Did Catholics Establish Religious Liberty in America? –

From the earliest colonial settlements to the founding era, the vast majority of white Americans were Protestants (98% in 1776). Many of these Protestants considered the Roman Catholic Church to be benighted, if not in league with Satan. Catholics were banned from many colonies, and men and women desiring to immigrate to British North America were expected to take explicitly Protestant oaths before doing so.

Maryland was founded in 1632 as a haven for English Catholics. But even in its earliest days, Catholics were a minority. Protestants eventually took control of the colony, made the Church of England the established church, and banned Catholics from voting and holding political office.

Our Dear-Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America, by Michael D. Breidenbach, traces why and how Catholics have advocated for their own religious freedom in America, and their contributions to the ability of all citizens to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. The author highlights the roles two families played in these debates: the Calverts and the Carrolls.

via lawliberty.org

There actually was a fair bit of anti-Catholic feeling back in the day. I ran into only a little bit of it as a lad who attended Catholic school. We considered those who went to public schools as benighted savages who stole things from our classrooms, which they sat in during evening CCD classes. Then I went to college which seemed to me to be utterly tolerant in the late ’70s. It was the era of do your own thing in Ithaca, NY. There was a bit of anti-Catholic animus in the old UK, but this made being Catholic, which I really wasn’t by this time, rather romantic. I did not run into any significant anti-Catholic feeling again until I entered the teaching market, at which point it became rather pronounced. And now, of course, I and my co-religionists are back to being the source of all evil in the universe. Funny how that goes.