Table of Contents for In Rome We Trust

In Rome We Trust
The Rise of Catholics in American Political Life
Manlio Graziano

1.Catholics in the United States: The Greek in the Midst of Troy

This chapter describes the essentially anti-Catholic nature of the 13 colonies and of the early years of the United States, as well as the specific role of the Catholics at that time.

2.The Catholic Church and the United States: The Discovery of America

This chapter recounts the early stages of the relationship between the universal Catholic Church and the United States, and the long-term fundamental incomprehension of the nature of the United States by a Catholic Church still exclusively Eurocentric

3.The Catholic Church and the United States: Parallel Empires

This chapter treats the relationship between the universal Catholic Church and the United States in the twentieth century before the establishment of diplomatic relations, and the global competition over moral values

4.Catholics and American Politics: The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Coalition

This chapter describes the evolution of the political role of American Catholics from the World War I to the Reagan administration, with particular attention to Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition

5.Politics and Religion in the United States: The Evangelical Meteorite

This chapter covers the political role of Evangelicalism in the United States, and shows how the Catholic Church was able to learn from this experience as well

6.Catholicization of the United States: Shift of Power and Catholicization

This Chapter shows how American Catholics became more and more present at the top of the political power in the United States and puts this trend in relation with the general geopolitical frame of global power shifts and the relative decline of the US

7.The Americanization of the Catholic Church: In America We Trust

This chapter presents the real condition of the American Catholic Church today, providing data and considerations that contradict commonplaces about the crisis of Catholicism. It also recounts the stages of the process of "Americanization" of the universal Catholic Church, not only in financial terms nor by the growing numbers of American cardinals, but essentially in terms of adoption of the American model of free competition on the market of faith: from social doctrine to freedom of religion, through to the condemnation of anti-Semitism. The election of an "American Pope" is the last stage of this process.

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