The year 1965 marks two pivotal moments in history – the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act (Hart-Celler Act) in the United States, which abolished the national origins quotas in previous legislation, e.g., the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 and the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 that severely restricted non-European immigration to the United States. In the decades after 1965, the U.S. has witnessed an influx of immigrants from around the world, transforming the U.S. society in general, and the U.S. Catholic Church in particular.

In this course, students will have the opportunity to explore the significance and implications arising from the changing demographics of U.S. Catholicism, from a pre-1965 European Catholic immigrant church to a post-1965 U.S. Catholicism that is diverse and pluralistic. Specifically, students will consider the implications of immigration and changing demographics on the contemporary U.S. Catholic Church, focusing on the various diverse racial and ethnic communities that increasingly define the face of U.S. Catholicism, including Africans and African Americans, Latin@s, and Asian Americans. Indeed, as a result of im/migration, U.S. Catholicism images World Catholicism or Global Catholicism, i.e., the Catholicism of the Majority or Two-Thirds World, rather than the historic European Catholicism that defined pre-1965 U.S. Catholicism. Students will be challenged to evaluate the various social, cultural, ethical, ecclesial, theological, and political dynamics that are shaping and transforming contemporary Catholic identities in pluralistic U.S. Catholicism.

Course Syllabus

Required Books

Online Resources