Italian Immigrant Catholic Clergy and an

Exception to the Rule: The Reverend

Antonio Demo, Our Lady ofPompei,
Greenwich Village, 1899—1933
MARY ELIZABETH BROWN

Italians have long been the exception to generalizations about ethnic

American Catholicism. As early as the 1880s, American bishops considered
them a "problem."1 In 1946, Henry J. Browne summarized the "problem":
Italians did not regularly attend mass, did not receive the sacraments, did not
contribute to the support of the church, did not educate their children in
their faith, did not respect the clergy, and did not appreciate that they should
be doing better in all these areas.2 Although Browne's work has become the
subject of revisionist criticism among students of Italian American Catholi-
cism, specialists in other aspects of American Catholicism have incorporated
into their work generalizations generated by the Italian-American experts.3
James Sanders's study of Chicago parochial schools referred to Italians as
least likely to support such schools.4 David J. O'Brien's history of the diocese

1. Silvano M. Tomasi and Edward C. Stibili, Italian Americans and Religion: An Annotated
Bibliography, second ed. (New York, 1992) is a helpful guide to the published sources.
Stephen Michael Di Giovanni, "Michael Augustine Corrigan and the Italian Immi-
grants: The Relationship Between the Church and the Italians in the Archdiocese of
New York, 1885-1902" (Ph.D. diss., Gregorian Pontifical University, Rome, 1983) is a
good account of late nineteenth century American and Italian plans for Italian
immigrant pastoral care.
2. Henry J. Browne, "The 'Italian Problem' in the Catholic Church of the United States,
1880-1900," United States Catholic Historical Society Historical Records and Studies 35
(1946): 46-72.
3. The revisions take two forms. Rudolph J. Vecoli, "Prelates and Peasants: Italian
Immigrants and the Catholic Church," Journal of Social History 2 (1969): 217-268,
agreed that the Italians did not practice their faith with the same fervor as Irish
Catholics, but argued that this was because the southern Italians who made up the
majority of immigrants had been twice alienated from Catholicism: once by church
officials in Italy, who allied with the landowners against the peasants, and once by the
anti-Italian attitudes of the Irish-American Catholics. Silvano M. Tomasi, Piety and
Power: The Role of the Italian Parishes in the New York Metropolitan Area, 1880-1930 (New
York, 1975) argued that Italians did indeed practice their faith, albeit using their own
devotional customs and under the pastoral guidance of clergy of their own ethnic
background.
4. James W. Sanders, The Education of an Urban Minority: Catholics in Chicago, 1833—1965
(New York, 1977), pp. 67-71, 112-115.

Ms. Brown is assistant professor in the history department in Kutztown University,

Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
41
42 CHURCH HISTORY

of Syracuse emphasizes the difficulties Italians faced and the troubles they
created for the clergy and hierarchy.5 Dolan's survey of American Catholic
history has a large bibliography on which to base its conclusion that "the
religion of the [southern Italian] people was not the same as the official
religion of the church."6
Nineteenth-century observers and twentieth-century scholars offered two
interpretations of Italian lay-clergy relationships. Rudolph Vecoli noted the
pervasiveness of anticlericalism among Italian men. Henry Browne cited the
poor quality of the Italian clergy. In either case, there was a greater distance
between Italian clergy and laity than between the clergy and laity of other
ethnic groups. Reverend Antonio Demo, P.S.S.C., is a significant exception to
this judgment because he was an active leader who presided over a commu-
nity which considered its parish an important institution; and yet he be-
longed to the one ethnic Catholic group widely regarded as lacking strong
parishes and clerical leadership.7
Antonio Demo was himself an immigrant. He was born 23 April 1870 in
Lazzaretto di Bassano, Vincenza, Italy. He joined the Pious Society of Saint
Charles, more often called the Scalabrinians after founder Bishop Giovanni
Battista Scalabrini.8 The Scalabrinians were dedicated to ministering to
Italian immigrants on their journeys and in their new settlements. After
ordination at Bishop Scalabrini's own hands in 1896, he departed for the
mission field of Boston's North End. He may have learned some English in
Italy, or he may have learned on the job in America; his English, while always
clear, occasionally included an odd word or construction. He was appointed
Pompei's pastor 19 July 1899.9

5. David J. O'Brien, Faith and Friendship: Catholicism in the Diocese of Syracuse, 1886—1986
(Syracuse, N.Y., 1987), pp. 132-139, 217-222.
6. Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present
(Garden City, N.Y., 1985), pp. 173-176, 254-255, 280, and 282.
7. Demo (pronounced DAY-mo) was profiled in the (New York) Catholic News in Novem-
ber 1921, a piece which was reprinted almost verbatim in January 1936. There are two
brief biographies: Remo Rizzato, P.S.S.C., Figure di Missionari Scalabriniani (New York,
1948), pp. 107-112, and a serial in Pompei's newsletter, [Charles Zanoni], The Village
Bells (Winter 1985-Winter 1986). Demo's stockpile of historical documents permits the
present view into a heretofore little-studied ethnic group. He seems to have saved every
scrap of paper that came his way at Pompei: advertisements, announcements, balance
sheets, bills, brochures, bulletins, correspondence, financial records, flyers, form
letters, invitations, newspaper clippings, minutes from meetings, notes, personal
letters, photographs, play bills, postcards, programs, sacramental registers, sodality
dues records—everything.
8. See Marco Caliaro and Mario Francesconi.yoAn Baptist Scalabrini, Apostle to Emigrants,
trans. Alba I. Zizzamia (New York, 1977).
9. Giacomo Gambera to Demo, Boston, 19 July 1899, Box 7, Folder 62. All documents are
at the Center for Migration Studies, Flagg Place, Staten Island, New York in their
collection 037. The box and folder number for each document are given here. Most of
the documents are letters, and were written in New York unless otherwise specified.
The letters are about evenly divided between business correspondence written by
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 43

