This document discusses the history of Catholicism in North America from the 17th century through the late 18th century. It provides details on the establishment of early Catholic parishes and missions across what would become the United States, including in Quebec, Detroit, Vincennes, Cahokia, and New Orleans. It also profiles several important early Catholic clergy in the region like Pierre Gibault and John Carroll and discusses the sociopolitical contexts they ministered in, including the suppression of the Jesuits.

1. Steven M Baule, Ph.D.

2. Angered many, as it gave Catholics the right to worship
freely in British America – specifically Quebec
Quebec was defined as modern day Canada, Ohio,
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin
This act greatly unnerved the 13 Protestant Colonies

3. Bourbon and Hapsburgs were pulling at the Roman
Church
The Church was in a time of turmoil in that the curial
and political cardinals and their supporters were in
conflict over royal influence in episcopal
appointments
1775 was a formal holy year (announced late due to the
conclave)
Due to the Pretender to the English throne living in
Rome, the British throne had an antagonistic
relationship with the Papal States.

4. Of Maryland
Signed the Declaration of
Independence
Estimates vary between
25,00 and 35,000 or 0.5%
to 1.6% of American
Colonists
Nearly all in the middle
colonies

5. Jansenism (mostly Dutch / French)
Ultramontanism (means beyond the mountains or
non-Italian or Italian depending upon perspective)
Febronism
Jubilee years established. Currently every 25 years
Index Librorum Prohibitorum

6. •First created in 1559
•Final Version was printed in
1948 and remained in force
until 14 June 1966 by Pope
Paul VI
•Diderot
•Voltaire
•Rousseau
•Galileo
•Pascal

7. Under the Catholic Bishop of the London District.
During the war, he refused to have any communication
with those who were his American ecclesiastical
subjects.
At the close of the war, however, Bishop Talbot went so
far as to refuse to give faculties to two Maryland priests
who asked to return home.
Ultimately the papacy allowed the American Church
their own bishop with the Diocese of Baltimore

8. Saint Augustine Florida is the oldest European city in
the United States. The city was founded on September
8, 1565. Martin Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales
became first parish priest of St. Augustine, the first
established parish in the United States.
St. Ignatius was founded in 1641 by Jesuits who arrived
on the Ark and the Dove to assist in the forming of a
new English Colony. St. Inastius is located in Port
Tobacco, Maryland. It remains the oldest continuously
serving catholic church in the United States.

9. In 1733 the first public Catholic mass in Philadelphia
was celebrated at St. Joseph’s Church by Joseph
Greaton, SJ. Although challenged as contrary to
English law, the right to such worship was upheld by
the Provincial Council under William Penn’s 1701
Charter of Privileges. In 1757, the chapel was replaced
by a larger church and six years later, St. Mary’s was
constructed a block away.

10. Founded in 1770
Maryland was originally settled by Lord Baltimore to
allow for Catholics to worship freely, but the rights
were restricted during the Puritan Revolution

11. Ste. Anne's Church was the first building constructed
in Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit, which later grew into
the city of Detroit. Cadillac and French settlers arrived
at the bank of the Detroit River on July 24, 1701.
Construction began on a church on July 26, 1701, the
feast day of Saint Anne. The parish was founded and
named by the settlers in honor of the patron of France,
Saint Anne, mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus.
Nicholas Constantine del Halle, a Franciscan, and
Francois Vaillant, a Jesuit, were the two priests who
accompanied the group. Vaillant returned east in the
fall

12. Father Simple Bocquet began a new church building in
1755, within a year after he arrived. Bocquet stayed
nearly 30 years during which time Detroit passed from
French to British ownership and then to American.
He remained at the pastor of St. Anne’s until 1781. He
was a member of the OFM.

14. British authorities moved the Michilimackinac
community to the safety of Mackinac Island during the
American Revolution. Hoping to encourage the
French-Canadian residents to move as well, Lieutenant
Governor Patrick Sinclair ordered Ste. Anne’s Church
dismantled and taken to the island in 1780. The sturdy
log church was rebuilt along the shore of the island’s
protected bay below the towering bluff that became
home to the new fort.

