One Nation Under God: The Catholic Beginning of 'Christian' America

Is America a Christian nation? This is a loaded question of course, but all one needs to do is look at what Patrick Henry – the founding father who coined the phrase “give me liberty or give me death” – said on the matter. Henry said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly that this great nation was founded – not by religionists – but by Christians.” This is where, for Catholics, this term “Christian” must be properly defined. All Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Catholic, and that distinction matters here. Undefined, the word “Christian” can apply to both Catholics and Protestants alike, so to answer the question: Is America a Christian nation? we need to first step back and clarify: what do we mean by Christian?

If we were to base our answer on the original thirteen colonies, then the answer would be that America was founded as a Protestant nation. After all, only one of the thirteen colonies was Catholic. Maryland was founded by George Calvert (the 1^st Lord Baltimore) who, with a lot of political savvy, somehow managed to be granted an unlikely charter by the English Crown that gave his colony full separation from the Anglican church. All the other colonies were founded with Protestant ideals, which by their very nature were anti-Catholic – and the laws reflected such an attitude. For instance, in Virginia, arguably the most anti-Catholic colony, if a Catholic attempted to hold public office he would be fined 1,000 pounds of tobacco, in 1642 all Catholic priests were ordered to leave the colony within 5 days, and in 1691 there was a statute that declared religious liberty for all Christians “except Papists” (i.e. Catholics). So, one can see why defining the term “Christian” is important for our purposes here – as it was for those founding our Christian nation.

Despite the colonial history, if we were to go back even further, prior to the founding of the original thirteen colonies, then the answer would be that America was founded as a Catholic nation. A brief survey of the first Catholic masses to take place in America helps paint a very different picture of the founding of our “Christian” nation.

The first Catholic mass to take place in America was in 1513, fittingly during Holy Week, when Ponce de Leon arrived in a land that he would name Pascua Florida, in honor of the Easter season and its beautiful abundance of flowers. Critics may argue that Ponce de Leon landing briefly, and having a Catholic mass said on the fly, in no way makes this a Catholic nation. To which one may argue: does it matter that he was sent by a Catholic monarch – the same Catholic monarch that sent Columbus in 1492 – King Ferdinand of Spain?

What makes a nation either Catholic or Protestant, one might argue, has to do with permanent settlements like we see in Jamestown in 1607, and not by some fly-by-night mass service at a temporary locale. It’s funny you should say that; the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the continental United States is Saint Augustine, which was founded by Spanish explorer and the first governor of Florida, Pedro Menendes de Aviles in 1565. So, nearly half a century before the first Protestant colony was founded, a Catholic settlement that still stands today, was established. And at that time, the first Catholic mass on a permanent settlement occurred, celebrated by Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, and a Christian nation was officially founded – correction, a Catholic nation was officially founded.

It was just a matter of time, however, before our Catholic nation would be defined by a different kind of Christianity. Twelve of the thirteen colonies were founded with strict Protestant Ideals. Only Maryland aligned itself with the Catholic Church. It was on March 25, 1634, fittingly on the Feast of the Annunciation, that the Dove and the Ark landed on St. Clement’s Island in southern Maryland. This was when the first Catholic mass was celebrated in the colonies. The Jesuit priest, Fr. Andrew White, raised the Host in the air, and symbolically planted the proverbial flag – like Ponce de Leon and Menendez de Aviles before him – to declare that our Christian nation, belongs just as much to Catholics as it does to Protestants.

One nation under God with liberty and justice for all…

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