A French Parish Gets an Irish Priest, And War Breaks Out in Fall River

The above link is to an interesting historical article (via Domenico Bettinelli of Bettnet.com) that shows that the arguments and battles within the Church are no where near as bad as they were in the past.    After all, the Church as a whole in the US is doing more to make sure various nationalities are welcomed and supported.  I am sure many would like to see the Church do more, but I have not seen anything at the level described in the article.  I have also seen other stories of ethnic clashes within the Church involving Italian, Germans, Irish, Polish, etc.  I found studying history makes me more optimistic than many people because the 'good old days' were never really that good. 


"In 1884, a French parish in Fall River, Mass., locked its Irish pastor out of the church and made his life a living hell. Parishioners evicted him from the rectory, seized the parish finances, insulted him on the street and disrupted Mass. The ensuing turmoil went all the way to the Vatican.
Bishop Thomas Francis Hendricken had deliberately appointed Father Samuel McGee as pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes. He wanted the clannish Franco-American parishioners to assimilate to their new home. The parishioners resisted. One Franco-American said he would ‘stand on the brink of hell’ before accepting an Irish pastor."