Keeping Faith

The Catholic Church in the United States has always been an immigrant church, from the earliest arrivals of the Spanish and English, to the influx of Irish, Germans, Italians, and other Europeans in the nineteenth century, to the most recent arrivals from the Philippines and Vietnam. Over two centuries countless laymen and laywomen worked with priests and religious to build and support churches and schools, laying the foundation for the Catholic Church in the United States. The wealth of original documents and photographs in Keeping Faith provides as no other source does a thorough and compelling portrait of these immigrants and their impact on the American Catholic institutions and American Catholic experience.

A brilliant collection of primary sources. A goldmine of fascinating information for anyone interested in the history of Catholics in the U.S.
--Jay P. Dolan, Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

Skillful selection and explanation of documents provide readers of Keeping Faith an opportunity to consider the words, review the experiences, and study the artistic expressions of immigrants who have been largely overlooked in American Catholic historiography. This view leads to appreciation for the diverse gifts that immigrants from Europe and Asia offer the church and gratitude to those responsible church leaders who support newcomers.
-Dolores Liptak, RSM, Catholic Historical and Archival Consultant, West Hartford, Connecticut



Jeffrey M. Burns is archivist at Chancery Archives, the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and is adjunct professor of history at four Bay area universities. Ellen Skerrett, editor of At the Crossroads, is an independent scholar specializing in the history of Irish Catholics in Chicago. Writer and historian Joseph M. White is author of The Diocesan Seminary in the United States and is working on the centennial history of the Holy Name Province of the Order of Friars Minor.