Pompei had been founded in 1892.10 Unlike the southern Italians who
made up the majority of immigrants and who reproduced their distinctive
outdoor feste in America, Pompei's parishioners hailed from around the city
of Genoa, a northern Italian area the religious traditions of which more
closely matched those of other parts of Europe." Parishioners divided into
two classes. A small group of men were heads of households and owners of
businesses who interested themselves in parish management. A larger group
in the parish were unskilled laborers and the chief recipients of Demo's
care.12 Pompei's parishioners remember Demo partly for his record in parish
construction. When he became pastor, Pompei occupied a church at 210
Bleecker Street. Demo renovated the rectory there, turned the basement into
an auditorium, and opened a "kindergarten," or day care center, in 1915.
When Sixth Avenue's extension demolished the church, he purchased land
on the corner between Bleecker, Carmine, and Leroy Streets, where in 1928
he opened the church which Pompei still uses. A school followed in 1930.
One can think of Demo as conducting his ministry within a series of
concentric circles, at the center of which was the parish itself. The parish was
surrounded by a circle of sister Italian Catholic parishes. Beyond that was a
circle of social service institutions run by and for members of the ethnoreli-
gious group. Beyond that was a circle of non-Italian but Catholic institutions
which parishioners could also utilize for assistance in family crises. Beyond
that was a circle of public welfare institutions and private philanthropies.
This last was territory into which the Catholic laity were warned against
venturing; one reason for the Catholic benevolent institutions was to keep
Catholics out of Protestant and public institutions. It was in his contact with
this larger universe, outside the stereotypical world of the narrow ethnic
Catholic ghetto, that Demo was most unusual.

persons in official capacity, and correspondence from parishioners and other Italian
immigrants and Italian-Americans. When the letter is from or to an official, the official's
name is used. When the letter is from or to someone in a private capacity, the street
address is used. In the interest of space, only one example will be cited; there are
usually dozens of requests for the same kind of help over the thirty-five-year period
covered by the letters.
10. For Pompei's early history, see Constantino Sassi, P.S.S.C., Parrocchm della Madonna di
Pompeii in New York: Notizie Storiche dei Primi Conquant' Anni dalla sua Fondazione,
1892-1942 (Rome, 1946).
11. For more on southern Italians, see Robert Anthony Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street:
Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1930 (New Haven, Conn., 1987).
12. For Pompei's demographic profile, see Louise C. Odencrantz, Italian Women in Industry
(New York, 1919); Patrizia Salvetti, "Una parrocchia italiana di New York e i suoi
fedeli: Nostra Signora di Pompei (1892-1933)," Studi Emigrazione 21 (1984): 43-64;
and my "A Case Study of the Italian Layman and Parish Life at Our Lady of Pompei,
Greenwich Village, New York City" (Paper delivered at the American Italian Associa-
tion Annual Meeting, New Haven, Conn., 15—16 November 1992).
44 CHURCH HISTORY

1.
Under Demo, Pompei touched its parishioners' lives from cradle to grave.
At that time, there were no diocesan-sponsored workshops or retreats for
engaged couples. The affianced made arrangements with the parish a few
weeks before their wedding. When children were born, there were no
baptism classes for parents or godparents: Pompei baptized weekly, after the
last Sunday Mass. Until the school was built, the children had their catechism
classes in the church, different grades occupying different sections of pews.
One of Pompei's claims to fame is that Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, later a
canonized saint, taught at Pompei, and came to Demo for confession. During
most of Demo's tenure, the Christian Brothers organized the Sunday school,
and directed Pompei's young lay women in teaching some of the grades.
During the week the kindergarten saw up to ninety preschoolers a day. After
1930, children attended parochial school from kindergarten through eighth
grade. Adolescents met for sodalities, rehearsals for fund-raising dramatic
performances, and sports. Adults also had sodalities for their spiritual life,
and from 1899 to 1923 the men of the Saint Joseph Society met monthly to
assist the pastor with financial affairs.
Around Pompei was a network of other New York Italian Catholic par-
ishes. By the time the Works Progress Administration counted them for one
of their projects, there were forty-one parishes in the city and archdiocese of
New York (the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island) which
used Italian for a least one Sunday sermon. These parishes' pastors attended
each other's cornerstone ceremonies and anniversary celebrations, and, at
least until Pompei began its move to Carmine Street, Demo contributed to
some of the other parishes' fund-raising drives.13
There were other Catholic institutions for Italians besides parishes. From
1912 to 1927 Demo served on an archdiocesan Italian Bureau, which
supervised Italian parishes and priests. Until 1923, the Scalabrinians staffed
the New York branch of the Saint Raphael Society for the Protection of
Italian Immigrants, and after that year, the Italian Auxiliary, a joint project
of the archdiocese and an Italian agency, cared for travelers. Mother Cabrini
and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart came to New York in 1889 to open
an Italian Catholic girls' orphanage. Mother Cabrini also took over the
Scalabrinians' Columbus Hospital. Several parishes besides Pompei had
parochial schools and day care centers, and a couple of parishes ran summer
camps where city children went for country vacations. Demo patronized
Italian Catholic charities, sending Pompei's youngsters to summer camp, and

13. For an event, see John Dolan, P.S.M. to Demo, 5 July 1904, Box 2, Folder 5. For
donation, see Giuseppe A. Caffuzzi, 28 Nov. 1930, Box 6, Folder 40.
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 45

donating money to other Italian day care centers. 14 He supplied Columbus

Hospital with a priest to give spiritual talks to the staff, and recommended its
fund raisers to his parishioners. 15
There were other non-Catholic Italian organizations in New York City, but
Demo did not correspond with them. Nor did he correspond with his
counterparts in other ethnic Catholic benevolent activities, with the Lithua-
nian national Catholic parish in Greenwich Village or with the New York
branch of the German Saint Raphael Society.
Beyond this circle of Italian Catholic parishes and agencies lay a larger
circle of over 200 "American" (English-speaking) Catholic benevolent agen-
cies. Some provided institutional care. Others assisted people in their homes.
Most parishes (Pompei was an exception) had Saint Vincent de Paul Societies
which distributed charity, and there were Catholic foster home and parole-
work societies. Each establishment raised its own money and did its own
public relations to let people know what help was available. Pompei's parish-
ioners entered this Catholic eleemosynary archipelago in two ways. The first
way was to come to the agency's attention without going through Demo. This
seems to have happened most often when a person got into trouble with the
law. During the early part of his ministry, Demo received numerous letters
from a council (local organization) of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society which
was located on Broome Street, not far away from the city's courts and jails.
Saint Vincent de Paul "visitors" made the rounds of these institutions, noting
the arrival of any new Catholics, finding out their parishes, and notifying
their pastors that a parishioner was incarcerated. 16 Demo then performed a
variety of services, such as tracking down relatives, finding jobs for people
about to be released, and writing letters of recommendation asking that men
be allowed to return home to support their needy wives and children. 17 The
second and more common way to get into the Catholic welfare system was for
the parishioner to come to Demo and be directed toward the proper agency.
Demo's services were most frequently called for in cases involving children.
Sometimes, immigrant parents found their American-born or -raised off-
spring difficult to control, and wished to put them "under stranger

