.S. Catholic structure. This has led to a certain amount of marginalization of the Church within the Puerto Rican Community. Lisandro Perez then discusses the Cuban-American Catholic experience, especially the first waves of Cuban migration during the 1960s. Since the first political exiles were from the upper and middle classes of Cuban society, this led to expectations that the Cubans would quickly blend into the white, middle-class American community at both the religious and the social levels. Perez analyzes the response of the Miami diocese to support the exiles and concludes that the Cubans have not been fully assimilated into the American Catholic Church because they view themselves as an exiled society that hopes eventually to return to Cuba.

For more than two hundred years, writes eminent Catholic historian Jay P. Dolan, Catholics have struggled to reconcile two sets of values, as Americans and as Catholics. In this incisive, elegantly written account, Dolan explores how Catholics have met the challenges they have faced as New World followers of an Old World faith.

This is a historical analysis of the Puerto Rican and Cuban American Catholic experience, beginning with their roots in the history of their homelands up to the closing of Vatican II. These people are difficult to assimilate into the Church as they do not see thenselves as permanently in the US.

A view of urban Catholicism, The Immigrant Church focuses on the people in the pews and furnishes a comparison of Irish and German Catholic life in mid-nineteenth-century New York City. Nearly one-half of the city's population in 1865 consisted of Irish and German Catholics. Singling out three parishes (one Irish, one German, and one a mixed group of Germans and Irish), Dolan examines the role of religion in strengthening group life in these ethnic communities, traces the development of the Catholic Church in the city, and reveals the relationship between urban and church growth.

A view of urban Catholicism, The Immigrant Church focuses on the people in the pews and furnishes a comparison of Irish and German Catholic life in mid-nineteenth-century New York City. Nearly one-half of the city's population in 1865 consisted of Irish and German Catholics. Singling out three parishes (one Irish, one German, and one a mixed group of Germans and Irish), Dolan examines the role of religion in strengthening group life in these ethnic communities, traces the development of the Catholic Church in the city, and reveals the relationship between urban and church growth.