The Catholic Surge: How a Small Rented Room Became Seattle’s Most Valuable Religious Institution
In 1882, the Post-Intelligencer takes aim at the rapid expansion of the Catholic Church in Seattle, contrasting its booming wealth and new construction with the stagnation of Protestant denominations.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The growth of Roman Catholicism in this city is in marked contrast with that of the other religious denominations. Thirteen years ago the church did not have a foothold here other than that afforded by a small rented room in which occasional services were held. The Protestants at that time had at least two church buildings here, with congregations, Sunday Schools and property.
Seven years ago even, the Catholic was the smallest and weakest of six churches in the city, but it was then beginning to develop a strength that has since grown most rapidly, and that has given it the lead in many essential respects of size and all of the others. Its new building will be just about twice as large as any other church in town, while it and the school and the hospital, and the 13 lots with them, will have cost them, and will be worth, more than double the cost and the value of all the other church property in the place.
This is a remarkable statement to make, and yet it is true, and no one informed will attempt to call it in question. Why is this? Are the Roman Catholics more wealthy, more zealous, or more public-spirited than the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Congregationalists, and the Episcopalians, singly, or all combined? This growing, overpowering ascendancy of Roman Catholicism must disturb the other denominations to their innermost depths, and should serve them to exertions surpassing any yet made in the past.
This 1882 commentary on the 'overpowering ascendancy' of the Catholic Church mirrors modern debates about the shifting religious demographics of the Pacific Northwest. Just as Protestant institutions once dominated Seattle's civic landscape, today we see a similar realignment where secularism and diverse faiths challenge traditional hegemonies, forcing older institutions to adapt or fade.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.