March 17: The Home Missions

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is March 17th, and our story is The Home Missions. President Ulysses S. Grant was tired of scandal, particularly in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Hoping to put an end to corruption and graft in the Bureau, or at least avoid further blame for the problems, he initiated a peace policy in 1869, effectively handing over control of the 72 agencies responsible for overseeing Native American tribes to various religious congregations.

Based upon the number of missions they already ran, the Catholic Church expected to oversee 38 of the 72 total agencies. Instead, the government only granted them authority over seven. Even worse, the policy forbade Catholic Native Americans on the now-Protestant-run reservations from leaving to attend Mass or receive the sacraments.

After the U.S. bishops' initial protests against the arrangement went unheard, the Church formed the Catholic Bureau of Indian Missions, later the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, to give them a stronger presence in Washington, D.C. They then asked General Charles Ewing to head the organization. The son of Thomas Ewing Sr., the former U.S. Senator and Cabinet Secretary, and brother-in-law of General William Tecumseh Sherman, Charles Ewing was a devout Catholic. Eager to serve the Church, Ewing took up his appointment as the first commissioner of the Catholic Bureau of Indian Missions on March 17, 1873.

Over the next ten years, although the Church never recovered her lost missions, the Bureau under Ewing helped found dozens of new ones. It also successfully lobbied the federal government to protect existing Catholic missionary interests, raised money for the missions, and strove to protect Native American lands from further encroachment by the U.S. government.

Charles Ewing died in 1883, but the work of the Bureau went on. Today, under the auspices of the Black and Indian Mission Office, it goes on still. Funding Catholic schools, encouraging vocations, and defending the rights of Native American Catholics, just as it has since its beginning. When circumstances seem stacked against the Church's mission, creativity, courage, and persistence become necessary. Ewing exemplifies that serving God sometimes means navigating bureaucracy and confronting injustice to ensure the vulnerable have access to faith and education.

Consider how you can support Catholic missions, schools, or ministries this week. May we be inspired by Charles Ewing's example to champion faith and justice in every corner of our communities. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, March 18th, for another story of faith and courage in America.