First U.S. Cathedral Turns 200: Baltimore’s Basilica Cathedral of the Assumption

First U.S. Cathedral Turns 200: Baltimore’s Basilica Cathedral of the Assumption

WSJ—Baltimore’s Bishop John Carroll had a decision to make. It was 1805, and the diocese then encompassed the entire U.S. Years before, Pope Pius VI had urged Carroll to build a cathedral church. But what kind of building would it be? And what would it say about American Catholics? His choice would set American Catholicism’s…