14. For camp, see J[oseph] M. Congedo to Demo, 24 July 1923, Box 4, Folder 30. For
donation, see Sister M. Matilde Marazzi to Demo, 8 May 1926, Box 5, Folder 35.
15. For sending clergy, see Mother Mary Jospehine, M.S.C. to Demo, 12 Dec. 1923, Box 4,
Folder 29. For recommending Columbus Hospital events, see Pacifico C. Rossi to
Demo, 24 May 1924, Box 5, Folder 31.
16. D. P. Conway to Demo, 12 May 1910, and Anna Cornetta to Demo, 15 June, 17 June,
29 July, and 30 Dec. 1910, Box 1, Folder 11; Cornetta to Demo, undated and 19 Jan.
1911; and Djennis] J. Gerrity to Demo, 2 Sept. 1911, Box 1, Folder 12.
17. For tracking down relatives, see Albert Garvin to Demo, Chesire, Conn., 18Jan. 1915,
Box 2, Folder 16. For finding jobs for ex-inmates, see Eastern New York Reformatory
to Demo, 1 Aug. 1913, Box 2, Folder 14. For employment reference letters, see 534-8
W. Broadway to Demo, 19 May 1928, Box 5, Folder 32.
46 CHURCH HISTORY

domination," as Demo explained in one reference letter.18 Sometimes impov-

erished families could not care for their offspring, especially when the male
breadwinner died or deserted, for women customarily made only half as
much as men and had to combine child care with wage work.19
There were requests for help with other Catholic institutions as well. When
parishioners had friends or relatives who faced problems getting past U.S.
immigration authorities, Demo referred them to Catholic traveler's aid
societies.20 When senior citizens needed retirement homes, Demo wrote to
the orders of religious women who ran such institutions.21 When a parish
man needed long-term medical care, Demo arranged for a Catholic sanitar-
ium bed. 22 When a young Italian woman became pregnant out of wedlock,
Demo visited her at New York Foundling Hospital to translate for her. 23

2.
Beyond these Catholic institutions lay a larger circle of similar institutions
run by the city or state government. Demo served as his parishioners'
intermediary in their encounters with New York bureaucracy. Some encoun-
ters were amusing, as when Demo explained to the Health Department that
Lucia was a girl's name, and asked officials to please change his parishioner's
birth certificate to read "girl." 24 Other transactions were tragic. On 8 July
1918, a family asked Demo to find a cousin who was admitted to Bellevue 5
December 1916, and, last the family heard, transferred to another city
hospital on 6 January 1917. Demo finally found out on 23 November 1918
that the patient had died—on 1 August 1917.25
Demo's most regular contacts with non-Catholic public and private agen-
cies were with those that had offices in Greenwich Village. His interactions
with these institutions contrasted strongly with the remarks about non-
Catholic public and private agencies seen in the Catholic press of his day.
New York's Catholic leadership always suspected that non-Catholic agencies
used charity to entice Catholics from their faith. As Cardinal Hayes ex-
plained: "Recent experiences in the Charity world force on us the conviction
of how organized and united are those not of our spirit and faith against our
doctrine. . . . The first thing is to know and study the spirit and methods of

18. Demo to Catholic Charities, undated, Box 5, Folder 37.

19. 23 Bedford Street to Demo, 31 Mar. 1915, Box 2, Folder 16.
20. 569 Hudson to Demo, 6 April 1927, Box 5, Folder 37.
21. Little Sisters of the Poor to Demo, 13 Sept. 1908, Box 1, Folder 9.
22. Demo to Saint Vincent de Paul, 28 May 1926, Box 2, Folder 17.
23. New York Foundling Hospital to Demo, 20 Feb. 1904, Box 10, Folder 117.
24. Demo to New York City Department of Health, 7 Sept. 1933, Box 6, Folder 43. See also
Louise C. Spaziano to Demo, 30June 1925, Box 5, Folder 33.
25. C. B. Bacon to Demo, 23 Nov. 1918, Box 3, Folder 22. See also William P. Richter to
Demo, 11 Mar. 1927, Box 5, Folder 37.
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 47

the opposition."26 A prominent Catholic layman and journalist put it more

bluntly: Catholics should adopt "tactics of the enemy."27 Demo's involvement
with the public schools and civic charitable organizations demonstrates his
different attitude.
The founding of New York City's public school system was the direct result
of antagonism between non-Catholics and Catholics.28 Until 1842, the city
allocated public funds to a private Public School Society for the purposes of
educating the poor. As the numbers of poor Catholic Irish increased, so did
tension between the native Protestant middle class Public School Society and
its clients. Thus New York's Roman Catholic bishop John Joseph Hughes
(Archbishop Hughes after 1851) requested that Catholics be allowed a share
of the tax money. When the city government refused, Hughes organized a
slate of pro-Catholic candidates for the fall election. He was defeated, but he
taught the state a lesson in Catholic voting power. In an effort to satisfy
Hughes and the Catholics, New York established a truly public school system
which did not involve itself in catechesis. The lack of religious education was
equally unacceptable to Hughes. He became a leader in the movement to
erect a parochial school in every parish. Demo's own experience with New
York's public schools contrasted with Hughes's. Several teachers and princi-
pals in Greenwich Village public schools were Catholic. Like modern workers
who attend churches near their place of work for daily Mass or prayers,
Catholic public school personnel were quasi parishioners at Pompei.29 They
took an interest in their pupils' religious education, and notified Demo if they
encountered children they thought needed catechetical instruction.30 Demo
did his part to ensure professional relationships with Village educators.
Beginning in 1913, he served, at his request, on the Advisory Board of the
School and Civic League.31 He donated a ten dollar gold piece as the reward
in an annual Demo Prize for Character at the local boys' school.32 He
presented another ten dollars as an award for "general excellence" at the
local girls' school.33 Village educators reciprocated. Principals invited him to

