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Catholic Church in the United States

August 23, 2023

For the structure of the Catholic Church in the United States, see List of Catholic dioceses in the United States.

With 23 percent of the United States' population as of 2018, the Catholic Church is the country's second largest religious grouping, after Protestantism, and the country's largest single church or Christian denomination where Protestantism is divided into separate denominations.[3] In a 2020 Gallup poll, 25% of Americans said they were Catholic.[4] The United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world, after Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines.[5]

Catholicism first arrived in North America during the Age of Discovery. In the colonial era, Spain and later Mexico established missions (1769–1833) that had permanent results in New Mexico and California (Spanish missions in California).[6] Likewise, France founded settlements with missions attached to them in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River region, notably, Detroit (1701), St. Louis (1764) and New Orleans (1718). English Catholics, on the other hand, "harassed in England by the Protestant majority,"[7] settled in Maryland (1634) and founded the first state capital, St. Mary's City, Maryland.[8][9] In 1789, the Archdiocese of Baltimore was the first diocese in the newly independent nation. John Carroll became the first American bishop. His brother Daniel Carroll was the leading Catholic among the Founding Fathers of the United States. George Washington in the army and as president set a standard for religious toleration. No religious test was allowed for holding national office, and colonial legal restrictions on Catholics holding office were gradually abolished by the States. However, in the mid-19th century there was political anti-Catholicism in the United States, sponsored by pietistic Protestants fearful of the pope and rising Catholic immigration. Tensions between Protestants and Catholics continued in the 20th century, especially when a Catholic was running for president as in 1928 and 1960.

The number of Catholics grew rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries through high fertility and immigration, especially from Ireland and Germany,[10] and after 1880, Eastern Europe, Italy, and Quebec. Large scale Catholic immigration from Mexico began after 1910, and in 2019 Latinos comprised 37 percent of American Catholics. Parishes set up parochial schools, and hundreds of colleges and universities were established by Catholic religious orders, notably by the Jesuits, who founded 28 such schools of higher education. Nuns were very active in teaching and hospital work. Since 1960, the percentage of Americans who are Catholic has fallen from about 25% to 22%.[11] In a 2021 Pew Research study, "21% of US adults described themselves as Catholic, identical to the Catholic share of the population in 2014."[12] In absolute numbers, Catholics have increased from 45 million to 72 million. As of April 9, 2018, 39% of American Catholics attend church weekly, compared to 45% of American Protestants.[13]

About 10% of the United States' population as of 2010 are former Catholics or non-practicing, almost 30 million people.[14] People have left for a number of reasons, factors which have also affected other denominations: loss of belief, disenchantment, indifference, or disaffiliation for another religious group or for none. Though Catholic adherents are present throughout the country, Catholics are generally more concentrated in the Northeast and urban Midwest. Currently, however, they are also clustered in the southwest. This is because of the continuing growth of the American Hispanic community as a share of the U.S. population is gradually shifting the geographic center of U.S. Catholicism from the Northeast and urban Midwest to the South and the West.[15] Regional distribution of U.S. Catholics (as a percentage of the total U.S. Catholic population) is as follows: Northeast, 24%; Midwest, 19%; South, 32% (a percentage that has increased in recent years due to a growing number of Catholics mainly in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, with the rest of the Southern states remaining overwhelmingly Protestant); and West, 25%.[16] While the wealthiest and most educated Americans tend to belong to some Protestant American groupings as well as to Jewish and Hindu constituencies as a whole, more Catholics (13.3 million ),[17] owing to their sheer numbers, reside in households with a yearly income of $100,000-or-more than any other individual religious group,[18] and more Catholics hold college degrees (over 19 million) than do members of any other faith community in the United States when divided according to their respective denominations or religious designations.[17]

Organization

 
Provinces and dioceses of the Catholic Church in the US. Each color represents one of the 32 Latin Church provinces.
 
Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral is the mother church of one of the largest Catholic dioceses in the United States.
 
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is the head church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the second largest Catholic church in the United States.[19]
See also: List of Catholic dioceses in the United States
 
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh is the 5th largest cathedral in the United States.[20]

Catholics gather as local communities called parishes, headed by a priest, and typically meet at a permanent church building for liturgies every Sunday, weekdays and on holy days. Within the 196 geographical dioceses and archdioceses (excluding the Archdiocese for the Military Services), there were 17,007 local Catholic parishes in the United States in 2018.[21] The Catholic Church has the third highest total number of local congregations in the US behind Southern Baptists and United Methodists. However, the average Catholic parish is significantly larger than the average Baptist or Methodist congregation; there are more than four times as many Catholics as Southern Baptists and more than eight times as many Catholics as United Methodists.[22]

In the United States, there are 197 ecclesiastical jurisdictions:

Eastern Catholic Churches are churches with origins in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa that have their own distinctive liturgical, legal and organizational systems and are identified by the national or ethnic character of their region of origin. Each is considered fully equal to the Latin tradition within the Catholic Church. In the United States, there are 15 Eastern Church dioceses (called eparchies) and two Eastern Church archdioceses (or archeparchies), the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh and the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

The apostolic exarchate for the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in the United States is headed by a bishop who is a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. An apostolic exarchate is the Eastern Catholic Church equivalent of an apostolic vicariate. It is not a full-fledged diocese/eparchy, but is established by the Holy See for the pastoral care of Eastern Catholics in an area outside the territory of the Eastern Catholic Church to which they belong. It is headed by a bishop or a priest with the title of exarch.

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter was established January 1, 2012, to serve former Anglican groups and clergy in the United States who sought to become Catholic. Similar to a diocese though national in scope, the ordinariate is based in Houston, Texas, and includes parishes and communities across the United States that are fully Catholic, while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage and traditions.

As of 2017, 8 dioceses out of 195 are vacant (sede vacante). None of the current bishops or archbishops are past the retirement age of 75.[needs update]

The central leadership body of the Catholic Church in the United States is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of bishops (including archbishops) of the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands, although each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the Holy See. The USCCB elects a president to serve as their administrative head, but he is in no way the "head" of the church or of Catholics in the United States. In addition to the 195 dioceses and one exarchate[23] represented in the USCCB, there are several dioceses in the nation's other four overseas dependencies. In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the bishops in the six dioceses (one metropolitan archdiocese and five suffragan dioceses) form their own episcopal conference, the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference (Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña).[24] The bishops in US insular areas in the Pacific Ocean—the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Territory of American Samoa, and the Territory of Guam—are members of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific.

No primate exists for Catholics in the United States. In the 1850s, the Archdiocese of Baltimore was acknowledged a Prerogative of Place, which confers to its archbishop some of the leadership responsibilities granted to primates in other countries. The Archdiocese of Baltimore was the first diocese established in the United States, in 1789, with John Carroll (1735–1815) as its first bishop. It was, for many years, the most influential diocese in the fledgling nation. Now, however, the United States has several large archdioceses and a number of cardinal-archbishops.

By far, most Catholics in the United States belong to the Latin or Western Church and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Rite generally refers to the form of worship ("liturgical rite") in a church community owing to cultural and historical differences as well as differences in practice. However, the Vatican II document, Orientalium Ecclesiarum ("Of the Eastern Churches"), acknowledges that these Eastern Catholic communities are "true Churches" and not just rites within the Catholic Church.[25] There are 14 other churches in the United States (23 within the global Catholic Church) which are in communion with Rome, fully recognized and valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church. They have their own bishops and eparchies. The largest of these communities in the U.S. is the Chaldean Catholic Church.[26] Most of these churches are of Eastern European and Middle Eastern origin. Eastern Catholic Churches are distinguished from Eastern Orthodox, identifiable by their usage of the term Catholic.[27]

In recent years, particularly following the issuing of the apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, the United States has emerged as a stronghold for the small but growing Traditionalist Catholic movement, along with France, England and a few other Anglophone countries.[28][29] There are over 600 locations throughout the country where the Traditional Latin Mass is offered.[30]

Personnel

The church employs people in a variety of leadership and service roles. Its ministers include ordained clergy (bishops, priests. and deacons) and non-ordained lay ecclesial ministers, theologians, and catechists.

