Religion

Italian ethnicity in Canada has inexorably been tied to the near monopoly that Roman Catholicism has historically held in Italy and over its immigrants. In the mid-twentieth century, of the country’s population of 47 million, over 97 percent were Catholic. The remainder were divided between Protestants (of which the Waldensians, or valdesi, a puritan sect founded in the early twelfth century, were the most prominent), Orthodox Christians, and Jews. In Canada, although almost all Italian immigrants arrived as Catholics, in the decades before World War II there was some movement away from the faith towards Protestant denominations, especially the United and Anglican churches and primarily in the Maritimes and the west. Religious conversion was connected to increasing intermarriage and constituted part of the general tendency towards assimilation. Hence, while in 1931, 93 percent of Italian Canadians were Catholic, two decades later the proportion had dropped to 90 percent. As was true for other aspects of the Italian-Canadian experience, this slippage ended with post-war immigration and ethnic revitalization. Indeed, a reverse trend ensued that placed the percentage of Catholics at 95 percent in 1980, one of the highest levels of religious concentration in any Canadian ethnic group.

The migration experience, aside from being physically trying, was also difficult emotionally and psychologically, and it placed under pressure the traditional religious aspects of people’s lives. Especially in the early period of Italian mass emigration at the turn of the century, its description as a via dolorosa (journey of sorrow) that the individual was forced to make was apt. Religion was bound up with the migration process, and this was evident even before individuals set foot in the New World. Prior to their departure, a Mass would often be said for the young men about to leave on their journey, the migrants would put on images of local saints blessed by the parish priest, and, after wishing them Godspeed, their families would regularly offer prayers for their safe keeping.

During the first wave of large-scale Italian migration after 1880, even for sojourners in the rough conditions of Canada’s hinterland regions, the salience of religion was often evident. Labourers petitioned the Catholic Church for Italian-speaking priests and Italian literature to help meet their religious needs. Responding to requests from both the Rocky Mountains and northern Ontario, church authorities dispatched travelling missionaries to the navvies and miners wishing to hear the gospel, make confessions, or celebrate Mass. In the west the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate constituted the major church presence, and the Corsican-born Nicolas Coccola, one of the missionaries based in Kamloops, was foremost in the ministry to the Italians. In northern Ontario, Joseph Accorsini, the Canadian-born pastor of Sturgeon Falls, played a similar role for Italians in the mining district. Religious literature was also distributed, such as the catechisms sent to migrant railway workers at Revelstoke, British Columbia, in 1900.

As early as 1883 an Italian artisan in Lytton, British Columbia, wrote to the Vatican for assistance in building a Catholic church that could serve not only the Italian residents but also the CPR crews. However, with few resources to spare, church authorities weighed requests from Italians and other immigrants with great care before committing personnel or funds. Hence, for a generation, in both major cities and small towns the church relied on its stock of Italian-speaking francophone or anglophone clergy to minister to the Italians. Not surprisingly, the first steps in the building of an Italian Catholic institutional presence in Canada were taken in Montreal, which contained the largest community. Pastoral estimates placed the number of Italians in the city at about 2,000 by 1890. The following year, a regional group, the molisani, had collected 423 signatures on a petition asking the archbishop to appoint an Italian priest, and in 1893 Father Leonardo Mazziotta from Potenza was sent to the east-end community.

It took several more years of lobbying and above all the fear of Protestant (mainly Methodist) success in proselytizing for the first Italian parish in Canada, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, to be established in 1905. Significantly, the building of this landmark was directed by Archbishop Paul Bruchési, whose Italian grandfather had come to Canada as a member of the de Watteville regiment during in the War of 1812. The archbishop in 1910 authorized the founding of a second Italian parish, Notre Dame de la Défense, to serve the Italians near the Canadian Pacific depot at Mile End. Abbé Charles-Horace Rusconi, a descendant of another colonial Italian family, was appointed parish priest. Two years later, Bruchési, through his contact with the apostolic delegate in Canada, Pellegrino Stagni, invited the representative’s order, the Servants of Mary (Servites), to take charge of the two Italian parishes in Montreal so that they would be assured of more effective administration.