26. Hayes, circular letter, 31 Oct. 1917, Box 3, Folder 20.

27. Thomas F. Meehan, "Evangelizing the Italians," The Messenger 39 (1903): 32.
28. Diane Ravitch, The Great School Wars: New York City, 1805-1973: A History of the Public
Schools as Battlefield of Social Change (New York, 1974), pp. 3-76.
29. 490 Hudson Street to Demo, 25 June 1924, Box 5, Folder 31 and Public School (P.S.)
95 to Demo, 23 Dec. 1912, Box 2, Folder 13.
30. P.S. 95 to Demo, 6 Dec. 1918, Box 3, Folder 22; P.S. 95 to Demo, undated, Box 1,
Folder 12; P.S. 107 to Demo, undated, Box 6, Folder 44; and 16 Clarkson Street to
Demo, undated, Box 3, Folder 21.
31. Mary F. Maguire to Demo, P.S. 223, 12 Dec. 1912, Box 1, Folder 12, and Elsa Ueland to
Demo, 19 Feb. 1913, Box 2, Folder 14.
32. Harold Peyser to Demo, 4 June 1925, Box 5, Folder 33.
33. Demo to Loretta Rochester, 17 June 1925, Box 5, Folder 33.
48 CHURCH HISTORY

parents' meetings and to graduations.34 They excused Catholic children for

Mass on holy days of obligation.35 When the city implemented release time
for religious education, the local elementary school principal called on him to
explain the system.36 Decent relations with their pupils' pastor probably
made the educators' work easier. Principals referred to Demo children whose
parents were unavailable for school conferences.37 When the children circu-
lated a rumor that 1 May was a holy day on which homework was forbidden,
the principal rectified the situation with a letter to Demo.38 Knowing school
officials probably made Demo's job easier as well, because he contacted them
to obtain working papers for parishioners' children.39 It is not clear whether
the opening of the parochial school at Pompei affected Demo's relationships
with area public schools because he died before the school had its first
graduating class.
There is no well-publicized history of prejudice against immigrants at the
New York Public Library. However, historians have not thought of Italian
immigrants as library patrons, because so many Italian immigrants could not
read. Demo's parishioners, though, regularly used him as a reference so that
they could get library cards.40 Demo helped the librarian at the Hudson Park
branch identify Italian-language books to order for the library's collection.41
The Children's Aid Society (CAS), founded in 1853, was one of the oldest
philanthropies in New York. Like the public schools, CAS had a history of
troubled relations with the Catholic church, especially where Italians were
concerned.42 In 1855, Charles Loring Brace and A. E. Cerqua opened an
Italian Evening School at Five Points, New York's most notorious slum.
According to Brace, a Father Rebeccio turned the Italians against the school
and took up a collection among them for a Catholic school. Rebeccio
supposedly disappeared with the money, entering the world of stereotype on
which non-Italians, Protestant and Catholic, drew for their image of Italian
clergy. At least one worker at the Sullivan Street CAS facility was aware of the
history of conflict between CAS and Catholics, for she made a point of
reassuring Demo that she was not usurping his authority, but supplementing

34. For parents' meeting, see Maguire to Demo, 13 Feb. 1907, Box 1, Folder 8. For
graduation, see Katherine Bevier, 16 June 1916, Box 2, Folder 17.
35. Maguire to Demo, 21 Feb. 1912, Box 2, Folder 13.
36. Maguire to Demo, 8 June 1915, Box 2, Folder 16, and M. C. Bergen to Michael Joseph
Lavelle, 6 Jan. 1916, Box 8, Folder 91.
37. Peyser to Demo, 16 June 1926, Box 5, Folder 35.
38. Maguire to Demo, 1 May 1913, Box 2, Folder 14.
39. Katherine Bevier to Demo, 12 May 1914, Box 2, Folder 15; Demo to Rochester, Dec.
1925, Box 5, Folder 32.
40. For example, M. A. Leonard to Demo, 19 Mar. 1912, Box 2, Folder 13.
41. Anna B[illegible] to Demo, 25 Oct. 1910, Box 1, Folder 11.
42. Charles Loring Brace, The Dangerous Classes of New York and Twenty Years' Work among
Them (New York, 1880; reprint, Montclair, N.J., 1978), pp. 198-199.
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 49

it with her own Christian uplift.43 Relations with CAS during Demo's time
were congenial. When they needed someone to teach a course, CAS sent the
job announcement to Pompei to see if any parish women were interested.44
For his part, Demo came to CAS to read Italian Christmas stories at the
children's annual Christmas party.45
Another welfare agency with which Demo dealt was the Charity Organiza-
tion Society (COS). Founded in 1882 by Josephine Slaw Lowell, COS did not
give out money. It collected information on the types of services needed, and
on the people requesting services so that only the truly needy were helped,
and only enough help was given to return them to self-sufficiency. Although
Catholics eventually adopted COS methods, they were at first suspicious of a
charity that was not as open-handed as the Good Samaritan. John Boyle
O'Reilly, editor of Boston's Catholic Pilot, summed up Catholics' views when
he wrote the couplet "The organized charity scrimped and iced/In the name
of a cautious, statistical Christ."46
Protestant and Catholic leaders differed on how best to help the poor, but
when Demo saw a source of aid for his parishioners, he took advantage of it.
He supported COS, and once offered to assist in its fund raising campaign.47
He referred parishioners to the COS district office at 27 Morton Street. Since
COS did not give money, it sometimes referred Demo's parishioners back to
him to fund until COS could complete the paperwork necessary for refer-
ral.48 COS paid the rent for people who were waiting for their applications to
be processed, and there are numerous letters indicating that when the
applicants were parishioners, COS and Demo, the latter using Pompei's
funds, each paid half the rent.49 The reference checks COS conducted were
supposed to see if the poor were the "worthy poor." Judging from the
correspondence, COS and Demo agreed on standards for worthiness, with
the predictable exception of Catholics' attitude toward divorce and remar-
riage which COS social workers found frustrating.
Progressive philanthropists developed a new social service institution, the
settlement house. American-born, college-educated young men and women
"settled" among the urban, working-class, immigrant poor, studying their
needs and offering them assistance. Catholics believed settlements were a

43. M. S. Collins to Demo, ca. 14 Nov. 1918, Box 3, Folder 21.

44. Augustus E. Califano to Demo, 14 Oct. 1920, Box 3, Folder 25; 30 Nov. 1921, Box 3,
Folder 26; 11 Oct. 1923, Box 4, Folder 30.
45. M. S. Collins to Demo, 6 Dec. 1915, Box 2, Folder 16.
46. Robert H. Bremner, From the Depths: The Discovery of Poverty in the United States (New
York, 1956), p. 53.
47. Muriel Hudnut to Demo, 9 Mar. 1926, Box 5, Folder 35.
48. M. Barrows to Demo, 22 May 1924, Box 5, Folder 31.
49. Hudnut to Demo, 25 Mar. 1925, Box 5, Folder 31; Hudnut to Demo, 6 Sept. 1924,
Box 5, Folder 32; and L'thel Outerbridge to Demo, 21 Apr. 1925, Box 5, Folder
33.
50 CHURCH HISTORY