Some Catholics, both lay and clergy, live in a form of consecrated life, rather than in marriage. This includes a wide range of relationships, from monastic (monks and nuns), to mendicant (friars and sisters), apostolic (priests, brothers, and sisters), and secular and lay institutes. While many of these also serve in some form of ministry, above, others are in secular careers, within or without the church. Consecrated life – in and of itself – does not make a person a part of the clergy or a minister of the church.

Additionally, many lay people are employed in "secular" careers in support of church institutions, including educators, health care professionals, finance and human resources experts, lawyers, and others.

Bishops

Leadership of the Catholic Church in the United States is provided by the bishops, individually for their own dioceses and collectively through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. There are some mid-level groupings of bishops, such as ecclesiastical provinces (often covering a state) and the fourteen geographic regions of the USCCB, but these have little significance for most purposes.

The ordinary office for a bishop is to be the bishop of a particular diocese, its chief pastor and minister, usually geographically defined and incorporating, on average, about 350,000 Catholic Christians. In canon law, the bishop leading a particular diocese, or similar office, is called an "ordinary" (i.e., he has complete jurisdiction in this territory or grouping of Christians).

There are two non-geographic dioceses, called "ordinariates", one for military personnel and one for former Anglicans who are in full communion with the Catholic Church.

Dioceses are grouped together geographically into provinces, usually within a state, part of a state, or multiple states together (see map below). A province comprises several dioceses which look to one ordinary bishop (usually of the most populous or historically influential diocese/city) for guidance and leadership. This lead bishop is their archbishop and his diocese is the archdiocese. The archbishop is called the "metropolitan" bishop who strives to achieve some unanimity of practice with his brother "suffragan" bishops.

Some larger dioceses have additional bishops assisting the diocesan bishop, and these are called "auxiliary" bishops or, if a "coadjutor" bishop, with right of succession.

Additionally, some bishops are called to advise and assist the bishop of Rome, the pope, in a particular way, either as an additional responsibility on top of their diocesan office or sometimes as a full-time position in the Roman Curia or related institution serving the universal church. These are called cardinals, because they are "incardinated" onto a second diocese (Rome). All cardinals under the age of 80 participate in the election of a new pope when the office of the papacy becomes vacant.

There are 428 active and retired Catholic bishops in the United States:

 
In this image, the cardinals and bishops are processing through St. Peter's Basilica.[31]

255 active bishops:

  • 36 archbishops
  • 144 diocesan bishops
  • 67 auxiliary bishops
  • 8 apostolic or diocesan administrators

173 retired bishops:

  • 33 retired archbishops
  • 95 retired diocesan bishops
  • 45 retired auxiliary bishops

Cardinals

There are 16 U.S. cardinals.[32]

Six archdioceses are currently led by archbishops who have been created cardinals:

One cardinal serves as bishop of a diocese:

Two cardinals are in service to the pope, in the Roman Curia or related offices:

Seven cardinals are retired:

Clergy and ministers

In 2018,[21] there were approximately 100,000 clergy and ministers employed by the church in the United States, including:

  • 36,580 presbyters (priests)
    • 25,254 diocesan
    • 11,326 religious/consecrated
  • 18,291 ordinary (permanent) deacons
  • 39,651 lay ecclesial ministers (2016)[33]
    • 23,149 diocesan
    • 16,502 religious/consecrated

There are also approximately 30,000 seminarians/students in formation for ministry:

  • 3,526 candidates for priesthood
  • 2,088 candidates for diaconate
  • 16,585 candidates for lay ecclesial ministry

Lay employees

The 630 Catholic hospitals in the U.S. have a combined budget of $101.7 billion, and employ 641,030 full-time equivalent staff.[34]

The 6,525 Catholic primary and secondary schools in the U.S. employ 151,101 full-time equivalent staff, 97.2% of whom are lay and 2.3% are consecrated, and 0.5% are ordained.[35]

The 261 Catholic institutions of higher (tertiary) education in the U.S. employ approximately 250,000 full-time equivalent staff, including faculty, administrators, and support staff.[36]

Overall, the Catholic Church employs more than one million employees with an operating budget of nearly $100 billion to run parishes, diocesan primary and secondary schools, nursing homes, retreat centers, hospitals, and other charitable institutions.[37]

Approved translations of the Bible

USCCB approved translations

Prior to 1991:

1991–present:

  • New American Bible, Revised Edition
  • Books of the New Testament, Alba House
  • Contemporary English Version – New Testament, First Edition, American Bible Society
  • Contemporary English Version – Book of Psalms, American Bible Society
  • Contemporary English Version – Book of Proverbs, American Bible Society
  • The Grail Psalter (Inclusive Language Version), G.I.A. Publications
  • New American Bible, Revised Old Testament
  • New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, National Council of Churches
  • The Psalms, Alba House
  • The Psalms (New International Version) – St. Joseph Catholic Edition, Catholic Book Publishing Company
  • The Psalms – St. Joseph New Catholic Version, Catholic Book Publishing Company
  • Revised Psalms of the New American Bible
  • Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, National Council of Churches
  • Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition, National Council of Churches
  • So You May Believe, A Translation of the Four Gospels, Alba House
  • Today's English Version, Second Edition, American Bible Society
  • Translation for Early Youth, A Translation of the New Testament for Children, Contemporary English Version, American Bible Society

Institutions

Parochial schools

Main articles: Catholic schools in the United States and History of Catholic education in the United States

By the middle of the 19th century, the Catholics in larger cities started building their own parochial school system. The main impetus was fear that exposure to Protestant teachers in the public schools, and Protestant fellow students, would lead to a loss of faith. Protestants reacted by strong opposition to any public funding of parochial schools.[38] The Catholics nevertheless built their elementary schools, parish by parish, using very low-paid sisters as teachers.[39]

In the classrooms, the highest priorities were piety, orthodoxy, and strict discipline. Knowledge of the subject matter was a minor concern, and in the late 19th century few of the teachers in parochial (or secular) schools had gone beyond the 8th grade themselves. The sisters came from numerous denominations, and there was no effort to provide joint teachers training programs. The bishops were indifferent. Finally around 1911, led by the Catholic University of America in Washington, Catholic colleges began summer institutes to train the sisters in pedagogical techniques. Long past World War II, the Catholic schools were noted for inferior plants compared to the public schools, and less well-trained teachers. The teachers were selected for religiosity, not teaching skills; the outcome was pious children and a reduced risk of marriage to Protestants.[40] However, by the later half the 20th century Catholic schools began to perform significantly better than their public counterparts.[41]

Universities and colleges

Main article: List of Catholic universities and colleges in the United States

According to the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in 2011, there are approximately 230 Catholic universities and colleges in the United States with nearly 1 million students and some 65,000 professors.[42] In 2016, the number of tertiary schools fell to 227, while the number of students also fell to 798,006.[43] The national university of the church, founded by the nation's bishops in 1887, is The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The first Catholic college/university of higher learning established in the United States is Georgetown University, founded in 1789.[44] The richest U.S. Catholic university is the University of Notre Dame (founded in 1842) with an endowment of over 20 billion in 2022.[45] In the 2021 edition of U.S. News & World Report rankings, 10 of the top 100 national universities in the US were Catholic.[46]

Seminaries

Main article: List of Catholic seminaries § United States

According to the 2016 Official Catholic Directory, as of 2016 there were 243 seminaries with 4,785 students in the United States; 3,629 diocesan seminarians and 1,456 religious seminarians. By the official 2017 statistics, there are 5,050 seminarians (3,694 diocesan and 1,356 religious) in the United States. In addition, the American Catholic bishops oversee the Pontifical North American College for American seminarians and priests studying at one of the Pontifical Universities in Rome.

