Tensions burned Catholic churches in Philadelphia

by Beth Conahan news editor

Catholics and Protestants share a history of tension that could be seen buming on the streets of even Philadelphia. More tban 160 years ago, the streets of Kensington were fraught with riots.

Dr. McGuinness, religious studies chair, doesn't see many similarities between what happened so long ago in Philadelphia and what is happening in Northern Ireland. "At this point. it's hard to see where politics end and religion begins," she said of the violence in Ireland.

The 1840s held a strong anti-Catholic sentiment, in a country strongly Protestant.

The Catholics feared the Protestant influence their children faced in pubUc schools. There was no division of church and state at the time and children were required to read the Bible everyday at school. The Catholics did not like their children studying the King James Bible, which was considered to be the Protestant Bible.

a placard held by Protestant protesters in Belfast, N.l.

On Thursday, Sept. 6, the United States condemned the violence against the schoolgirls and asked leaders from both sides to denounce 0 f the city where a Protestant community butts heads with a Catholic community.

Tensions only grew as the week continued. On Wednesday, Sept. 5, pro-British loyalists hurled a homemade bomb at police guarding the young girls as they walked to school. The Protestant Red Hand Defenders, whose name the police believe is a cover for a Northern Ireland Protestant militia group, claimed responsibility for the bomb.

The frictions in daytime served only as a prelude to the rioting that followed at night. A 32-year-old Catholic woman has been charged with the murder of a Protestant teenager. Officials are holding her until Oct. 3 for running him down with a car.

Since the bombing, the morning protests have been it publicly. The following day, the Pope spoke out to both sides to show goodwill and to resolve their differences.

Tensions in Northern Ireland flare up and die down. During the quiet times, Holy Cross schoolgirls attend field trips and art programs with students from Wheatfield Primary School, the Protestant elementary school. These schools practically stand side-by-side and some of the children have become friends, but they will never be invited to one another's houses.

A placard held by one of the protesters claims "the road to peace and reconciliation lies around the corner."

The Protestants feared the Catholics were going to take over the country. They were sure if this happened the Pope would inevitably become their leader.

Tensions came to a breaking point and two Catholic churches were burned to the ground. St. Michael in Kensington and St. Augustine in Olde City.

The effects of the riots were not forgotten quick:Jy by the Catholic community. When the cathedral was built in 1846, windows were only put at the highest possible points because of the fear started by the burning churches.

The Irish Catholics in the 1840s were the poor minority but America gave them the opportunity to rise in society.

Catholic prejudice was not fully forgotten in the United States, according to McGuinness, until John F. Kennedy became president. And even during his election, rumors flourished that the Pope would somehow be the American president's puppet master.