new method of pursuing the old goal of "assimilating" immigrants away from
their faith.50 When Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch founded Greenwich House
in 1901, she reassured New York Catholics by asking prominent members of
the faith to serve on Greenwich House's board of directors.51 Demo had
extensive and varied contacts with Greenwich House. Social workers there
consulted him when they wanted information about the neighborhood. 52
The committees Mrs. Simkhovitch asked him to serve on show how involved
in neighborhood affairs he was: a conference to draw up reports to convince
city officials to limit new construction in the Village to housing units, a
meeting with "prominent residents" of the Village to discuss publicly-funded
upgrading in the neighborhood, a lunch with Village Catholic clergy to talk
about church-state relations, membership in a steering committee to democ-
ratize settlement management. 53 Demo responded to these requests. Asked
to join the Greenwich Village Improvement Society, he noted that he sent in
his dollar. 54 Greenwich House was involved in the performing and creative
arts, and invited Demo to drama club meetings, art exhibit committee
meetings, displays of pottery made by settlement house students, Old Home
Week festivities, and children's pageants. 55 Its social workers apparently
were on good enough terms with Demo that they could ask for favors, such as
requesting that he publicize their music school or lend them Pompei's slide
projector for an evening entertainment. 56
A moving example of cooperation between Pompei and Greenwich House
came as a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911.57 The
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was located on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors
of a loft building within walking distance of both Greenwich House and
Pompei. The fire broke out at about 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon. The
building itself was fireproof, but the blouse factory was not: it had wooden

50. Mary Louise Sullivan, M.S.C., Mother Cabrim: "Italian Immigrant of the Century" (New
York, 1992).
51. Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, Neighborhood: My Story of Greenwich House (New York,
1938), p. 162.
52. Mary Carpenter to Demo, 9 Mar. 1916, Box 2, Folder 17; Ellen G. McDowell to Demo,
28 June 1922, Box 4, Folder 27.
53. For limiting Village construction, see Simkhovitch to Demo, 2 Feb. 1916, Box 2, Folder
17. For meeting with "prominent residents," see Simkhovitch to Demo, 14 Dec. 1921,
Box 3, Folder 26. For lunch, see Simkhovitch to Demo, 21 March 1925, Box 5, Folder
33. For steering committee, see Simkhovitch to Demo, undated, Box 3, Folder 25.
54. William Spinney to Demo, undated, Box 2, Folder 16.
55. For drama, see Helen Murphy to Demo, undated, Box 6, Folder 44. For art exhibit, see
Simkhovitch to Demo, 27 Mar. 1922, Box 4, Folder 27. For pottery, see Edith King to
Demo, 16 Apr. but no year, Box 3, Folder 33. For Old Home Week, see Simkhovitch to
Demo, 13 May 1926, Box 5, Folder 35. For pageant, see Simkhovitch to Demo, 11 May
1916, Box 2, Folder 17.
56. For music school, see Margaret W. Camman to Demo, 1 Dec. 1923, Box 4, Folder 30.
For slide lantern, see Lillian Front to Demo, 27 Nov. 1929, Box 6, Folder 39.
57. For more on the fire, see Leon Stein, The Triangle Fire (Philadelphia, 1962).
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 51

work tables and benches, greasy oiled sewing machines, dangling electric
wires, and paper patterns and thin cotton material everywhere. The fire
escape was so decrepit it pulled away from the building with a full load of
passengers on it, and the regular exits were kept locked to prevent employee
theft. Employees tried to jump to safety, but the fire nets of the day were not
strong enough to handle even a light young woman hurtling from a ten story
height. The fire killed 146 people, eighteen of them Pompei parishioners.
Demo's reaction to the fire was primarily that of a pastor whose first duty was
to bury the dead. The fire first appears in the parish records Tuesday, 28
March, when Demo said Mass for Eulalia Prato, a twenty-one-year-old girl
who was identified in the newspapers by her American nickname, Millie.58
One of Pompei's three curates, Giuseppe Quadranti, said Mass for seventeen-
year-old Isabella Tortorella. On 30 March, Demo said one Mass for three of
the deceased: Anna Treue; a married woman of twenty-four named Irene
Ginnastasio; and thirty-one-year-old Rose Bassino. On 3 April, another
curate, Pio Parolin, said Mass for all the fire victims.
On 26 April 1911, Pompei held a month's mind, a memorial Mass for all
those who died in the fire. Demo sent out English-language black-bordered
announcements to people beyond the immediate parish community.59 He
sang the Solemn High Requiem Mass, and Ernesto Coppo, a Salesian
missionary who was pastor of the Church of the Transfiguration on Mott
Street, gave the sermon. The church was crowded with Italian women
mourning their friends and kin, and at some points the distraught congrega-
tion's weeping brought Coppo's sermon to a halt. One woman wrote to let
Demo know how much she appreciated his attention to pastoral care for the
bereaved: "I was eye-witness to this awful tragedy and can never forget its
horrors."60 There was an unusual conclusion to the Mass. Simkhovitch was a
member of the Women's Trade Union League, which brought together
upper-class ladies and working-class women to improve working conditions
for the latter. She and her colleagues, with what she called Demo's "cordial
permission," stood outside the church after Mass distributing English, Ital-
ian, and Yiddish circulars calling for a campaign to enforce existing fire safety
laws.61

3.
Two events accelerated Demo's contact with the world beyond Pompei.
The first was World War I. On 1 August 1914, the chancery sent a circular

58. New York Times 28 and 29 Mar. 1911, p. 2, col. 4-7 and p. 4, col. 4, respectively, and Box
46, book labeled Messe 4.
59. Invitation, ca. 26 Apr. 1911, Box 1, Folder 12.
60. 194 W. 4th Street to Demo, 25 Apr. 1911, Box 1, Folder 12.
61. New York Times, 27 Apr. 1911, p. 6, col. 3.
52 CHURCH HISTORY