Healthcare system

In 2002, Catholic health care system, overseeing 625 hospitals with a combined revenue of 30 billion dollars, was the nation's largest group of nonprofit systems.[47] In 2008, the cost of running these hospitals had risen to $84.6 billion, including the $5.7 billion they donate.[48] According to the Catholic Health Association of the United States, 60 health care systems, on average, admit one in six patients nationwide each year.[49] According to Merger Watch (2018), Catholic facilities make up about 10% of all "sole community providers" in the US (49 out of 514). In some states, the percentage is much greater: in Wisconsin and South Dakota, for example, "Catholic hospitals account for at least 50% of sole community providers."[50]

Catholic Charities

Catholic Charities is active as the largest voluntary social service networks in the United States. In 2009, it welcomed in New Jersey the 50,000th refugee to come to the United States from Burma. Likewise, the US Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services has resettled 14,846 refugees from Burma since 2006.[51] In 2010 Catholic Charities USA was one of only four charities among the top 400 charitable organizations to witness an increase in donations in 2009, according to a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.[52]

Catholic Church and labor

Main article: Catholic social activism in the United States

The church had a role in shaping the U.S. labor movement, due to the involvement of priests like Charles Owen Rice and John P. Boland. The activism of Geno Baroni was instrumental in creating the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The Catholic Worker Movement was founded in 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. It campaigns on various social justice issues and aims to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ".[53]

Prisons

Saint Dismas Prison Ministry
 
Established2000; 23 years ago (2000)
President
George Williams
Director
Ron Zeilinger
AffiliationsCatholic
Websitedismasministry.org

Saint Dismas Prison Ministry was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2000 to offer spiritual services for Catholic prisoners in the United States.[54] The president is George Williams, a priest.[55]

It was named after Dismas, the repentant thief. The ministry was founded in 2000 by Ron Zeilinger who found no "Catholic organization of a national scope providing Catholic materials”.[56][57] The ministry distributes bibles to prisoners.[58]

In 2006, Scott Jensen chose to remain on the ministry board after he was forced to leave the Wisconsin State Assembly following a felony conviction that was later overturned.[59]

Demographics

 
The map above shows plurality religious denomination by state as of 2014 according to the Pew Research Center. Catholicism made up a plurality of the population in four states: New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Protestantism
  70 – 79%
  60 – 69%
  50 – 59%
  40 – 49%
  30 – 39%
Catholicism
  40 – 49%
  30 – 39%
Mormonism
  50 – 59%
Unaffiliated
  30 – 39%

There were 70,412,021 registered Catholics in the United States (22% of the US population) in 2017, according to the American bishops' count in their Official Catholic Directory 2016.[43] This count primarily rests on the parish assessment tax which priests evaluate yearly according to the number of registered members and contributors. In July 2021, the Public Religion Research Institute issued its own report based on a new census of 500,000 people. It also noted that 22% of 330 million Americans identified as Catholic: 12%, white; 8%, Latino; and 2%, other (Black, Asian, etc.).[60] Estimates of the overall American Catholic population from recent years generally range around 20% to 28%. According to Albert J. Menedez, research director of "Americans for Religious Liberty," many Americans continue to call themselves Catholic but "do not register at local parishes for a variety of reasons."[61] According to a survey of 35,556 American residents (released in 2008 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life), 23.9% of Americans identify themselves as Catholic (approximately 72 million of a national population of 306 million residents).[62] The study notes that 10% of those people who identify themselves as Protestant in the interview are former Catholics and 8% of those who identity themselves as Catholic are former Protestants.[63] In recent years, more parishes have opened than closed[citation needed].

The northeastern quadrant of the US (i.e., New England, Mid-Atlantic, East North Central, and West North Central) has seen a decline in the number of parishes since 1970, but parish numbers are up in the other five regions (i.e., South Atlantic, East South Central, West South Central, Pacific, and Mountain regions) and are growing steadily.[64][65] Catholics in the US are about 6% of the church's total worldwide 1.3 billion membership.

See also: Black Catholicism

A poll by The Barna Group in 2004 found Catholic ethnicity to be 60% non-Hispanic white (includes Americans with historically Catholic ethnicities such as Irish, Italian, German, Polish, or French), 31% Hispanic of any nationality (mostly Mexicans but also many Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, Colombians, Guatemalans and Hondurans among others), 4% Black (including Africans, Haitians, black Latino and Caribbean), and 5% other ethnicity (mostly Filipinos, Vietnamese and other Asian Americans, Americans who are multiracial and have mixed ethnicities, and American Indians).[66] Among the non-Hispanic whites, about 16 million Catholics identify as being of Irish descent, about 13 million as German, about 12 million as Italian, about 7 million as Polish, and about 5 million as French (note that many identify with more than one ethnicity). The roughly 7.8 million Catholics who are converts (mainly from Protestantism, with a smaller number from irreligion or other religions) are also mostly non-Hispanic white, including many people of British, Dutch, and Scandinavian ancestry.[67]

Between 1990 and 2008, there were 11 million additional Catholics. The growth in the Latino population accounted for 9 million of these. They accounted for 32% of all American Catholics in 2008 as opposed to 20% in 1990.[68] The percentage of Hispanics who identified as Catholic dropped from 67% in 2010 to 55% in 2013.[69]

According to a more recent Pew Forum report which examined American religiosity in 2014 and compared it to 2007,[70] there were 50.9 million adult Catholics as of 2014 (excluding children under 18), forming about 20.8% of the U.S. population, down from 54.3 million and 23.9% in 2007. Pew also found that the Catholic population is aging, forming a higher percentage of the elderly population than the young, and retention rates are also worse among the young. About 41% of those "young" raised Catholic have left the faith (as opposed to 32% overall), about half of these to the unaffiliated population and the rest to evangelical, other Protestant faith communities, and non-Christian faith. Conversions to Catholicism are rare, with 89% of current Catholics being raised in the religion; 8% of current Catholics are ex-Protestants,[71] 2% were raised unaffiliated, and 1% in other religions (Orthodox Christian, Mormon or other nontrinitarian, Buddhist, Muslim, etc.), with Jews and Hindus least likely to become Catholic of all the religious groups surveyed. Overall, Catholicism has by far the worst net conversion balance of any major religious group, with a high conversion rate out of the faith and a low rate into it; by contrast, most other religions have in- and out-conversion rates that roughly balance, whether high or low. This is credited to the more liberal stance of the church since Vatican II, where conversion to Catholicism is no longer encouraged, and the de-emphasizing of basic Catholic religious beliefs in Catholic education. Still, according to the 2015 Pew Research Center, "the Catholic share of the population has been relatively stable over the long term, according to a variety of other surveys.[72] By race, 59% of Catholics are non-Hispanic white, 34% Hispanic, 3% black, 3% Asian, and 2% mixed or Native American. Conversely, 19% of non-Hispanic whites were Catholic in 2014 (down from 22% in 2007), whereas 55% of Hispanics were (versus 58% in 2007). In 2015, Hispanics were 38%, while blacks and Asians were at 3% each.[73][74] Because conversion away from Catholicism as well as dropping out of religion completely is presently occurring much more quickly among Hispanics than among Euro-American whites, Black (2.9% of US Catholic population)[75] and Asian-American Catholics, it is doubtful they will outnumber the latter three categories of Catholics in the foreseeable future. Pew Research Center predicts that by 2050 (when the Hispanic population will be 128 million),[76] only 40% of "third generation Latinos" will be Catholic, with 22% becoming Protestant, 24% becoming unaffiliated, and the remainder, other.[77] This corresponds to a sharp decline in the Catholic percentage among self-identified Democrats, who are more likely to be nonwhite than Republicans.[78] In one study, three authors found that around 10% of US Catholics are "Secularists," "meaning that their religious identification is purely nominal."[79]

