Author: Thomas H. O’Connor
Title: Boston Catholics : A History of the Church and its People
Publication Info: Boston : Northeastern University Press, c1998.
Other Books Read By the Same Author:

• The Boston Irish: A Political History
• Eminent Bostonians

Summary/Review:

Boston Catholics is a history of the church in Boston from colonial times to the end of the 20th century.  It offers an interesting overview of how Catholics grew from a persecuted minority to the dominant faith in the city.  The early parts of this book were particularly interesting with the official creation of a diocese after the Revolution under the leadership of French bishop Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus.  It was interesting to learn that while Puritan Boston persecuted Catholics in colonial Boston and nativist violence against Catholics rose in the mid-1800s, there was actually a period in-between when the French clergy ingratiated themselves with Yankee Protestants and enjoyed greater tolerance.  Albeit, this was when the number of Catholics in Boston was quite small, but soon would swell with the immigration of Irish Americans who took control of the diocese from the French Americans.

While I found the book an interesting and well-written survey of Catholic history in Boston, there were a few things that troubled me.  First, O’Connor structures the book around the bishops/archbishops of Boston and each section of the book focus on their leadership and influence on the church.  While this could be a meta-commentary on the top-down hierarchy of the Church, I would’ve liked to see more about the ordinary Catholics about whom O’Connor only writes in general terms.  Second, while the Irish American domination of the archdiocese is evident, I was surprised at how little O’Connor wrote about Catholics from other backgrounds.  Even Italian Americans only got a few pages of the narrative, while the contemporary emergence of Boston Catholic communities originating from Haiti, Latin America, and Southeast Asia are simply mentioned.  Finally, I feel that O’Connor’s respect and love for the Church made it difficult for him to write from a neutral position as a historian.

Of course, the biggest thing that’s missing from the book is due to the fact that it was published in 1998.  While O’Connor mentions cases of clergy sexual abuse of children, the full extent of the abuse and the Archdiocese’s coverup were not revealed until 2002. The scandal forever damaged the Church in Boston and ordinary Catholics relationships with the Archdiocese and their parishes.  Had the book been written a few years later it would not only be a significant addition to the history, but would also recontexualized much of the history O’Connor wrote about the Church in the 20th century.  Even beyond the sexual abuse crisis, there’s irony near the end of the book when O’Connor praises Cardinal Bernard Law for look to the future by creating Caritas Christi Health Care to manage Catholic hospitals in the city.  Caritas Christi was later sold to private equity and became Steward Health Care System, which due to financial mismanagement went bankrupt in 2024, leading to the oldest Catholic hospital in Boston – Carney Hospital – permanently closing.  It leaves a bitter taste to read O’Connor’s optimistic appraisal of Boston Catholicism knowing what has happened in the ensuing three decades.

Rating: ***