Date
9-25-2025
Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)
Chair
Mary Ogden
Keywords
Immigration, Catholic Church, Pittsburgh, Slovak Community
Disciplines
History
Recommended Citation
Demharter, Thomas Frank, "The Catholic Church and the Acculturation of Immigrants to the United States: Pittsburgh and the Slovak Community During the Gilded Age and Progressive Era" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7473.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7473
Abstract
The Catholic Church and the Acculturation of Immigrants to the United States: Pittsburgh and the Slovak Community During the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.” Throughout the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of immigrants arrived in the United States from southern and eastern Europe, marking a radical change in the cultural and social background of those who arrived in search of work in the industrial world that had come to dominate the economy of the nation. This dissertation will examine the role that the Catholic Church played in aiding these mostly Catholic immigrants in their attempt to conform to and assimilate into the dominant Protestant-driven culture that existed in America at the end of the nineteenth century. In spite of being seen as the converse of what the United States stood for, the Church, its leaders and institutions were able to successfully ensure that its immigrant members adapted to their new environment while also safeguarding that their children would find economic success and ultimately rise into the middle class. The Slovak immigrant community of Pittsburgh provides an excellent case-study of this process, as the city’s unique geography guaranteed that ethnic enclaves did not develop while also ensuring that the acculturation process allowed both immigrants and the Catholic Church itself to become accepted as a part of the overall American society. As church leaders in the city did not oppose national churches, this allowed for a relationship to develop in which Slovak Catholics showed respect and reverence for bishops who presided over Pittsburgh, allowing for an Americanizing action to take place within the Slovak community, particularly through the building of parish schools. The United States needed an institution to ensure that immigrants to the nation would conform to is values, while the Catholic Church strove to be seen as a legitimate American institution. As World War I catalyzed Americanization, the Catholic Church in Pittsburgh had successfully taken up the cause to Americanize the immigrants who settled in the region.
