Mission and Memory: A History of the Catholic Church in Arkansas by James M. Woods (review)

Abstract

Catholicism came to the Arkansas territory with the expedition of Hernando de Soto in 1541. Until the territory passed under the control of the United States in 1803, the Church was under Spanish and French ecclesiastical jurisdiction. During this "colonial" period it barely survived. There was little religious activity, small population, few clergy, immense distances, and slow travel. Yet a Catholic presence was preserved. Once a part of the United States, die Church in Arkansas had to start anew. Most settlers in the Early National period were English-speaking Protestants, and Arkansas became a state which even now has a Catholic population of only about three percent of the total population.