15. The Holy Family Parish Church in Cahokia is the
oldest continuously sited church in the state of Illinois.
Established in May of 1699 when Father Jean St.
Cosme erected a missionary cross, a chapel and a log
rectory.
Only a bell suspended from a tree in the churchyard, a
missal printed in 1683, a monstrance made in 1717, a
chalice, and a paten were saved from the 1783 fire.
Pope John Paul II used the chalice in his Mass when he
visited St. Louis in 1999.

16. Immaculate Conception parish dates to Easter Sunday,
1675 when Father Marquette administered to the
Indian Village at Utica, now Starved Rock, Illinois. The
tribe migrated southward in the period from 1700-
1703, and established themselves on a promontory at
the confluence of the Kaskaskia and Mississippi
Rivers. Great floods severed the promontory from the
Illinois mainland, forming an island west of the main
channel.

17. As early as 1734 the settlement was visited by Jesuit missionary
priests. The first resident pastor, Sebastian Meurin, S.J., came in
May, 1748. The first church was small, of upright posts fixed in
the ground, with mud daubing and a bark roof. Parish records
begin April 21, 1749.
In 1763 the area came under British control. The Jesuits were
expelled and for many years the parish depended upon a lay
clerk, Etienne Phillibert, for baptisms, burials, and prayer
services. During this time the parish grew from 400 to 700
persons.
Fr. Pierre Gibault visited Vincennes in 1769 and was greeted by a
desperate crowd crying, Save us, Father; we are nearly in hell!
Thereafter Fr. Gibault made periodic visits.. In 1784 Fr. Gibault
became the first resident priest in over twenty years. A new
church was built of upright hewn timbers in 1786.

18. In 1775, Catholic settlers, mostly of English and Irish
descent, began emigrating chiefly from Maryland to
Kentucky, an outpost of the crown colony of Virginia.
The first missionaries came around 1787.
Bardstown became one of the four dioceses in 1808.

19. Robeline (1717)
New Orleans - St. Louis Church - (1720)
La Balize near the mouth of the Mississippi River (1722)
German Coast [later St. Charles in Destrehan] (1723),
Pointe Coupee (1728)
Natchitoches (1728)
Chapitoulas [Metairie] (1729)
First Nuns Arrived in 1727 to manage the Royal Hospital in
New Orleans
First permanent Spanish Capuchin friars arrived in 1772

20. Old Biloxi [Ocean Springs, Mississippi] (1699)
Mobile, Alabama (1703)
Natchez, Mississippi (1716)

22. Recollects arrived in New France in 1615 also known as
Order of Friars Minor or Franciscans
Jesuits arrived in 1625
Sulpicians arrived in 1657 and served Montreal
Ursuline Sisters arrived in 1639 – teaching order. First
nuns in the present US landed in 1727 at New Orleans
Hospitalieres de St. Joseph
Congregation de Notre0Dame

24. Jesuits were expelled from France
in 1762
In 1773, the Jesuits were
disbanded as an order by
Clement XIV
Catherine the Great ignored the
order, so they remained in
Prussia and Russia
The Jesuits in America became
either Franciscans or the first
diocesan priests in America
Only 23 priests in British colonial
America

25. Born 31 October 1705
Ordained as a Franciscan
Appointed a cardinal in 1759
He became pope in 1769
Suppressed the Society of
Jesus in 1773

26. Clement XIV died 22 September 1774
Conclave held from 8 October 1774 to 15 February 1775
Called by some the first “modern” conclave
28 Cardinals were there from the start
44 Participated in total including 2 who died
11 Did not participate at all
Divided into three groups:
Zelanti (pre-Jesuit ~ mostly curial
Political (anti-Jesuit)
Some few in neither camp
265 ballots in order to elect a pope
Papal arms of Pius VI

27. Pius VI was born Gianangelo Braschi at
Cesena, Italy, on Dec. 25, 1717. He took
a degree in law and then became
secretary to Cardinal Antonio Ruffo, in
whose service he remained until 1753.
Braschi gained the attention of Pope
Benedict XIV and was appointed
canon of St. Peter's, Rome, and private
secretary to the Pope. He was made
bishop in 1758 and treasurer of the
apostolic chamber in 1766. The title of
cardinal was bestowed upon him on
April 26, 1773.
Died in 1799 a prisoner of Napoleon
He was the longest serving pope to
that point in history.

