Friday, May 8, 2026
Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
This July 2026 we will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. While Catholics were very few in number in North America back then, they did have a presence. Please, join me over these seven weeks to reflect on the lives of our fathers and mothers in the faith in what today is the United States.
Talk #1: Catholic America in the 1500’s and 1600’s
Today we begin a reflection on Catholicism in North America. What was America like after that fateful journey of Christopher Columbus in 1492?
It is estimated that there were some 200 languages being spoken in North America in 1500 AD among the 10 million native Americans living there. Some of these diverse communities were visited by Catholic missionaries: the Pueblo in the southwest of the current USA, the Wendat (or Huron) and their enemies, the Iroquois, in the Great Lakes area, and several groups in current Florida, where we shall start.
The Jesuits wanted to serve in Peru, so the King of Spain allowed this but only if they also served in Florida, so they soon came to St. Augustine, Florida, in 1566, the year after the founding of that settlement. These Jesuits, however, were unable to engage the local native Americans and thus left this ministry after only six years in 1572. Franciscan friars soon followed and did a much better job of evangelizing for the next century. However, in 1708, English settlers from the Carolinas destroyed all their more northerly mission activities in spite of the friars’ unsuccessful attempts at keeping the soldiers away from their missions and the native Americans.
Franciscans also evangelized in present-day New Mexico in 1598. The lay colonizers had assisted them because they believed they would find gold. This difficult life led the colonizers to want to leave since there was, in fact, no gold to be had. However, the friars convinced the King to keep the missions going because he could not abandon the newly baptized native Americans. The Franciscans’ disputes with the Spanish settlers and their own inability to learn the native languages led to many tensions with the Pueblo, who eventually rebelled in 1680. After colonial rule was restored by 1700, Christianity became for the remaining 14,000 Pueblos an often forced and externalized religion.
The first Jesuit mission to the Hurons in present day Canada, 1626-1629, was interrupted by English settlers from the south. The Jesuits’ second mission from 1632 to 1649 was one of the most successful evangelizing efforts by the Church. The accounts of this work were published as annual reports in France to stimulate mission collections and vocations.
These French Jesuits sought to live with and like their communities. They learned the local languages and tried to find similarities between Christianity and the local customs. One Jesuit wrote: “In winter we are careful to have fireplaces full of burning coals in several parts of the chapel, to provide against the discomforts that might arise from the cold and their nakedness. This so pleases them that some often remain, of their own free will whole hours after the service, to converse about our mysteries, and to become better and better instructed.”
The 1649 attack by the Iroquois against the Huron, of whom about 15% were converts, destroyed the Huron missions and led to the martyrdom of Fr. Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemont. I very much enjoy taking our seminarians up to those mission sites to pray for the guidance of Fr. de Brebeuf in our own formation as priests.
In all these ventures, the missionaries always found tension with local government officials and settlers who wanted to use the native Americans for their own purposes. As best they could, the missionaries tried to protect their communities.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+ Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing
P.S. Below is a video version of the above talk. Please feel free to share with family and friends. Thank you.