Melting Pot.

Catholic immigration to the United States rose steadily in the late nineteenth century, increasing the number of Catholics from approximately three million in 1860 to twelve million by 1900. The resulting changes in the scope and composition of the Catholic population had a significant impact both within and outside the Catholic community. Before 1870 Catholicism was a strong but regional presence in a Protestant America. Recent Irish immigrants dominated the institutional life of the church, while a German Catholic minority exercised great strength in the Midwest. Hispanic Catholics held sway in the newly acquired Southwest, and Creole Catholicism had a strong presence along the Gulf of Mexico. But soon after 1880 a remarkably diverse stream of immigrants began arriving, and within a few years large communities of French, Canadian, Portuguese, Spanish, Belgian, Slovak, Croatian, and Hungarian Catholics settled in the United States. Overshadowing these groups were...