Career
During 1866, Cahensly noted that German immigrants to America were vulnerable due to poverty or cultural isolation, and suggested to the Catholic Congress meeting at Trier that a society should be established for the systematic protection of German emigrants at both the place of departure and the port of landing. As a result of his urging, the Mainz Katholikentag of 1871 initiated the Saint Raphaelsverein zum Schutz deutscher katholischer Auswanderer (de), an aid organization for German Catholic emigrants. Cahensly also urged the reorganization of the church in the United States of America, particularly the formation of ethnicity-based parishes and the appointment of German bishops.
Such ideas were opposed by many of the Irish-American Catholic clergy.
When, during the 1920s, the Vatican administration urged the creation of an African-American seminary, the American hierarchy reacted strongly to what one bishop termed "African Cahenslyism".