Parallel developments occurred in Toronto. By 1911 the city had an Italian community approaching 5,000 and twice that number if the migrant population was included. Archbishop Fergus McEvay convinced the Irish to relinquish two churches to accommodate the Italians: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, located in the centre of the city, in 1908 and St Agnes in the west end. In 1915 St Clement’s parish was founded to serve the Italians in the northwest. However, while the archbishop of Montreal had looked to the Italian Servites to provide stability and continuity of service for the city’s immigrants, his Toronto counterparts relied on American networks. The Redemptionists of Baltimore were invited to take charge of Mount Carmel, and in the inter-war period the Franciscans of New York came to run both St Agnes and St Clements. The later was soon rebuilt as St Mary of the Angels.

Religious orders of women were also actively involved in the two major communities, especially in education and charitable work. In Montreal the Franciscan Nuns of the Immaculate Conception were recruited from Italy in 1912 to run the parish school of Notre Dame, and a decade later the Servants of Mary nuns arrived to staff the recently established Orphanage of St Joseph (founded by a charitable society consisting of Italian clergy and community leaders, such as Carlo-Onorato Catelli). In Toronto the Carmelite sisters administered to destitute Italians by making available food, clothing, fuel, and funds for rent.

By the end of World War I, Italian Catholic parishes were to be found across the breadth of Canada: St Nicholas in Sydney, Cape Breton Island; St Anthony of Padua in Ottawa, first built by the Capuchin order but taken over by the Servites in 1912; a church of the same name in Hamilton; St Ann’s in Niagara Falls, which successfully competed with the area’s Protestant mission; St Rita’s in North Bay, which became the centre of community activity; Holy Rosary in Sault Ste Marie, run by Italian priests; its namesake in Winnipeg, whose early services were held in the Icelandic Lutheran Church; and Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Sorrows in Vancouver, the former established by the Oblates and the latter by the Servites.

In Montreal, misunderstanding arose between local parish officials and Italian immigrants, who failed to comprehend the French-Canadian system of reserved pews for which parishioners paid on a yearly basis. This situation was exacerbated by the church’s reliance on cash contributions, which was foreign to the experience in Italy, where the clergy had been largely supported by the state. More serious was the conflict in English-speaking Canada, where the differences between established and Italian Catholicism were greater. Italian immigrants were criticized with regard to their alleged irregular church attendance, their lack of doctrinal knowledge, the importance they gave to the saints and feast day celebrations, and the pervasiveness of folk beliefs, often denigrated as superstitious. For their part, Italians frequently felt alienated in an Irish-dominated Catholicism which to them seemed unnecessarily puritanical, focused on formal creed and practice, over-reverential towards the clergy, and too concerned with fund raising. In comparison, Italian Catholicism, especially that of the south, was more tolerant of the sensual, steeped in historic ritual, less idealizing of priests, and more likely to be an active dispenser, rather than a recipient, of charity.

The provision of Italian Catholic churches with Italian clergy largely solved the problem of cultural conflict with established Catholicism and the threat of Protestant proselytizing. Indeed, the parishes soon flourished, emerging as the hubs of Canada’s Italian colonies. In addition to lay religious bodies such as the Holy Name and Altar societies, many other organizations and activities became linked to the churches. Various groups ranging from paese clubs and festa committees to the boy scouts and sports clubs provided them with vitality throughout the inter-war decades. The church became as much a part of Italian socio-cultural life as it was of people’s religious experience.

The Depression marked a period of maturation and expansion for Italian Catholicism in Canada. On one hand, this was due to the closing of immigration in the late 1920s, which provided Italian Canadians with the collective breathing-space necessary to consolidate their community institutions. On the other hand, the new stresses resulting from economic hardship and the political turmoil surrounding the Mussolini regime in Italy enhanced the church’s role as a place of solace and community solidarity. Hence, the 1930s witnessed an impressive series of new Italian parishes being built across Canada, along with the expansion of churchre lated lay organizations and activities.

