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While it wasn’t long before Italians were accepted as Americans, devout Catholics have never really been. If you need evidence of that, consider the overtly anti-Catholic emails of Hillary Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta in 2016, or how our current “Catholic” president’s Department of Justice classifies traditional Catholics among potential terrorist groups.

A bridge too far. Catholics (and Mormons) are routinely portrayed as being morally upright, and not generally in a bad way. Look at “Blue Bloods”- honors a Catholic family’s Catholic traditions. Look at “The Mission” or any number of other films over the last 40 years. On the other hand, Protestant Christians are routinely portrayed as overbearing, judgmental racists longing for “the good old days”.

BTW, The Colonel’s Wife and I saw it last weekend. I had never heard of Mother Cabrini before and was awed by the breadth of the ministries she founded worldwide.

Look at “The Mission”

Recall that "The Mission" was made in the 1980s at the height of the Contra/Sandinista war. It was a political film which showed the institutional Church--the anti-communist Church of Pope St. John Paul II--as in cahoots with the evil colonial oppressors. Meanwhile, the Jesuits--who at the time were touting the Marxist-Catholic amalgam known as liberation theology--were the good guys.

Interestingly, the political overtones of The Mission have fallen away over the intervening 40 years since its release, and what we're left with is a beautiful film about redemption and a reflection on whether it is ever good or right to use force to defend the Faith.

I haven't watched enough Blue Bloods to form any judgements on that particular show. I'm guessing that the characters are NOT traditional Catholics. They are most likely what we call "cultural Catholics" who don't actually believe what the Church has traditionally taught. The ruling elite have ALWAYS been ok with that sort, particularly when they become bishops.

It took quite a while before Italians were fully accepted, even by the Church in America. I an 50 50 Italian Irish. When my parents celebrated their marriage at the Hotel Shelton in Manhattan they were the only 2 people to cross the dance floor. My mom went to Epiphany Church and school in Gramercy Park. She was treated wonderfully as she was Gramercy Park Tammany aristocracy. Italians in the parish were not permitted in the main church for Mass but had to go to the basement Church. They reacted by literally building their own Church, St Sebastian, and calling to the old country for priests. So in a very real sense Mother Cabrini was the NGO Italians needed in America to guide them past the bigoty of the Church in America.