American Jesuits: A History of Jesuitism in the United States

[BeatMan]

"Between 1555 and 1931 the Society of Jesus [i.e., the Jesuit Order] was expelled from at least 83 countries, city states and cities, for engaging in political intrigue and subversion plots against the welfare of the State, according to the records of a Jesuit priest of repute [i.e., Thomas J. Campbell].

Practically every instance of expulsion was for political intrigue, political infiltration, political subversion, and inciting to political insurrection." (1987) J.E.C. Shepherd (Canadian historian)

 

[Politruk]

Jack Chick was not always wrong . . .

 

[Politruk]

Francis is the first Jesuit Pope.

Sign of the End Times?

 

[Politruk]

in the 19th Century there was a widespread conspiracy theory in the U.S. about the Catholic Church. The idea was that the Pope was -- somehow -- causing the mass emigration of Catholics to the U.S.; and the goal was to subvert American democracy, and create a monarchy under a Catholic prince.

A lot of Americans believed all this. Samuel Morse, inventor of the electric telegraph, published a book about it.

 

[Politruk]

American anti-Catholicism:

The US into the mid-19th century[edit]​

Protestant settlers in America often took with them the anti-Catholic sentiment found in Europe. However, due to the overwhelmingly Protestant religious make-up of the nascent United States, anti-Catholicism did not become a major political issue until the 19th century. Anti-Catholic sentiment in the 1800s arose in large part as a response to the large influx of Roman Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany. One of the most popular early anti-Catholic tracts was written by none other than the inventor of the telegraph himself: Samuel Morse. In 1835, Morse published a book called Foreign Conspiracies Against the Liberties of the United States,[12] which alleged the Catholics were part of a larger conspiracy based in Austria to install a member of the House of Habsburg as the imperial ruler of the US.[4] During this period, anti-Catholicism began to become intertwined with early versions of the Freemason and Illuminati conspiracy theories, all of which played into nativist ideas about a European monarchical takeover of the US.

While Irish immigrants were most frequently targeted by nativists, Germans were also victimized, especially in the Midwest, while Hispanics were targeted in western states and territories. Expansionists like Sam Houston often employed anti-Catholic rhetoric to justify America's conquest of Texas and California, liberating the west from the tyranny of Catholic Mexico.

Numerous "exposés" of the Catholic Church gained popularity, invariably alleging debauchery and torture among nuns and priests. The testimony of Rebecca Reed, who was alleged to have been held captive by the Ursuline convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts, inspired an anti-Catholic mob to destroy the convent in August 1834.[13] The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, published in 1836, detailed the debaucheries of the Hôtel Dieu monastery in Montreal, Canada, including orgies, beating and murder of nuns, and the sacrifice of illegitimate infants. Though Monk proved to have been a mentally ill prostitute coached by Protestant evangelicals, her book became a best-seller and inflamed anti-Catholic sentiments throughout America.[14]

These attitudes frequently brimmed over into violence, with riots erupting in New York, Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans, and other cities throughout the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. Some of the most destructive were Philadelphia's Bible Riots in May and July of 1844, where arguments over the use of Catholic Bibles in public schools led to armed clashes between Catholic and Protestant mobs in Kensington and other Irish neighborhoods.[15] Fifteen people were killed and dozens of Catholic churches and homes were destroyed in the course of these riots.[16] Louisville, Kentucky suffered an even worse riot in August 1855, dubbed "Bloody Monday", where attacks on the city's German-American population left twenty-two dead.[17]

Know Nothingism[edit]​

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/American_river_Ganges.jpg/300px-American_river_Ganges.jpg
Thomas Nast expressing a common anti-Catholic sentiment of the era, that Catholics would attempt to subvert children
See the main article on this topic: Know Nothing Party
In the mid-19th century up until the American Civil War, the nativist Know Nothing movement represented the high-water mark of anti-Catholicism in American politics. The Know Nothings believed in an imminent papal takeover of the US via the "political Romanism" of newly arrived immigrants and attempted to have Catholics banned from public office. They also managed to field Millard Fillmore as a candidate on the Know Nothing ticket in the election of 1856.

Post-bellum America into the 20th century[edit]​

Smaller Know Nothing-esque movements, however, persisted in American politics. The Panic of 1893 was latched onto by the newly formed American Protective Association as "proof" of a Catholic conspiracy to destroy the financial institutions of the US. This fringe political movement spawned a host of new conspiracy theories, including allegations that agents of the Church had assassinated Abraham Lincoln.[18]

Anti-Catholic animus often targeted Italians as they began arriving in greater numbers in the 1880s. The most notorious incident occurred in New Orleans in March 1891, where the murder of Police Chief David Hennessey led to the lynching of eleven Italian immigrants. At least fifty Italians were lynched in the United States between 1890 and 1920.[19]

Anti-Catholic conspiracy theories continued to incubate on the fringe right until the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century. The KKK promoted Protestant white supremacism, leading them to target not just blacks, but basically all minorities. The Klan worked at the local level to shut down Roman Catholic churches and schools largely in the 1920s.[20][21]

Anti-Catholicism became a major issue once again during the presidential campaign of 1928, which pitted the Irish Catholic Governor of New York Al Smith, the first major-party Roman Catholic candidate in a presidential election, against Herbert Hoover. Smith's opponents used the phrase "Rum and Romanism" (Smith was also a "wet" opposed to Prohibition) as a pejorative reference to his campaign,[22] echoing an earlier description of the Democrats as the party of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion."

The so-called "Catholic Question" once again became an issue in the 1960 campaign of John F. Kennedy. Prominent Protestant ministers, such as Billy Graham, distrusted Kennedy's Catholicism and tried to derail his campaign.[23] The more extreme, paranoid wing of the American conservative movement dredged up the old anti-Catholic conspiracy theories in response to Kennedy's candidacy and subsequent presidential administration as he became the first Roman Catholic president of the US.[24][25]

 

[Politruk]

Of course, as behind-the-scenes power-brokers, Protestant organizations such as The Fellowship, aka The Family, are a LOT more dangerous.

The Fellowship, more commonly referred to as The Family (no, not the Don Corleone kind—though they do refer to themselves as "The Christian Mafia"[1]) is a politically connected Christian fundamentalist organization formed in 1935. Its original purpose was to oppose Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal policies and spread fundy-ism. It didn't gain serious traction until the Cold War as it attracted fundies in opposition to the Reds. It's also notable for being a hotbed of racism, homophobia, and gross hypocrisy. There is a branch of The Family in the UK called the International Christian Leadership Association, which had connections with the Archbishop of Canterbury at one point. Its members are sworn to a vow of secrecy and it attempts to keep itself out of the public eye. Its only public event is the National Prayer Breakfast it holds annually, which every sitting US president from Dwight Eisenhower to Donald Trump has attended. According to their IRS tax exemption form, their mission statement is:


[TR]
[TD]“”To develop and maintain an informal association of people banded together, to go out as "ambassadors of reconciliation," modeling the principles of Jesus, based on loving God and loving others. To work with the leaders of many nations, and as their hearts are touched, the poor, the oppressed, the widows, and the youth of their country will be impacted in a positive manner. Youth groups will be developed under the thoughts of Jesus, including loving others as you want to be loved.[2][/TD]
[/TR]

Their mission is the exact opposite of this, if you wanted to know.