In the first half of the century, a small minority of Canada’s Italians had converted to Protestant denominations as a result of proselytizing or exogamy. The large-scale post-war immigration of Italians created many of the same problems and challenges as the previous wave in the early twentieth century. However, this time the Canadian Catholic hierarchy was better prepared to deal with the new co-religionists, and the church acted quickly and effectively to receive the newcomers. Italian services were introduced in churches where numbers warranted, not only in the major cities, but in centres ranging from Oakville and Antikokan in Ontario to Cranbrook in British Columbia. Additional national parishes were formed in Montreal and Toronto, and new Italian-speaking churches were erected, especially during the 1960s, in places such as London, Sudbury, the Lakehead, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. In order to meet the religious needs of the thousands of Italians who arrived throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Canadian bishops appealed to the religious orders already established in Canada which had strong connections to Italy to help supply the many Italian-speaking priests the immigrants demanded. New vigour was added by the Italian Missionaries of St Charles, or Scalabrinians, an order established in the late nineteenth century specifically to minister to the needs of immigrants. The Scalabrinians proved particularly important in ministering to Italians in suburban Toronto and Montreal, as well as in Hamilton, Edmonton, and Vancouver.

In Toronto, newcomers’ needs were especially acute, and the archbishop appealed to the Ufficio Centrale per l’Emigrazione Italiana (Central Office for Italian Emigration), a church training centre in Rome, to recruit secular priests interested in working with immigrants. As well, the city’s Italian-Canadian bishop, Francesco A. Marrocco, and other clerics went on lecture tours to Italy’s seminaries to recruit young priests. In Montreal, Bishop Andrea Cimichella, who was head of the Servite order in Canada, was also in a position to liaise with Italian clergy. Likewise, Italian nuns such as the Carmelite sisters, who had long played an important role in educational and charitable work among immigrants in the two major cities, were invited to Canada.

By 1967 the 160,000 Italians in Montreal were being served by eight churches, while Toronto’s 271,000 had three times the number. Throughout the decade an impressive eighteen Toronto parishes introduced Italian-language services as members of the community fanned out from the city’s core Little Italy. By 1971 Italians accounted for one-third of Metropolitan Toronto’s Catholics, and the city contained sixty-five Italian-speaking priests, or one for each 4,000 Italian immigrants. In order to coordinate the apostolate among the various parishes, the Italian Pastoral Commission was organized in 1970, and the archdiocese appointed an episcopal vicar for the Italian community some years later.

As well as providing for the spiritual needs of Italian newcomers, the church mounted an effective campaign of immigrant assistance. From 1948 to 1951 Monsignor Marrocco, who had been immersed in the social-action tradition of the Antigonish Movement, based at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, directed the nationwide Catholic Immigrant Aid Program. In Toronto the Italian Catholic Committee was established at Mount Carmel Church to meet the immediate needs of immigrants, who were often ill-prepared for their initial adjustment to the new society. Men without family contacts were accommodated in the church’s rectory and provided with food, clothes, and other assistance. The committee gave birth to the Italian Immigrant Aid Society, with offices at the church but largely funded by the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association. The ladies’ auxiliary of the society provided invaluable service as interpreters at hospitals and other institutions, distributing food packages at Christmas and Easter, and organizing fund raising drives.

In the 1960s the church again responded to immigrant needs as manifested in the growing demand for educational and training services. Under the energetic leadership of Father Joseph Carraro from Treviso, night classes for language and trades instruction were established at St Helen’s parish in 1961 which led to the founding of COSTI a year later. More recently, as the economic hardship of immigrants has given way to social problems, the church has responded with appropriate programs, such as the Caritas drug rehabilitation project headed by Father Gianni Carparelli.

The efforts by Catholic officials to address the needs of Italians have resulted in a close integration between church and community and widespread involvement in parish life. Italian Canadians are active in the administration of their parishes as legally responsible trustees, and many serve in the network of sodalities, sororities, feste societies, charities, and similar clubs linked to the church. Illustrative of this associational life centred on the church is St Peter’s parish in Sarnia. Responding to the post-war movement that saw the town’s Italian population increase from a mere 155 in 1951 to over 2,000 twenty years later, the Scalabrinian order introduced Italian services in the mid-1950s, and under the leadership of its Italian-American pastor the church by 1960 had emerged as the reference point for the community. In 1958 the St Frances Cabrini chapter of the Catholic Women’s League was established with a membership of 35; it increased to 180 by 1990 and included women of the second generation. The league’s activities have involved support for charities, tending to the sick, organizing pilgrimages and retreats, and fund-raising for the parish. The Holy Rosary Society was established as a working men’s mutual-aid association, but it has increasingly evolved into a social club for its members and their families. The Dante Club emerged in the 1950s out of a parish-related English-language class whose members later turned to community activities. In 1967 the club succeeded in building a $100,000 general-purpose centre for Sarnia’s Italians. St Peter’s Church and the Dante Club joined forces in 1974 to mount Italian-language classes at the parish school, which were attended by 120 children by the end of the decade. Moreover, the church has been the focal point for the Italo-Canadian Cultural Club, the Allegria (Gaiety) folk group, and the Italian Pensioners’ Club.

