"There should be no hyphen in American Catholic": Bishop John Timon and the Assimilation of Buffalo Catholicism

Abstract

This article examines Bishop John Timon's effort to integrate Irish and German Catholic immigrants into Buffalo's civic and religious life during the mid-nineteenth century. Timon, the first Bishop of Buffalo, believed that Catholic identity and American patriotism were not only compatible but mutually reinforcing. His phrase "there should be no hyphen in American Catholic" captures this conviction.

The article traces how Timon navigated competing pressures: Rome's universalist framework, the ethnic loyalties of his largely immigrant congregation, and the anti-Catholic sentiment that characterized mid-century American nativist movements. Through parish organization, school building, and a deliberate program of civic engagement, Timon worked to make his diocese a model of Catholic Americanism.

Publication Details

Journal: U.S. Catholic Historian, Catholic University of America Press Volume: 39, No. 1, Winter 2021, pp. 1-21 DOI: 10.1353/cht.2021.0000 Available through: Project MUSE

Related Work

The themes in this article extend into Dr. Lubienecki's conference presentation on John Timon and into his research on the reliquary that Timon received from Pope Pius IX, now on permanent display at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Buffalo.

View speaking and presentations Read about the Timon reliquary View all academic articles