requesting that archdiocesan congregations say special prayers to ward off

the coming of war.62 But it was too late. At the outbreak of war, New York's
Italian Catholics mobilized to help the Italians back home. On 26 October
1915, Gherardo Ferrante, the chancery official in charge of the Italian
national parishes, called a meeting to establish a Committee of New York
Italian Clergy for the Families of Italian Soldiers, charged with raising funds
and dispensing charity to the dependents of men who returned to Italy to
fight. Demo was the committee's treasurer. 63 On 7 and 8 February 1916,
Pompei's benefit performances of La Cieca Di Sorrento [The Blind Woman of
Sorrento] raised $230.45 for poor families of Italian soldiers.64 Demo ex-
tended aid to individual Italian soldiers, such as the man who wrote asking
for help locating his immigrant sister.65
Americans still hoped the United States could stay out of war. When in
1915 Farley departed from local custom and authorized parishes to hold a
Christmas midnight Mass he asked that people pray for world peace.66 Demo
began receiving letters from interfaith committees asking him to help keep
the United States out of war.67 But in April, the United States abandoned
isolationism and marched off to war. Italians in the United States took the
position that since the United States and Italy fought on the same side, they
shared the same goals. In 1918, an Italian-American organization drafted a
telegram, in Italian, quoting approvingly President Woodrow Wilson's fa-
mous call to make the world safe for democracy, and assuring the president
of Italian-American support. 68 However, probably figuring that Wilson spoke
no Italian, Demo helpfully translated the telegram into English—and ended
up thanking the president for making "Democracy safe for Mankind."69
Demo reported to his parishioners that Pompei got a nice thank-you letter
from Wilson's secretary, Joseph M. Tumulty. 70
Demo compiled a list of seventy-seven of his parishioners in the military.
All of them were men (women did not join the armed forces until World War
II) and all but one had an Italian surname. A handful served in the war zone

62. Joseph J. Mooney, circular letter, 1 Aug. 1914, Box 8, Folder 89.
63. Circular letter, Dec. 1915, Center for Migration Studies, Italian-Americans and Reli-
gion Collection, Series I, Box 3, Archives of the Diocese of Brooklyn Miscellaneous
Folder.
64. Program, 7-8 Feb. 1916, Box 12, Folder 144.
65. Via Gran S. Bernado #1 Milan to Demo, 7 Sept. 1916, Box 2, Folder 18.
66. John Cardinal Farley, circular letter, 14 Dec. 1915, Box 8, Folder 90.
67. For Peace Sunday, see Hamilton Holt to Demo, 10 May 1916, Box 2, Folder 17. For
anti-German protest, see William H. Owen, Jr., circular letter, 22 Jan. 1917, Box 3,
Folder 19. For Bryan meeting, see Frederick Lynch, circular letter, 26 Jan. 1917, Box
3, Folder 19.
68. Eduardo Marcuzzi, circular letter, 29 June 1918, Box 3, Folder 22.
69. Undated draft, Box 3, Folder 22.
70. Sunday announcements, 14 July 1918, Box 29, Folder 316.
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 53

itself, but one parishioner got to see Anniston, Alaska when he was stationed
there.71 Demo thought three or four parishioners lost their lives in the war.72
Greenwich House took the lead in rallying the Village to support the war.
By May, the settlement had organized a parade from Sheridan Square to
Washington Square, and located Civil War veterans for the reviewing stand.73
The United Organizations of Greenwich Village invited Demo to the review-
ing stand of its Flag Day "monster" parade and mass meeting.74 In 1918,
Demo gave a blessing at a flag-raising service, and, in another example of the
interfaith activity the war fostered, shared the platform with the Reverend E.
H. Schlueter, pastor of Saint Luke-in-the-Fields Protestant Episcopal church
on Hudson Street.75
The federal government also planned ways for people to support the war
effort. The war time agency with which Pompei had the most correspon-
dence was the Food Administration. The director of the Food Administration
was Herbert Hoover, whose activities in this office added to his reputation
and later won him the presidency. Hoover's job was to ensure that both the
civilians and the military had the food they needed. One way Hoover
accomplished his goal was by calling for food conservation. If civilian demand
for food went down, it would be easier to divert food to the military. Also,
conserving food was a daily activity that allowed people to show their support
for the war.
Hoover used churches to campaign for food conservation. In a circular
letter asking ministers to preach a special sermon on "Food Conservation
Sunday," Hoover explained why he wanted the clergy's cooperation: "The
women of America have never failed to answer such a call as comes to them
now. The saving of food is within their sphere . . . the outcome of the world
war is in the hands of women no less than in the hands of men."76 However,
there was as yet no radio or television to reach women at home, nor could
Pompei's female parishioners be expected to be able to read billboard posters
or even to understand English. Nor, perhaps, could one expect poor,
working class, ethnic Americans to pay much attention to the federal govern-
ment, which was far less involved in everyday life than it would be later.
Therefore, Hoover reasoned, people needed to be reached by those they
already accepted as their leaders. Federal officials sent Demo more informa-
tion on Food Conservation Sunday, including pledges for housewives to
sign.77 Usually, the federal government relied on the archdiocese to encour-

71. List dated 29 Sept. 1918, Box 16, Folder 195.

72. JohnJ. Dunn, circular letter, 26 Sept. 1920, Box 8, Folder 95.
73. Leroy Peterson, circular letter, 14 May 1917, Box 8, Folder 95.
74. John F. X. O'Connor to Demo, 12 June 1917, Box 3, Folder 20.
75. James J. Dover to Demo, 23 Sept. 1918, Box 3, Folder 22.
76. Herbert Hoover, circular letter, Washington, D.C., 18 June 1917, Box 3, Folder 20.
77. Charles S. Wilson, circular letter, 27 June 1917, Box 3, Folder 20.
54 CHURCH HISTORY

age parish food conservation programs. When it came to his attention that
nothing was being done to advertise food conservation among the Italians,
the first District Director of the Bureau of Conservation wrote the chancery
official in charge of minority-language Catholics, and that official circulated
the letter among the Italian clergy.78 The federal government also relied on
Greenwich House, and Greenwich House relied on Demo. Greenwich House's
assistant director and chair of a district food council invited area retailers to
food conservation meetings, and asked Demo to say a few words to them: "I
hope very much that you will be present because with the food shortage
becoming more and more serious we are going to need the cooperation of all
those agencies which reach the women of the poorer classes."79 The refer-
ence to the poorer classes raises a question. Were not poor people already
limiting food purchases? A possible answer to that question may be found in
the notebooks in which Demo listed the announcements he wanted to read at
the Sunday Masses. In June 1918, a chancery official wrote Demo to request
he announce to his parishioners an upcoming Italian Day, the purpose of
which was to impress upon the Italians the importance of diligent food
saving.80 Demo's announcement, translated into English, read: "the mayor of
New York and the cardinal recommend that everyone cooperate in every
possible way . . . in these times of great communal sacrifice."81 Demo proba-
bly figured poverty already enforced compliance with government food
conservation requests.
The Treasury Department was more successful at getting Demo's support.
He was the parish salesman for Liberty Loan bonds and also for war savings
stamp kits, with which people with small incomes saved toward the purchase
of a bond.82 The interest on the bonds assisted the Italians with their family
savings. The savings stamp and bond programs served both family and
patriotic needs.
The American Catholic hierarchy mobilized for the war effort along with
the rest of the population. In 1917, the bishops created a National Catholic
War Council. The Knights of Columbus provided the personnel and admin-
istrative skills for nationwide collections to fund military chaplains and
recreation services for Catholics in arms.83 The 1917 collection was organized
quickly and the collection was modest. In July, Demo offered to take up a

