Under Henry VIII, governments began closing convents and monasteries in England. In more recent times, they governments have down Catholic parishes, schools, and hospitals in the United States.
Until the early 1960s, each major Northern city had a powerful, Catholic-based political system. City mayors and councils were largely elected by Catholics. Bishops were important politically. The cities were filled with strong parishes with associated schools. Catholic hospitals provided medical care. Priests and nuns led the ground forces. The Church was anti-socialist.
Modern Henry VIIIs wanted to take over those functions to provide jobs for unionized hacks and bureaus. The only way they could succeed was to destroy Catholic parishes, churches, schools, and hospitals.
The attack was two pronged.
First, huge Public Housing projects were built. Crime was intentionally brought into crime-free communities. Slowly, urban factories began to move to the suburbs. As cities became unsafe, many Catholics moved outward. Banks were helping the process. Most Catholic housing had no mortgages owing. If those residents could be made to sell their city property cheaply, they would have to mortgage far larger amounts for their new suburban homes.
So, banks helped governments collapse the inner cities. Block-busting began. One or two houses in any given white neighborhood were sold to blacks. White families were made to understand that they had to sell, now. If not, their houses would plummet in value and they’d lose their biggest asset.
The second attack: As neighborhoods and parishes no longer elected a clear majority of city officials, influence wielded by Catholics shifted to agencies and authorities of pro-socialist programs. They promptly announced: “People want to move to the suburbs. We need freeways and expressways and toll roads so they can get into the city to work and back to the suburbs in the evening.” Soon, huge highways smashed right through parishes, making it nearly impossible to walk in cities designed for pedestrian traffic.
The Church mounted no real defense. Most Catholics were too kind and decent to realize that their own government hated The Church and had been waging war against them. America’s cities went down with the Catholic parishes. Catholic social, educational, and medical establishments weakened and disappeared. So did the anti-socialist Catholic political structures. In a decade or so, the Catholic Church and the Catholic ward bosses had disappeared. The cities were taken over by various authorities and agencies. Anti-socialist Catholic cities were targeted and destroyed.
Now, there is no unified, Catholic voice or vote. Cities continue to waste away. So do the suburbs. Now, various agencies and authorities are moving inner-city residents to the outlying areas, away from the only battlefields our governments have taken and held in the last sixty years.
Our cities are dangerous, blighted places. Rather than admit failure, Urban Renewal agencies seek more funding to repair the damages. The Church is not seriously invited to help.