By state

 
Church of the Little Flower (Coral Gables, Florida)
State % Catholic[80] Largest Christian denomination
Massachusetts 34 Catholic Church
Rhode Island 42
New Jersey 34
California 28
New York 31
New Hampshire 26
Connecticut 33
Texas 23
Arizona 21
Illinois 28
Louisiana 26
North Dakota 26 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Wisconsin 25 Catholic Church
Pennsylvania 24
Nebraska 23
Florida 21
New Mexico 34
Vermont 22
Maine 21
Minnesota 22
South Dakota 22 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Colorado 16 Catholic Church
Hawaii 20
Montana 17
Nevada 25
Ohio 18
Iowa 18
Maryland 15
Michigan 18
Washington 17
Indiana 18
Kansas 18
Missouri 16
Wyoming 14
Idaho 10 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Oregon 12 Catholic Church
Kentucky 10 Southern Baptist Convention
Virginia 12
Georgia 9
Oklahoma 8
Delaware 22 United Methodist Church
North Carolina 9 Southern Baptist Convention
Alaska 16
Arkansas 8
South Carolina 10
Tennessee 6
Utah 5 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
West Virginia 6 Southern Baptist Convention
Mississippi 4
Alabama 7

Politics

Main article: Catholic Church and politics in the United States

Political ideology among American Catholics[81]

  Conservative (37%)
  Liberal (22%)
  Moderate (36%)
  Don't know (5%)

There has never been a Catholic religious party in the United States, either local, state or national, similar to Christian democratic parties in Europe. The American Solidarity Party, however, is a minor third party with ideas based on Catholic social teaching.

Historically, a majority of the Catholics in the United States supported the Democratic Party before 1968. Since the election of the Catholic John F. Kennedy as President in 1960, Catholics have split about 50-50 between the two major parties, but the Democrats have a slight lead due to the growing population of Hispanic Americans.

On social issues, the Catholic Church takes strong positions against abortion,[82] which was partly legalized in 1973 by the Supreme Court until it was overturned in 2022 with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, and same-sex marriage, which was fully legalized in June 2015. The church also condemns embryo-destroying research and In vitro fertilization as immoral. The church is allied with conservative evangelicals and other Protestants on these issues.

However, the Catholic Church throughout its history has taken special concern for numerous vulnerable groups. This has led to progressive alliances, as well, with the church championing causes such as a strong welfare state, unionization,[83] immigration for those fleeing economic or political hardship,[84] opposition to capital punishment,[85] environmental stewardship,[86] opposition and critical evaluation of modern warfare.[87]

The Catholic Church's teachings, coming from the perspective of a global church, do not conform easily to the American political binary of "liberals" and "conservatives." A majority of Catholics who favor abortion rights support the Democrats, while most anti-abortion Catholics support the Republicans. In August 2012 the New York Times, reviewed the religion of the nine top national leaders: the presidential and vice-presidential nominees, the Supreme Court justices, the House Speaker, and the Senate majority leader. There were nine Catholics (six justices, both vice-presidential candidates, and the Speaker), three Jews (all from the Supreme Court), two Mormons (including the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney) and one African-American Protestant (incumbent President Barack Obama). There were no white Protestants.[88] In 2021, 30.9% of Congress was Catholic and 24.5% of the Senate was of the faith.[89]

Social issues

The Catholic Church's involvement in social or political movements was not very prominent until bishops in the United States addressed problems on racism in 1958 in a written piece called "Discrimination and Christian Conscience". In the 1960s, the Catholic Church showed support in the Selma to Montgomery marches, which involved the attendance of Dutch priest Henri Nouwen.[90]

History

Main article: History of the Catholic Church in the United States

Early colonial period

Main articles: Catholic Church in the Thirteen Colonies and Spanish missions in California
 
St. Francis Xavier Church in Compton, Maryland, is the oldest Catholic church in continuous operation from the Thirteen Colonies. The Province of Maryland was founded with an English Catholic identity.[91]

One of the colonies of British America, the Province of Maryland, "a Catholic Proprietary,"[92] was founded with an explicitly English Catholic identity in the 17th century, contrasting itself with the neighbouring Protestant-dominated Massachusetts Bay Colony and Colony of Virginia.[91] It was named after the Catholic Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I of England. Politically, it was under the influence of Catholic colonial families of Maryland such as the Calvert Baron Baltimore and the Carroll family, the latter of Irish origin.[93] Much of the religious situation in the Thirteen Colonies reflected the sectarian divisions of the English Civil War and in a larger sense the aftermath of the English Reformation.[94] Furthermore, radical Puritans, who were viewed as outsiders in England for their opposition to the establishment Laudian-leaning Anglican Church, saw settlement in the American Colonies, particularly with the Plymouth Colony, as a way to escape religious restrictions against them in "the motherland" and were often theologically even more hostile to Catholics than the situation in England itself.[94] The Province of Pennsylvania, which was given to the Quaker, William Penn by the last Catholic King of England, James II, advocated religious toleration as a principle and thus some Catholics lived there.[95][96] There were also some Catholics in the Province of New York (named after the aforementioned James II). In 1785, the estimated number of Catholics was at 25,000; 15,800 in Maryland, 7,000 in Pennsylvania and 1,500 in New York.[97] There were only 25 priests serving the faithful. This was less than 2% of the total population in the Thirteen Colonies.[97]

Following the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, the United States came to incorporate into itself territories with a pre-existing Catholic history under their previous governance by New France and New Spain; the two premier European Catholic powers active in North America.[95] The territorial evolution of the United States since 1776 has meant that today more areas that are now part of the United States were Catholic in colonial times before they were Protestant. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase saw vast territories in French Louisiana transferred over from the Catholic Kingdom of France, areas that would become the following states; Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Minnesota, Louisiana, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, half of Colorado and North Dakota, parts of New Mexico, Texas and North Dakota.[98] The French named a number of their settlements after Catholic saints, such as St. Louis, Sault Ste. Marie, St. Ignace, St. Charles and others.[99] The Catholic, culturally French population of Americans, descended from this colony are today known as the Louisiana Creole and Cajun people.[100][101]

 
The Apotheosis of St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Much of what is today the United States once fell under New France and New Spain, Catholic powers who named many cities after Catholic saints.[95]

During the 19th century, territories previously belonging to the Catholic Spanish Empire became part of the United States, starting with Florida in the 1820s.[102] Most of the Spanish American territories with a Catholic heritage became independent during the early 19th century, this included Mexico on the border of the United States. The United States subsequently annexed parts of Mexico, starting with Texas in the 1840s and after the end of the Mexican–American War an area known as the Mexican Cession, including what would become the states of California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, the rest of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.[103] To an even greater extent than the French, the Spanish had named many settlements in the colonial period after Catholic saints or in reference to Catholic religious symbolism, names that they would retain after becoming part of the United States, especially in California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Santa Clarita, San Juan Capistrano, San Luis Obispo and numerous others), as well as Texas (San Antonio, San Juan, San Marcos and San Angelo), New Mexico (Santa Fe) and Florida (St. Augustine).[99][104] As late as 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States took control of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, as well as Cuba for a time, all of which had several centuries of Spanish Catholic colonial history (though they were not made into states).[105]

