The National Shrine in Washington, D.C., has been deeply loved, blithely ignored, and passionately criticized. It has been praised as a “dazzling jewel” and dismissed as a “towering Byzantine beach ball.” This book shows that the Shrine is also an illuminating site from which to tell the story of 20th-century Catholicism. It organizes the narrative around six themes that characterize U.S. Catholicism, and ties these themes to the Shrine's material culture—to images, artifacts, or devotional spaces. Thus, the book begins with the Basilica's foundation stone, weaving it into a discussion of “bri ... More

The National Shrine in Washington, D.C., has been deeply loved, blithely ignored, and passionately criticized. It has been praised as a “dazzling jewel” and dismissed as a “towering Byzantine beach ball.” This book shows that the Shrine is also an illuminating site from which to tell the story of 20th-century Catholicism. It organizes the narrative around six themes that characterize U.S. Catholicism, and ties these themes to the Shrine's material culture—to images, artifacts, or devotional spaces. Thus, the book begins with the Basilica's foundation stone, weaving it into a discussion of “brick and mortar” Catholicism, the drive to build institutions. To highlight the Church's inclination to appeal to women, the book looks at fund-raising for the Mary Memorial Altar, and focuses on the Filipino oratory to Our Lady of Antipolo to illustrate the Church's outreach to immigrants. Throughout, the book employs painstaking detective work to shine a light on the many facets of American Catholicism reflected in the shrine.