Traces the role of religion in the lives and communities of Italian immigrants in Philadelphia from the 1850s to the early 1930s.
By the end of the nineteenth century, Philadelphia had one of the largest Italian populations in the United States. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia eventually established twenty-three parishes for the exclusive use of Italians. Juliani describes the role these parishes played in developing and anchoring an ethnic community and in shaping its members' new identity as Italian Americans during the years of mass migration from Italy to America.
The book, according to William V. D'Antonio of the Catholic University of America, is also an important story of the struggle between Irish and Italian cultures in the assimilation process, and an interesting insight into church politics and the workings of the Roman Catholic Church.
The book book as examines Italian immigrants adjusted to a Protestant-dominated society and a Catholic Church dominated by Irish Catholics.
A shared faith did not erase national differences. The Italian experience raises questions about whose language, customs and traditions would find a home within American Catholicism.
For Irish readers, it offers a revealing perspective on the Irish role in that Church. ccat.sas.upenn.edu
The parish helped emigrants rebuild a sense of home. The author traces how an Italian parish anchored a community and helped shape its emerging Italian-American identity—a useful comparison with Ireland’s own emigrant story.