The central church-related organization was the Committee of the Feast of San Rocco. It was created in the early 1960s to raise money for the celebration of the feast in the town of origin, located in the Ciociaria area southeast of Rome in the province of Frosinone. A decade later the feast was organized in Sarnia itself and rapidly developed into a popular annual event, bringing the entire Italian community together. By the 1990s two to three thousand people were joining in the festivities. The feast of San Rocco, like numerous similar feste across Italian Canada, is the event that most completely integrated the church and the community, church teaching and popular piety. Moreover, it bound the religious traditions of Italy to Italian-Canadian Catholicism and the older generation with the young. The festa was a complex affair spread over four days in mid-August, which involved many elements of the parish and the community. It began with a Mass attended by three generations to sanctify the feast. The participants then shared typical Italian dishes prepared by the Catholic Women’s League and joined in dancing. The Dante Club was the focus of social events, and folk dances, performances by choirs, and sporting competitions followed. The triduum prepared the community for the climax on Sunday, the procession through the streets of Sarnia. The priests with their assistants carried the cross and banners, the statue of San Rocco was supported by members of the Holy Rosary Society, the festa band played traditional music, and the participants celebrated an event that defined them as both Italian and Catholic.

The religious festa has come to be regarded as a major distinguishing feature of Italian-Canadian Catholicism. Several dozen are celebrated annually in parishes, sanctuaries, and parks throughout Canada. As a multifaceted event that combines social, recreational, and ethnic elements with its religious core, it has not only withstood transplantation but prospered in the new land. It has succeeded in attracting the participation of both the younger generation of Italian Canadians and the host society, and hence its survival seems assured.

Another major means by which Italian Canadians integrated community and ethnicity with church and religion has been through the celebration of the sacraments, which are experienced as junctures in life with a significance that is as much social as religious. Baptism at birth, the Eucharist and confirmation at puberty, and marriage in adulthood are rites of passage by which the individual is progressively more integrated into a community bound by kinship, common origin, and rights and obligations as well as by common faith. Death marks the final passage, and funerals are major occasions for the rallying of kin, paesani, and friends. Here too, religion and popular piety are intertwined. Extreme unction, or anointing of the sick, forms the last sacrament. During the wake, emotions surrounding death are made public and communally shared, especially by the women. This observation is followed by a widely attended funeral Mass and procession to the burial place, blessed by the priest. Afterwards, remembrance continues with relatives and friends, regular visitations to the crypt or grave during holy days or anniversaries, and often the erection of a small family shrine in immigrant homes.

While the essential religious practices have been preserved, considerable change has occurred over time and between generations. The world of traditional folk practices connected to the supernatural, such as belief in the evil eye, the wearing of protective amulets, and recourse to faith healers, has receded to the fringes of the community, as a rural way of life has been replaced by modernity. Also, members of the second generation are more modest in their display of religious images at home, less demonstrative of religious emotions, and less stringent in mourning practices such as the wearing of black. Similarly, changes have occurred with regard to formal religion. Sunday church attendance has become more regular and more likely to involve the whole family, and liturgical participation as gospel readers, choir members, and catechism teachers has increased. Moreover, trust in clerical authority has grown, and the habit of making regular contributions to the parish’s upkeep has been widely adopted.

But while Italian Canadians have adapted to mainstream Catholicism, they have preserved their distinctiveness through the two major aspects of popular piety discussed above – the celebration of saint’s day feste and the rites of passage. Indeed, both markers of identity have not only survived but thrived. In Toronto alone, for example, over sixty requests from Italian-Canadian groups were received annually by the archdiocese in the 1980s to mount religious feste, an increase over previous decades, not a diminution.