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From the book “Ellery’s Protest”, the kid who protested Bible-reading in American public schools-—Abington vs. Schempp (1963):

“The Catholic position in 1958 was rather strange. Many people are surprised to learn that Bible-reading in the schools was controversial 160 years ago. In 1844 there were riots in Philadelphia over the practice; men were killed, churches were burned——over Bible-reading. This was much mixed up with anti-immigrant feelings, the newer immigrants being mostly Irish and Italian Catholics, and they objected to the Protestant practice of individual Bible-reading in the schools. In fact this issue became the primary motivation for the Catholic church to start the institution of Parochial schools. By 1956, however, the Church’s position had shifted——their objection was to secularism, to secular humanism, and their goal was to make secularism the enemy.”

[Lorica]

Many people are surprised to learn that Bible-reading in the schools was controversial 160 years ago. In 1844 there were riots in Philadelphia over the practice; men were killed, churches were burned——over Bible-reading.

Those riots "over Bible-reading" were instigated by the anti-Catholic nativists who were afraid that Irish immigrants were going to help the Pope take over the country:

On Friday, May 3, 1844, the American Nativist Party, (aka American Republican Party), set up a platform in the almost one hundred percent Irish Third Ward of Kensington, a Philadelphia suburb. Speakers delivered tirades against the Irish, the Pope, the Catholic Church, and the immigrants. The theme was that "a set of citizens, German and Irish, wanted to get the Constitution of the U. S. into their own hands and sell it to a foreign power. " The crowd jeered and began to tear down the platform. The Nativists retreated temporarily.

Philadelphia was a hotbed of nativism for years. The American Nativist Party allied itself with the American Protestant Association in propagating a conspiracy theory: the Pope was planning to take over America. The Irish were considered the most dangerous immigrants since they had demonstrated loyalty to the Pope through centuries of persecution and might rise on a signal from Rome for either a bloody conquest or a political takeover at the ballot box.

the Nativist press called on all good Americans to defend themselves against the "the bloody hand of the Pope."