78. F. E. Breithut to Lavelle, 17 Jan. 1918, Box 3, Folder 21; Lavelle, circular letter, 18 Jan.
1918, Box 3, Folder 21.
79. Mabel F. Spinney to Demo, 11 Apr. 1918, Box 3, Folder 21.
80. Gherardo Ferrante to Demo, 15 June 1918, Box 3, Folder 22.
81. Sunday announcements, 16 June 1918, Box 29, Folder 316.
82. For Liberty Loan bonds, see Ernest Iselin to Demo, 10 and 18 Oct. 1918, Box 3, Folder
22. For savings stamps, see Milton W. Lipper to Demo, Washington, D.C., 14 Feb.
1918, Box 3, Folder 21.
83. Christopher J. Kauffman, Faith and Fraternalism: the History of the Knights of Columbus,
1881-1982 (New York, 1982), pp. 192-224.
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 55

Catholic War Relief Fund collection in his parish.84 In August, the Knights
thanked him for the $28 collected.85 The next year, Catholics tried harder.
Sunday, 17 March 1918, which combined Sunday with Saint Patrick's Day
and was sure to encourage Irish Catholic generosity, was set aside as
collection day. The Knights again sponsored the collection, but this time
archdiocesan officials fell all over themselves to assure a good turnout.
Pompei received at least a half dozen memorandums regarding administra-
tive meetings, pledge cards, and other collection supplies.86 The chancery set
an optimistically high target for Pompei's contribution to the campaign,
$8,000.87 The parishioners gave $2,285, 28% of their quota, but much more
than in 1917.88
When World War I ended, Italian Americans still had their responsibilities
to those who suffered during the war. Pompei honored veterans with free
admission to one of its fundraising programs for anyone in military uni-
form.89 The Italian Red Cross and others continued to raise money on behalf
of Italians civilian and military casualties.90 In 1921, Demo participated in a
New York service held simultaneously with Roman obsequies for Italy's
Unknown Soldier.91
A second event which altered the concentric rings of organization in which
Pompei moved occurred three years after World War I ended. Before the
war, Cardinal Farley had begun bringing together New York's Catholic
charities under an umbrella organization called United Catholic Works. The
war and then Farley's death interrupted the plans. After the war, the
organizational process started again, and in 1922 Catholic Charities was
incorporated. According to public relations articles, Catholic Charities was
supposed to coordinate New York Catholics' efforts to do good.92 Rather
than have two hundred separate agencies raise their own funds, Catholic
Charities conducted one annual campaign, and from this collection gave
funds to the separate agencies. Also, rather than have the agencies conduct
their own public relations, and depend on hundreds of pastors to channel
their parishioners toward the best sources of help, Catholic Charities had its
own intake workers to make referrals.
Catholic Charities made two changes in Pompei's service to the poor. Like
the other parishes, Pompei participated in the annual Catholic Charities

84. Edward A. Arnold to Demo, 24 July 1917, Box 3, Folder 20.

85. William P. Larkin to Demo, 14 Aug. 1917, Box 3, Folder 20.
86. Most of Demo's World War One memorabilia is in Box 14, Folder 168.
87. John J. Dunn to Demo, 21 Feb. 1918, Box 14, Folder 168.
88. New York American Sun, 31 Mar. 1918.
89. Program, 28-29 Jan. 1919, Box 12, Folder 144.
90. Ferrante to Demo, 19 Dec. 1918, Box 3, Folder 22.
91. // Carroccio 13 (1921): 635-636.
92. Patrick J. Hayes, "The Unification of Catholic Charities," Catholic World 117 (1923):
145-153.
56 CHURCH HISTORY

fund drive.93 Second, once Catholic Charities opened its referral service,
Demo's role as intake social worker changed. Instead of referring parishio-
ners to a welfare agency himself, he referred them to Catholic Charities,
explained what the problem was, and Catholic Charities was supposed to
take care of the rest.94 This was a new system, and not everyone trusted it.
The Italian Catholics, who had encountered discrimination in the past,
especially needed reassurance. Once Demo sent a family to Catholic Charities
and, when nothing happened, sent a second referral and an explanation.
"This people are under the impression that you do not care at all to act in
their favor therefore this new recommendation."95 Demo's correspondence
with Catholic Charities reveals as much about Catholic Charities as it does
about Pompei. Like the Protestant and secular organizations on which it was
modeled, Catholic Charities was a clearing house attempting to prevent
duplication and waste. Its agents contacted pastors to keep them updated on
their parishioners' cases.96 Catholic Charities sent cases back to Demo when
the people involved could use Italian Catholic institutions, thus saving
Catholic Charities resources for those ineligible for Italian care.97
Like most welfare agencies in the early twentieth century, Catholic Chari-
ties thought its mission was to support the family, and to support family
members in their accustomed roles. Men were supposed to be breadwinners,
and Catholic Charities tried to find jobs for the heads of households.98 If the
male head of the household could not work, it might take the rest of the
family to replace the lost income. In one instance, when a head of household
took sick, Catholic Charities supported the family until his mother agreed to
stay at home and take care of him, his wife and seventeen-year-old found
jobs, and the couple's fifteen-year-old planned to drop out of school to add to
the family's earnings.99 Also like other agencies, Catholic Charities divided
the needy into worthy and unworthy poor. Families had to be practicing
Catholics to qualify for Catholic Charities' aid. Catholic Charities kept pastors
such as Demo busy verifying that potential clients had indeed been validly
married.100 Demo also occasionally baptized youngsters who had come to
Catholic Charities' attention.101
There is nothing from Demo's own hand about his reasons for his exten-
sive work beyond his parish. One can guess absolute necessity was among

