Parish and School Closing

...60% of registered members from 1970 to 1990. Due to this and lingering financial concerns, in 1993 eight parishes in North Philadelphia would close and consolidate into two new ones: Our Lady of Hope and St. Martin de Porres. In Chester, all six parishes in the city would merge into

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Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

...mainly a story of the Church in Washington D.C., Philadelphia would have a number of important connections to the building of the shrine, including Reverend Bernard McKenna, who acted as Shahan’s secretary from 1915-1929 and then as the first director of the shrine from 1929-1933.[6] McKenna was born in Philadelphia

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Thomas Nast Anti-Irish Cartoons

...hat the Irish Catholics were regularly involved in demonstrated clear evidence of their inferiority and justified his concern that they would be a threat to democracy. "Chorus of Rising Patriots (?). 'We can not tell a lie! We did not do it!'"https://omeka.chrc-phila.org/items/show/7364 Another cartoon a few years later also illustrates

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Mary Brackett Willcox and Catholicism in the Suburbs

...e growth and struggles of the Catholic Church. One letter from a priest in Texas spoke of the missionary work there, while a letter from 1844 refers to the danger of being Catholic during the Nativist riots in Philadelphia.[13] St. Thomas the Apostle Church When she passed away at the

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