Towards the founding of the United States

Main article: History of the Catholic Church in the United States

Anti-Catholicism was official government policy for the English who settled the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard.[106] Maryland was founded by a Catholic, Lord Baltimore, as the first 'non-denominational' colony and was the first to accommodate Catholics. A charter was issued to him in 1632.[107] In 1650, the Puritans in the colony rebelled and repealed the Act of Toleration. Catholicism was outlawed and Catholic priests were hunted and exiled. By 1658, the Act of Toleration was reinstated and Maryland became the center of Catholicism into the mid-19th century. In 1689 Puritans rebelled and again repealed the Maryland Toleration Act. These rebels cooperated with the colonial assembly "dominated by Anglicans to endow the Church of England with tax support and to bar Catholics (and Quakers) from holding public office."[108] New York, interestingly enough, proved more tolerant with its Catholic governor, Thomas Dongan, and other Catholic officials.[109] Freedom of religion returned with the American Revolution. In 1756, a Maryland Catholic official estimated seven thousand practicing Catholics in Maryland and three thousand in Pennsylvania.[110] The Williamsburg Foundation estimates in 1765 Maryland Catholics at 20,000 and 6,000 in Pennsylvania. The population of these colonies at the time was approximately 180,000 and 200,000, respectively. By the time the American War for Independence started in 1776, Catholics formed 1.6%, or 40,000 persons of the 2.5 million population of the 13 colonies.[111][112] Another estimate is 35,000 in 1789, 60% in Maryland with not many more than 30 priests.[113] John Carroll, first Catholic Bishop, in 1785, two years after the Treaty of Paris (1783), reported 24,000 registered communicants in the new country, of whom 90% were in Maryland and Pennsylvania.[114]

 
John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore was the first Catholic bishop in the United States. His cousin, Charles Carroll, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

After the Revolution, Rome made entirely new arrangements for the creation of an American diocese under American bishops.[115][116] Numerous Catholics served in the American army and the new nation had very close ties with Catholic France.[117] General George Washington insisted on toleration; for example, he issued strict orders in 1775 that "Pope's Day," the colonial equivalent of Guy Fawkes Night, was not to be celebrated. European Catholics played major military roles, especially Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing, Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko.[118] Irish-born Commodore John Barry from Co Wexford, Ireland, often credited as "the Father of the American Navy," also played an important military role.[119] In a letter to Bishop Carroll, Washington acknowledged this unique contribution of French Catholics as well as the patriotic contribution of Carroll himself: "And I promise that your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishments of their Revolution, and the establishment of their government; nor the important assistance which they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic religion is professed."[120]

Beginning in approximately 1780 there was a struggle between lay trustees and bishops over the ownership of church property, with the trustees losing control following the 1852 Plenary Councils of Baltimore.[121]

Of the colonial era, historian Jay Dolan says:

They had lived as second-class citizens, discriminated against politically, professionally, and socially. The revolution changed all this. New laws and new constitutions gave them religious freedom.... [leading] John Carroll to observe in 1779 that Roman Catholics are members of Congress, assemblies, and hold civil and military posts.[122]

President Washington promoted religious tolerance by proclamations and by publicly attending services in various Protestant and Catholic churches.[123] The old colonial laws imposing restrictions on Catholics were gradually abolished by the states, and were prohibited in the new federal constitution.[124]

In 1787 two Catholics, Daniel Carroll of the Irish O'Carrolls and Irish born Thomas Fitzsimons, helped draft the new United States Constitution.[125] John Carroll was appointed by the Vatican as Prefect Apostolic, making him superior of the missionary church in the thirteen states. He formulated the first plans for Georgetown University and became the first American bishop in 1789.[126]

19th century (1800–1900)

Main article: 19th century history of the Catholic Church in the United States
 
The nave of the St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City; completed in 1878

The number of Catholics surged starting in the 1840s as German, Irish, and other European Catholics came in large numbers. After 1890, Italians and Poles formed the largest numbers of new Catholics, but many countries in Europe contributed, as did Quebec. By 1850, Catholics had become the country's largest single denomination. Between 1860 and 1890, their population tripled to seven million.

Catholic revival

Historian John McGreevy identifies a major Catholic revival that swept across Europe, North America and South America in the early 19th century. It was nurtured in the world of Catholic urban neighborhoods, parishes, schools, and associations, whose members understood themselves as arrayed against, and morally superior to the wider American society. The Catholic Revival is called “Ultramontanism.” It included a new emphasis on Thomistic theology for intellectuals. For parishioners it meant a much deeper piety that emphasized miracles, saints, and new devotions such as, compulsory Sunday attendance, regular confession and communion, praying the rosary, a devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and meatless Fridays. There was a deeper respect for bishops, and especially the Pope, with more direct control by the Vatican over selecting bishops and less autonomy for local parishes. There was a sharp increase in Mass attendance, religious vocations soared, especially among women. Catholics set up a parochial school system using the newly available nuns, and funding from the more religious parents. Intermarriage with Protestants was strongly discouraged. It was tolerated only if the children were brought up Catholics. The parochial schools effectively promoted marriage inside the faith. By the late 19th century dioceses were building foreign language elementary schools in parishes that catered to Germans and other non-English speaking groups. They raised large sums to build English-only diocesan high schools, which had the effect of increasing ethnic intermarriage and diluting ethnic nationalism.[127] Leadership was increasingly in the hands of the Irish. The Irish bishops worked closely with the Vatican and promoted Vatican supremacy that culminated in Papal infallibility proclaimed in 1870.[128]

The bishops began standardizing discipline in the American Church with the convocation of the Plenary Councils of Baltimore in 1852, 1866 and 1884. These councils resulted in the promulgation of the Baltimore Catechism and the establishment of The Catholic University of America.

 
The Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows, Chicago

Jesuit priests who had been expelled from Europe found a new base in the U.S. They founded numerous secondary schools and 28 colleges and universities, such as Georgetown University (1789), St. Louis University (1818), Boston College, the College of Holy Cross, the University of Santa Clara, and several Loyola Colleges.[129] Many other religious communities like the Dominicans, Congregation of Holy Cross, and Franciscans followed suit.

In the 1890s the Americanism controversy roiled senior officials. The Vatican suspected there was too much liberalism in the American Church, and the result was a turn to conservative theology as the Irish bishops increasingly demonstrated their total loyalty to the Pope, and traces of liberal thought in the Catholic colleges were suppressed.[130][131] As part of this controversy, the founder of the Paulist Fathers, Isaac Hecker, was accused by the French cleric Charles Maignen (article in French) of subjectivism and crypto-Protestantism.[132] Additionally some who sympathized with Hecker in France were accused of Americanism.

Nuns and sisters
Main article: Catholic sisters and nuns in the United States

Nuns and sisters played a major role in American religion, education, nursing and social work since the early 19th century. In Catholic Europe, convents were heavily endowed over the centuries, and were sponsored by the aristocracy. But there were very few rich American Catholics, and no aristocrats. Religious orders were founded by entrepreneurial women who saw a need and an opportunity, and were staffed by devout women from poor families. The numbers grew rapidly, from 900 sisters in 15 communities in 1840, 50,000 in 170 congregations in 1900, and 135,000 in 300 different congregations by 1930. Starting in 1820, the sisters always outnumbered the priests and brothers.[133] Their numbers peaked in 1965 at 180,000 then plunged to 56,000 in 2010. Many women left their orders, and few new members were added.[134]

 
James Gibbons (1834–1921), cardinal archbishop of Baltimore, was the widely respected leader of American Catholics.