93. John J. Dunn, circular letter, 8 Mar. 1920, Box 8, Folder 95.
94. Demo to Catholic Charities, 19 Sept. 1929, Box 6, Folder 39.
95. Demo to Catholic Charities, 23 July 1926, Box 5, Folder 36.
96. John Philip Bramer to Demo, 14 Dec. 1925, Box 5, Folder 34.
97. Catherine Hart to Demo, 18 June 1932, Box 6, Folder 42.
98. John Philip Bramer to Demo, 28 Jan. 1926, Box 5, Folder 35.
99. Alice B. Claus to Demo, 22 Oct. 1930, Box 6, Folder 40.
100. Minnie Costello to Demo, Yonkers, 22 May 1925, Box 5, Folder 33.
101. M. H. Lagrille to Demo, 1 June 1926, Box 5, Folder 35; Mary Rea to Demo, 13 Mar.
1930, Box 6, Folder 40.
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 57

them. The early Italian immigrants' poverty meant Pompei had more people
to care for, and fewer resources available for their care. Pompei had at least as
many services and programs as other Italian Catholic parishes, and this was
not enough. More people required assistance than the parish, or even the
Catholic church, could provide.
Caroline Ware, a Greenwich House social scientist, offered a second reason
for Demo's neighborhood involvement.102 "Italian" Pompei really served two
populations: Italian immigrants and their Americanized offspring. The former
preferred to practice their faith as they had done in Italy. This presented the
danger that the latter would reject their parents' faith along with their
parents' customs as unsuitable for young Americans. As an Italian, Demo
could sympathize with the older members of his congregation, and Pompei
preserved many customs brought by the earliest parishioners. As a priest,
though, Demo could not afford to lose the youths. He involved himself in the
American life of Greenwich Village, so his young parishioners grew with their
parish and not away from it.
A third reason for Demo's extensive work was that there was no one else to
do it. His parishioners were hardly indifferent or uninvolved in their commu-
nity. Several men served long and faithfully as parish financial advisors, and
younger parishioners of both sexes were involved for many years in putting
on fund-raising plays. However, few were ready to act as liaisons between
their parish and other agencies. The studies of Pompei's laity mentioned
earlier indicate that this changed with time.
There were limits to Demo's participation in the world beyond Pompei.
Despite an appeal that "the timid, the weak, and the youth of our city should
be able to look to you" to end Mayor Jimmy Walker's corrupt administration by
voting for Fiorello LaGuardia, and despite his personal acquaintance with
LaGuardia, Demo did nothing more than send his personal wishes for
LaGuardia's success.103 He never involved himself in New York City politics
except through his cooperation with Greenwich House's advocacy of civic
improvements. And this citizen of Greenwich Village, who died at Pompei on
2 January 1936, never became a citizen of the United States.
There are three possible ways to use the work already done by other
scholars to interpret Demo's experience. One way is to compare him with the
Catholic immigrant clergy of other ethnic groups. Jay Dolan's pioneering
work, The Immigrant Church, indicates that ante-bellum New York Irish and
German priests combined expressions of pastoral care such as the administra-
tion of the sacraments with other such expressions, such as the establishment

102. Caroline Ware, Greenwich Village, 1920-1930: A Comment on American Civilization in the
Post-War Years (New York, 1935; reprint New York, 1965), p. 312.
103. Arthur Little to Demo, 16 Oct. 1929, Box 5, Folder 39.
58 CHURCH HISTORY

of parochial schools and other social service institutions.104 John J. Bukow-

cyzk described Polish priests who shaped communities defined both by
ethnicity and religiosity.105 According to Myron B. Kuropas, Ukrainian
clergy played a similar role in their community.106 Stephen J. Shaw com-
pared the German and Italian parishes of early twentieth-century Chicago,
and found similarities between the clergy of the two groups.107 Except for his
willingness to use private and public secular philanthropies to meet his
parishioners' needs, Demo seems like his clerical colleagues in other ethnic
groups. Thus, Demo's activities challenge the notion of an Italian "problem,"
and make the Italians seem more like other ethnic groups than has been
previously thought.
A second possible interpretation again involves books such as Dolan's
Immigrant Church, which notes that the Irish and German immigrants arriv-
ing in ante-bellum America were not as thorough in their knowledge of their
faith, nor as regular in their practice of it, as later generations of Irish and
German Americans were. In her history of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Leslie
Tentler Woodcock emphasizes that every ethnic Catholic group came to
Michigan much less observant of Catholic practice than their descendants
later became.108 There is probably a relationship between recency of migra-
tion and the degrees to which the ethnic group's version of Catholic practice
is acceptable to the host group. Again, the result of this research is to make
Demo, and the Italians he helped to shepherd, seem less like exceptions to
the rule and more like their immigrant colleagues, only with a later arrival
date and therefore a delayed start in the generations-long process of assimila-
tion.
A third possible interpretation is to focus on Demo's interaction with public
and private secular philanthropies for the benefit of his parishioners. There
is no up-to-date bibliography of research in American Catholicism, but a
survey of the tables of contents of Church History, Catholic Historical Review,
and U.S. Catholic Historian indicates a great deal of work on Irish and German
American Catholics involved in questions of social and economic justice in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.109 One gets the impression that

104. Jay P. Dolan, The Immigrant Church: New York's Irish and German Catholics, 1815—1865
(Baltimore, 1975).
105. John J. Bukowczyk, And My Children did Not Know Me: A History of Polish-Americans
(Bloomington, Ind., 1987).
106. Myron B. Kuropas, The Ukrainian Americans: Roots and Aspirations, 1884—1954 (Toron-
to, 1991).
107. Stephen J. Shaw, The Catholic Parish as a Way-Station of Ethnicity and Americanization:
Chicago's Germans and Italians, 1903-1939 (New York, 1991).
108. Leslie Tentler Woodcock, Seasons of Grace: A History of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
(Detroit, 1990).
109. John Tracy Ellis and Robert Trisco, A Guide to American Catholic History, second ed.
(Santa Barbara, Calif., 1982) is ten years out of date.
REVEREND ANTONIO DEMO 59

Catholic contact with the secular world started at the top, with the national
leadership, and involved issues of importance to classes of people, such as
industrial workers. There are few studies of people such as parish priests,
who worked close to the grass roots, and few studies which concern family
welfare.'l0 More work needs to be done in this area to flesh out the history of
the relationship between Catholics and private and public secular social
service institutions to find out if Demo was the exception to the rule of a wall
of separation between Catholics and others in early twentieth-century Amer-
ican life, or if he was part of an unnoticed current leading toward greater
cooperation between Catholic and public officials on behalf of those in need.

110. One person who matched Demo in trying to use public institutions to serve Catholic
needs was John Bernard Fitzpatrick, bishop of Boston from 1846 to 1866. Rather than
build parochial schools to rival public ones, Fitzpatrick took the position that public
schools should be accessible to all citizens, and he tried, unsuccessfully as it turned out,
to make Boston's public schools more accommodating for the Catholic who should
have been attending them. Thomas O'Connor, Fitzpatrick's Boston, 1846-1866: John
Bernard Fitzpatrick, Third Bishop of Boston (Boston, 1984).