28. Apostolic Vicar of the
London District
22 Sept. 1758 to 12 Jan.
1781
Translated the Vulgate
into English
Douay Rheims
translation
1 of 4 Catholic Bishops in
Great Britain

29. Apostolic Vicar of the London District
12 Jan. 1781 26 Jan. 1790
The last English Roman Catholic priest to be indicted in the
public courts for saying Mass.
The fourth son of George Talbot, and brother of the
fourteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, Talbot was educated at the
English College, Douai, to which he was a great benefactor. In
1759, at the age of thirty-three, he was consecrated coadjutor
bishop.
During his episcopate he was twice brought to trial, on the
information lodged by the well-known Informer Payne, in
1769 and 1771 respectively. In each case he was acquitted for
lack of evidence, but the judge, Lord Mansfield, was seen as
being on Talbot's side, in consequence of which, although he
was no friend to Roman Catholics in general, his London
house was sacked during the Gordon Riots of 1780.

30. Last of the French Jesuits left in the Illinois
Country in 1764.
Was allowed to effectively serve as the region’s
bishop given “extraordinary faculties”
He asked for six priests for Illinois, but received
only Gibault, who was to be assigned to Cahokia

31. Born 1737 in Montreal
Ordained in 1768
Arrived at Kaskaskia in September 1768 (same
time as the Royal Irish Regiment)
Oversaw circuit of parishes, including
Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Ste Genevieve, and
Cahokia. He also visited settlements as far as
Ouiatenon, Peoria, St. Joseph and Mackinac.
Was successful in getting Vigo released at
Vincennes
Didn’t get along with the John Carroll and
moved to Spanish Missouri in 1793
Died in 1802

32. Word of Clark’s expedition came to Father Pierre Gibault.
He canoed the eight miles to Kaskaskia, tolled the bell at
Immaculate Conception Church and assembled the people.
Speaking on behalf of the American cause, in French to the
French farmers, he carried the day. The British fled to
Vincennes. It was the American expedition against
Vincennes in 1780 which made St. Louis vulnerable to
attack. Father Gibault accompanied Clark on that
campaign and so earned a British price on his head. Later
the priest returned to Ste. Genevieve serving as pastor until
1784, riding a horse up and down the Mississippi banks
bringing the sacraments to all in need. It is said he was
never without his pistols.

33. San Diego at Mission San Diego de Alcala (1760)
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo at Carmel-
by-the Sea, California in (1770)
Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores) at
San Francisco (1776)
Mission San Luis Obispo at San Luis Obispo (1772)
Mission Santa Clara de Asis at Santa Clara (1777)
Mission Senora Reina de los Angeles Asistencia in Los
Angeles (1784),

34. 1713 to 1784
Established a number of
California Missions between
1770 and 1784
He was beatified in 1988
That action was protested by
Native Americans partly due
to Serra’s use of beatings

35. For a decade after the War for American Independence, the lands west
of the Mississippi remained in Spanish hands while lands east of the
great river were given to the newly formed United States of America.
In church matters, the west, including St. Louis, was under the
authority of the Bishop of Havana, Cuba, and the east came under the
direction of newly appointed "Prefect Apostolic," later Bishop John
Carroll of Baltimore. Both sides of the river suffered from a shortage of
priests.
After the American victory at Yorktown, aided by a French army and
fleet, a French chaplain, Father Paul de St. Pierre, volunteered his
services to the western lands. Another, Father Pierre Huet de la
Valiniere also came to Illinois after he wore out his welcome in Quebec
and, after a brief stay in Baltimore, was encouraged to leave that city
also. In Illinois he continued his rowdy ways by picking fights with
settlers and attacking Father St. Pierre. In disgust, Father St. Pierre
moved to Ste. Genevieve when Gibault moved to New Madrid,
Missouri.

36. Popery Act of 1698 (1700)- effectively banned the Mass, Catholic
schools and put a bounty on Catholic priests
Papacy recognized the legitimacy of the Hanoverian Dynasty in
1766 –this opened the door for eventual Catholic emancipation
Quebec Act of 1774 – was the first step
Catholic Relief Act of 1778 allowed Catholics to own property
and join the British Army
Spawned riots in Scotland in 1779
The Gordon Riots in 1780 were also known as the “No Popery Riots”
Further legislation gave Catholics the right to schools and
bishops in 1782
Finally the Catholic Relief Act of 1829 gave British Catholics full
rights in the Kingdom