On April 8, 2008, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI, met with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious leaders in Rome and communicated that the CDF would conduct a doctrinal assessment of the LCWR, expressing concern that the nuns were expressing radical feminist views. According to Laurie Goodstein, the investigation, which was viewed by many U.S. Catholics as a "vexing and unjust inquisition of the sisters who ran the church's schools, hospitals and charities", was ultimately closed in 2015 by Pope Francis.[135]

Anti-Catholicism

Some anti-Catholic political movements appeared: the Know Nothings in the 1840s. American Protective Association in the 1890s, and the second Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, were active in the United States. But even as early as 1884, in the face of outbreaks of anti-Catholicism, Catholic leaders like James Cardinal Gibbons were filled with admiration for their country: "The oftener I go to Europe," Gibbons said, "the longer I remain there, and the more I study the political condition of its people, I return home filled with greater admiration for our own country and [am] more profoundly grateful that I am an American citizen."[136] Animosity by Protestants waned as Catholics demonstrated their patriotism in World War I, their commitment to charity, and their dedication to democratic values.[137]

20th–21st centuries

Main article: 20th-century history of the Catholic Church in the United States

In the era of intense emigration from the 1840s to 1914, bishops often set up separate parishes for major ethnic groups, from Ireland, Germany, Poland, French Canada and Italy. In Iowa, the development of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, the work of Bishop Loras and the building of St. Raphael's Cathedral, to meet the needs of Germans and Irish, is illustrative. Noteworthy, too, was the contribution of 400 Italian Jesuit expatriates who, between 1848–1919, planted dozens of institutions to serve the diverse population out West. By century's end, they had founded colleges (later to become universities) in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Denver, Seattle and Spokane to meet the cultural and religious needs of people of that region. They also ministered to miners in Colorado, to Native Peoples in several states, and to Hispanics in New Mexico, "building churches [in the latter state], publishing books and newspapers, and running schools in both the public and private sectors."[138]

By the beginning of the 20th century, approximately one-sixth of the population of the United States was Catholic. Modern Catholic immigrants come to the United States from the Philippines, Poland and Latin America, especially Mexico and Central America. This multiculturalism and diversity has influenced the conduct of Catholicism in the United States. For example, most dioceses offer Mass in a number of languages, and an increasing number of parishes offer Masses in the official language of the church, Latin, due to its universal nature.

Sociologist Andrew Greeley, an ordained Catholic priest at the University of Chicago, undertook a series of national surveys of Catholics in the late 20th century. He published hundreds of books and articles, both technical and popular. His biographer summarizes his interpretation:

He argued for the continued salience of ethnicity in American life and the distinctiveness of the Catholic religious imagination. Catholics differed from other Americans, he explained in a variety of publications, by their tendency to think in "sacramental" terms, imagining God as present in a world that was revelatory rather than bleak. The poetic elements in the Catholic tradition—its stories, imagery, and rituals—kept most Catholics in the fold, according to Greeley, whatever their disagreements with particular aspects of church discipline or doctrine. Despite the unchanging nature of church doctrine, Greeley insisted that Humanae Vitae, the 1968 papal encyclical upholding the Catholic ban on contraception is solely responsible for the sharp decline in weekly Mass attendance between 1968 and 1975.[139]

In 1965, 71% of Catholics attended Mass regularly.[140]

 
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen became a media personality with his own television show Life Is Worth Living which aired during the 1950s, as the church in the United States attempted to present its message before a wider audience in the mass media age.

In the later 20th century "[...] the Catholic Church in the United States became the subject of controversy due to allegations of clerical child abuse of children and adolescents, of episcopal negligence in arresting these crimes, and of numerous civil suits that cost Catholic dioceses hundreds of millions of dollars in damages."[141] Because of this, higher scrutiny and governance as well as protective policies and diocesan investigation into seminaries have been enacted to correct these former abuses of power, and safeguard parishioners and the church from further abuses and scandals.

One initiative is the "National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management" (NLRCM), a lay-led group born in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal and dedicated to bringing better administrative practices to 194 dioceses that include 19,000 parishes nationwide with some 35,000 lay ecclesial ministers who log 20 hours or more a week in these parishes.[142][when?]According to a 2015 study by Pew Researchers, 39% of Catholics attend church at least once a week and 40%, once or twice a month.[143]

Although the issue of trusteeism was mostly settled in the 19th century, there have been some related issues. In 2005, an interdict was issued to board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church (St. Louis, Missouri) in an attempt to get them to turn over the church property to the Archdiocese of St. Louis. In 2006, a priest was accused of stealing $1.4 million from his parish, prompting a debate over Connecticut Raised Bill 1098 as a means of forcing the Catholic church to manage money differently. Related to issues of asset ownership, some parishes have been liquidated and the assets taken by the diocese instead of being distributed to nearby parishes, which in violation of church financial rules.

In 2009 John Micklethwait, editor of The Economist and co-author of God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World, said that American Catholicism, which he describes in his book as "arguably the most striking Evangelical success story of the second half of the nineteenth century," has competed quite happily "without losing any of its basic characteristics." It has thrived in America's "pluralism."[144]

In 2011, an estimated 26 million American Catholics were "fallen-away", that is, not practicing their faith. Some religious commentators commonly refer to them as "the second largest religious denomination in the United States."[145] Recent Pew Research survey results in 2014 show about 31.7% of American adults were raised Catholic, while 41% from among that group no longer identify as Catholic.[70]

In a 2015 survey by researchers at Georgetown University, Americans who self identify as Catholic, including those who do not attend Mass regularly, numbered 81.6 million or 25% of the population, and 68.1 million or 20% of the American population are Catholics tied to a specific parish. About 25% of US Catholics say they attend Masses once a week or more, and about 38% went at least once a month. The study found that the number of US Catholics has increased by 3 to 6% each decade since 1965, and that the Catholic Church is "the most diverse in terms of race and ethnicity in the US," with Hispanics accounting for 38% of Catholics and blacks and Asians 3% each.[73] The Catholic Church in the US "represents perhaps the most multi-ethnic organization of any kind, and so is a major laboratory for cross-cultural cooperation and cross-cultural communication completely within the nation's borders."[146] It is as if it wishes to forge a broader ecclesial identity to give newcomers a more inclusive welcome, similar to the aspirations of 19th century church leaders like Archbishops John Ireland and James Gibbons who "wanted Catholic immigrants to become fully American, rather than 'strangers in a strange land.' "[147] Only 2 percent of American Catholics go to confession on a regular basis, while three-quarters of them go to confession once a year or less often; a valid confession is required by the Church after committing mortal sin in order to return to the State of Grace, necessary to receive Holy Communion.[148] As one of the precepts of the church, it is also required that every Catholic makes a valid confession at least once a year.[149]

According to Matthew Bunsen’s analysis of a Real Clear poll of American Catholics in late 2019:

Catholicism has been battered by the winds of secularism, materialism, and relativism. Failures in catechesis and formation have created wide gaps in practice and belief that stretch now into every aspect of Catholic life.[150]

Since 1970, weekly church attendance among Catholics has dropped from 55% to 20%, the number of priests declined from 59,000 to 35,000 and the number of people who have left Catholicism has increased from under 2 million in 1975 to over 30 million today.[151] In 2022, there were fewer than 42,000 nuns left in the United States, a 76% decline over 50 years, with fewer than 1% of nuns under age 40.[152]

The RealClear poll data indicates that the Latino element has now reached 37 percent of the Catholic population, and growing. It is 60 percent Democratic, while the non-Latinos are split about 50-50 politically. Although many Americans still identify as Catholics, their religious participation rates are declining. Today only 39% of all Catholics go to Mass at least weekly. Nearly two-thirds of Catholics say that their trust in the church leadership has been undermined by the clergy sex abuse crisis. Nevertheless, 86% of all Catholics still consider religion important in their own lives.[153]

Some notable American Catholics

For living US bishops, see List of Catholic bishops in the United States.
Further information: Category:American Roman Catholics

Entertainment

Politics

Other

Servants of God and those declared venerable, beatified, and canonized saints

For a full list of Servants of God and other open causes, see List of American saints and beatified people.

