The Stone that was Rejected

The Stone that was Rejected. . , Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me., Having escaped starvation and death, the Irish immigrants tried to pursue happiness in their adopted land but often were faced with ridicule and persecution. They had no places of worship beyond cities like Baltimore, Boston or New York. In Connecticut, until the 1830s, Catholics were not even allowed to purchase land. In 1844, anti-Catholic riots broke out in Philadelphia, where several churches were burned and numerous people killed. In the 1850s, secret societies were expanding and the newly formed American Native Party, or Know Nothing party, zealously fought immigration from Catholic countries. America was on the brink of religious war., The Irish became the first target, being accused of spoiling America with - as the popular slogan went - "rum, Romanism and rebellion." Catholic priests, thought to embody all those vices, were particularly scorned. To decide to become a Catholic priest was then to decide to be spurned as the disloyal, un-American puppet of Rome., In 1879, one year after McGivney became vicar at Saint Mary's parish on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, The New York Times ran a front-page story presenting the church as a "blemish" on the aristocratic street: "Its parishioners live some distance from the church, and they are mostly servant-girls. Consequently, its financial condition has been steadily growing worse. ... The pew-rent is not sufficient to pay the interest on the debt, and after the well-to-do members of the parish had put their hands deeply into their pockets, the close of the year 1878 found only 85 cents in the treasury. It is considered almost impossible to continue the church in its present condition. ...The result shows how foolish were those who persisted in building the church on the spot where it stands. ... It is an eye-sore on the avenue, a source of annoyance and injury to neighboring residents, and a complete failure as a business enterprise." , The New York Times, July 28, 1879., But Father Michael did not come to wage religious war. He was to show that even though America might reject him and his fellow Catholics, he would live out her best values as her most faithful son, reflecting to all the love of the heart of Christ., "A blind, aged man used to live by charity, but who was not a Catholic went every Sunday to Mass at St Mary's to hear 'that voice.' Non-Catholics found in Father McGivney a soul of immense sympathy which invited them strongly toward investigating the religious truths his lips proclaimed." , Father Joseph Daley, Throughout all of Father McGivney's life, the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiments were solidified by Thomas Nast, who as the prolific author of cartoons shaped for decades the American politics from the powerful platform of Harper's Weekly. He regularly depicted the Irish as the lethal danger to American values, which were embodied by the figure of innocent Columbia.