[A] thorough, accurate, and mostly unbiased account of the history of the Catholic Church in the United States….[F]or anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic, wanting to know more about the history and beliefs of the Church.

Catholic Education

Joseph A. Varacalli's The Catholic Experience in America is….[a]n affirmative look at the social history of the Church, yet it does not back away from some of the challenges that the Church has faced-including the clergy abuse crisis of the past decade, the growing secularization of her colleges and universities, and the negative response of many progressive Catholics to her teachings on birth control, abortion, and homosexuality….While Varacalli, a founder of the Society for Catholic Scientists, is steadfast in his loyal support for the magisterium, he is also fair in presenting the not-so-loyal opposition.

Catholic Social Science Review

The Catholic Experience in America offers a broad and helpful description of the church in America as a social institution. Varacalli, a sociologist, notes in particular the ongoing tension between loyalty to the nation and the development and decline of a Catholic plausibility structure, the institutions that socialize Catholics into willing acceptance of their church's teachings.

Touchstone

[O]ffers a multifaceted look at Catholic life in the United States….Varacalli knows well the legitimate diversity within American Catholicism. His treatment accounts for a long history of intra-ecclesial competition which this condition helped produce. His discussion of religious communities and devotions also accounts for the historical vitality of Catholic tradition in so many different times and settings; one community or devotional practice will emphasize or embody a particularly compelling insight from the rich Catholic treasury; another will highlight some insight, and so on. The end product is both an infinite complexity and a sociologically sensitive and efficient creature that can survive in widely and divergent contexts.

The Chesterton Review

[V]aracalli is to be commended for striving to be as objective as possible in presenting the Catholic experience in America….In eight appendices the author presents much useful information about the Catholic Church in America. This is followed by an extensive bibliography on all things Catholic in the USA during the past 300 years or so. If you have the opportunity, it would be good to recommend to your local public library that it acquire this book for those who want to do research on the Catholic Church in America.

Homiletic & Pastoral Review

[A]n informed and fair-minded sketch both of the Catholic faith and of the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. The approach is strongly sociological with a good deal of sensitivity to cultural analysis of this institution and its membership. The prose is clear and concise, free of an initiate's jargon: theories and terms are always explained in accessible language. explained

American Catholic Studies