The following are some notable Americans declared as Servants of God, venerables, beatified, and canonized saints:

Servants of God

Venerables

Beatified

Saints

Top pilgrimage destinations in the United States

See also

References

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Further reading

Surveys

  • Carey, Patrick W. Catholics in America: A history (Praeger, 2004) online; emphasis on biographies
  • Curan, Robert Emmett. Shaping American Catholicism: Maryland and New York, 1805–1915. (Catholic University of America, 2012).
  • D'Antonio, William V. American Catholics today: New realities of their faith and their church (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).
  • Dolan, Jay P. In Search of an American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension (2003)
  • Ellis, J.T. American Catholicism 2nd ed.(University of Chicago Press, 1969).
  • Gillis, Chester. Roman Catholicism in America (Columbia University Press, 2020).
  • Marty, Martin E. Modern American Religion, Vol. 1: The Irony of It All, 1893–1919 (1986); Modern American Religion. Vol. 2: The Noise of Conflict, 1919–1941 (1991); Modern American Religion, Volume 3: Under God, Indivisible, 1941–1960 (1999); covers all major denominations.
  • McGuinness Margaret M. and James T. Fisher (eds.) Roman Catholicism in the United States: A Thematic History. (Fordham University Press, 2019).
  • Maynard, Theodore The Story of American Catholicism (2 vol. Macmillan, 1960).
  • Morris, Charles R. American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church (1998), a popular history
  • O'Toole, James M. The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America (2008)

Bishops, priests, nuns

  • Carey, Patrick W. An Immigrant Bishop: John England's Adaptation of Irish Catholicism to American Republicanism (Catholic University of America Press, 2022).
  • Coburn, Carol K. and Martha Smith. Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836–1920 (1999) pp 129–58 excerpt and text search
  • Cummings, Kathleen Sprows. A saint of our own: how the quest for a holy hero helped Catholics become American (UNC Press, 2019).
  • D'Antonio, William V., James D. Davidson, Dean R. Hoge, and Katherine Meyer. American Catholics: Gender, Generation, and Commitment (Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor Visitor Publishing Press, 2001).
  • Donovan, Grace. "Immigrant Nuns: Their Participation in the Process of Americanization," in Catholic Historical Review 77, 1991, 194–208.
  • Ellis, J.T. The Life of James Cardinal Gibbons (Bruce Publishing Company, 1963)
  • Finke, Roger. "An Orderly Return to Tradition: Explaining Membership Growth in Catholic Religious Orders," in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , 36, 1997, 218–30.
  • Garraghan, Gilbert J. The Jesuits of the Middle United States Vol. II (Loyola University Press, 1984).
  • Horgan, Paul. Lamy of Santa Fe (McGraw-Hill, 1975), New Mexico.
  • Jonas, Thomas J. The Divided Mind: American Catholic Evangelists in the 1890s (Garland Press, 1988).
  • Kantowicz, Edward R. "Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century American Catholicism." Journal of American History 68.1 (1981): 52–68. online
  • McDermott, Scott. Charles Carroll of Carrollton—Faithful Revolutionary ISBN 1-889334-68-5.
  • McGuinness Margaret M. Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America (New York University Press, 2013) 266 pages; excerpt
  • McKevitt, Gerald. Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1848–1919 (Stanford University Press, 2006).
  • Schroth, Raymond A. The American Jesuits: A History (New York University Press, 2007).
  • Shelley, Thomas J. "Slouching toward the Center: Cardinal Francis Spellman, Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan and American Catholicism in the 1960s." US Catholic Historian 17.4 (1999): 23–49. online
  • Stepsis, Ursula and Dolores Liptak. Pioneer Healers: The History of Women Religious in American Health Care (1989) 375pp

Demography, ethnicity and race

  • Avalos, Hector. Introduction to the U.S. Latina and Latino Religious Experience (2005) excerpt
  • Deck, Allan Figueroa, S.J. The Second Wave: Hispanic Ministry and the Evangelization of Cultures (Paulist Press, 1989).
  • Dolan, Jay P. The Immigrant Church: New York Irish and German Catholics, 1815–1865 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).
  • Dolan, Jay P. "The Irish Parish." US Catholic Historian 25.2 (2007): 13–24. online
  • Donlon, Regina, ed. German and Irish Immigrants in the Midwestern United States, 1850–1900 (2018) excerpt
  • Donnan, Conor J. "Kindred Spirits and Sacred Bonds: Irish Catholics, Native Americans, and the Battle Against Anglo-Protestant Imperialism, 1840–1930." US Catholic Historian 38.3 (2020): 1–23. excerpt
  • Garcia, Angel. The Kingdom Began In Puerto Rico: Neil Connolly's Priesthood In The South Bronx (Fordham University Press, 2020).
  • Greeley, Andrew. "The Demography of American Catholics, 1965–1990" in The Sociology of Andrew Greeley (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994).
  • Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Louisiana State University Press, 1995).
  • McCaffrey, Lawrence John. The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America (Catholic U of America Press, 1997).
  • Monzell, Thomas I. "The Catholic Church and the Americanization of the Polish immigrant." Polish American Studies (1969) 26#1 pp: 1–15. online
  • Poyo, Gerald E. Cuban Catholics in the United States, 1960–1980: Exile and Integration (Notre Dame University Press, 2007).
  • Pula, James S. "Polish-American Catholicism: A Case Study in Cultural Determinism." US Catholic Historian 27.3 (2009): 1–19. online
  • Radzilowski, John. "A Social History of Polish-American Catholicism." US Catholic Historian 27.3 (2009): 21–43. online
  • Schultze, George E. Strangers in a Foreign Land: The Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the United States (Lexington, 2007).
  • Spalding, Thomas W. "German parishes east and west." US Catholic Historian 14.2 (1996): 37–52. online
  • Sullivan, Eileen P. The Shamrock and the Cross: Irish American Novelists Shape American Catholicism (U of Notre Dame Press, 2016).

Specialized studies

  • Abell, Aaron. American Catholicism and Social Action: A Search for Social Justice, 1865–1950 (Hanover House, 1960).
  • Bales, Susan Ridgley. When I Was a Child: Children's Interpretations of First Communion (University of North Carolina, 2005).
  • Brown, Mary Elizabeth. "Variations on the Themes of Parish History: A Case Study of Saint Mary's, Kutztown, Pennsylvania." Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 106.1/2 (1995): 39–54. online
  • Carroll, Michael P. American Catholics in the Protestant Imagination: Rethinking the Academic Study of Religion ( Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
  • McMullen, Joanne Halleran and Jon Parrish Peede, eds. Inside the Church of Flannery O'Connor: Sacrament, Sacramental, and the Sacred in Her Fiction (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2007).
  • Sanders, James W. The Education of an urban Minority: Catholics in Chicago, 1833–1965 (Oxford University Press, 1977).
  • Walch, Timothy. Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present (Crossroad Publishing, 1996).

Historiography

  • Dries, Angelyn. "'Perils of Ocean and Wilderness[: A Field Guide to North American Catholic History." Catholic Historical Review 102.2 (2016) pp 251–83.
  • Gleason, Philip. "The Historiography of American Catholicism as Reflected in The Catholic Historical Review, 1915–2015." Catholic Historical Review 101#2 (2015) pp: 156–222. online
  • Thomas, J. Douglas. "A Century of American Catholic History." US Catholic Historian (1987): 25–49. in JSTOR

Primary sources

  • Ellis, John Tracy. Documents of American Catholic History 2nd ed. (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1956).

