ABSTRACT
The Catholic hierarchy in the United States was divided on the labour question in the late nineteenth century. Some bishops feared that Catholic workers' allegiance to labour organizations would draw them away from their loyalty to the Church. Gibbons, however, as a step towards a more just social order, supported workers forming their own unions. Conspicuously, he used his influence in Rome to prevent a repetition in the United States of the papal condemnation of the union organization, the Knights of Labor, which had occurred in Canada.