External links

  • United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
  • Global Catholic Statistics: 1905 and Today by Albert J. Fritsch, SJ, PhD
  • The percentage of Catholics in the U.S. (1890–2010)

August 23, 2023
catholic, church, united, states, structure, list, catholic, dioceses, united, states, with, percent, united, states, population, 2018, update, catholic, church, country, second, largest, religious, grouping, after, protestantism, country, largest, single, chu. For the structure of the Catholic Church in the United States see List of Catholic dioceses in the United States With 23 percent of the United States population as of 2018 update the Catholic Church is the country s second largest religious grouping after Protestantism and the country s largest single church or Christian denomination where Protestantism is divided into separate denominations 3 In a 2020 Gallup poll 25 of Americans said they were Catholic 4 The United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world after Brazil Mexico and the Philippines 5 Catholic Church in the United StatesThe Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D C is the largest enclosed church building in North AmericaTypeNational polityClassificationCatholicOrientationmainly Latin with minory EasternScriptureBibleTheologyCatholic theologyPolityEpiscopalGovernanceUnited States Conference of Catholic BishopsPopePope FrancisUSCCB PresidentTimothy BroglioPrerogative of PlaceWilliam E LoriApostolic NuncioChristophe PierreRegionUnited States and other territories of the United States excluding Puerto Rico LanguageEnglish Spanish French LatinCongregations17 156 1 Members72 000 000 2020 2 Official websiteusccb orgCatholicism first arrived in North America during the Age of Discovery In the colonial era Spain and later Mexico established missions 1769 1833 that had permanent results in New Mexico and California Spanish missions in California 6 Likewise France founded settlements with missions attached to them in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River region notably Detroit 1701 St Louis 1764 and New Orleans 1718 English Catholics on the other hand harassed in England by the Protestant majority 7 settled in Maryland 1634 and founded the first state capital St Mary s City Maryland 8 9 In 1789 the Archdiocese of Baltimore was the first diocese in the newly independent nation John Carroll became the first American bishop His brother Daniel Carroll was the leading Catholic among the Founding Fathers of the United States George Washington in the army and as president set a standard for religious toleration No religious test was allowed for holding national office and colonial legal restrictions on Catholics holding office were gradually abolished by the States However in the mid 19th century there was political anti Catholicism in the United States sponsored by pietistic Protestants fearful of the pope and rising Catholic immigration Tensions between Protestants and Catholics continued in the 20th century especially when a Catholic was running for president as in 1928 and 1960 The number of Catholics grew rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries through high fertility and immigration especially from Ireland and Germany 10 and after 1880 Eastern Europe Italy and Quebec Large scale Catholic immigration from Mexico began after 1910 and in 2019 Latinos comprised 37 percent of American Catholics Parishes set up parochial schools and hundreds of colleges and universities were established by Catholic religious orders notably by the Jesuits who founded 28 such schools of higher education Nuns were very active in teaching and hospital work Since 1960 the percentage of Americans who are Catholic has fallen from about 25 to 22 11 In a 2021 Pew Research study 21 of US adults described themselves as Catholic identical to the Catholic share of the population in 2014 12 In absolute numbers Catholics have increased from 45 million to 72 million As of April 9 2018 update 39 of American Catholics attend church weekly compared to 45 of American Protestants 13 About 10 of the United States population as of 2010 update are former Catholics or non practicing almost 30 million people 14 People have left for a number of reasons factors which have also affected other denominations loss of belief disenchantment indifference or disaffiliation for another religious group or for none Though Catholic adherents are present throughout the country Catholics are generally more concentrated in the Northeast and urban Midwest Currently however they are also clustered in the southwest This is because of the continuing growth of the American Hispanic community as a share of the U S population is gradually shifting the geographic center of U S Catholicism from the Northeast and urban Midwest to the South and the West 15 Regional distribution of U S Catholics as a percentage of the total U S Catholic population is as follows Northeast 24 Midwest 19 South 32 a percentage that has increased in recent years due to a growing number of Catholics mainly in Texas Louisiana and Florida with the rest of the Southern states remaining overwhelmingly Protestant and West 25 16 While the wealthiest and most educated Americans tend to belong to some Protestant American groupings as well as to Jewish and Hindu constituencies as a whole more Catholics 13 3 million 17 owing to their sheer numbers reside in households with a yearly income of 100 000 or more than any other individual religious group 18 and more Catholics hold college degrees over 19 million than do members of any other faith community in the United States when divided according to their respective denominations or religious designations 17 Contents 1 Organization 2 Personnel 2 1 Bishops 2 1 1 Cardinals 2 2 Clergy and ministers 2 3 Lay employees 3 Approved translations of the Bible 3 1 USCCB approved translations 4 Institutions 4 1 Parochial schools 4 2 Universities and colleges 4 3 Seminaries 4 4 Healthcare system 4 5 Catholic Charities 4 6 Catholic Church and labor 4 7 Prisons 5 Demographics 5 1 By state 6 Politics 6 1 Social issues 7 History 7 1 Early colonial period 7 2 Towards the founding of the United States 7 3 19th century 1800 1900 7 3 1 Catholic revival 7 3 1 1 Nuns and sisters 7 3 2 Anti Catholicism 7 4 20th 21st centuries 8 Some notable American Catholics 8 1 Servants of God and those declared venerable beatified and canonized saints 9 Top pilgrimage destinations in the United States 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 12 1 Surveys 12 2 Bishops priests nuns 12 3 Demography ethnicity and race 12 4 Specialized studies 12 5 Historiography 12 6 Primary sources 13 External linksOrganization EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed March 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message Provinces and dioceses of the Catholic Church in the US Each color represents one of the 32 Latin Church provinces Chicago s Holy Name Cathedral is the mother church of one of the largest Catholic dioceses in the United States The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is the head church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the second largest Catholic church in the United States 19 See also List of Catholic dioceses in the United States Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh is the 5th largest cathedral in the United States 20 Catholics gather as local communities called parishes headed by a priest and typically meet at a permanent church building for liturgies every Sunday weekdays and on holy days Within the 196 geographical dioceses and archdioceses excluding the Archdiocese for the Military Services there were 17 007 local Catholic parishes in the United States in 2018 21 The Catholic Church has the third highest total number of local congregations in the US behind Southern Baptists and United Methodists However the average Catholic parish is significantly larger than the average Baptist or Methodist congregation there are more than four times as many Catholics as Southern Baptists and more than eight times as many Catholics as United Methodists 22 In the United States there are 197 ecclesiastical jurisdictions 177 Western Catholic dioceses including 32 Latin Catholic archdioceses 18 Eastern Catholic dioceses eparchies including 2 Eastern Catholic archdioceses archeparchies including 1 Eparchy for the Syro Malankara Catholic Church 2 personal ordinariates one for former Anglicans who came into full Catholic communion one for members of the military though equivalent to an archdiocese it is technically a military ordinariate Eastern Catholic Churches are churches with origins in Eastern Europe Asia and Africa that have their own distinctive liturgical legal and organizational systems and are identified by the national or ethnic character of their region of origin Each is considered fully equal to the Latin tradition within the Catholic Church In the United States there are 15 Eastern Church dioceses called eparchies and two Eastern Church archdioceses or archeparchies the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh and the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia The apostolic exarchate for the Syro Malankara Catholic Church in the United States is headed by a bishop who is a member of the U S Conference of Catholic Bishops An apostolic exarchate is the Eastern Catholic Church equivalent of an apostolic vicariate It is not a full fledged diocese eparchy but is established by the Holy See for the pastoral care of Eastern Catholics in an area outside the territory of the Eastern Catholic Church to which they belong It is headed by a bishop or a priest with the title of exarch The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter was established January 1 2012 to serve former Anglican groups and clergy in the United States who sought to become Catholic Similar to a diocese though national in scope the ordinariate is based in Houston Texas and includes parishes and communities across the United States that are fully Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage and traditions As of 2017 update 8 dioceses out of 195 are vacant sede vacante None of the current bishops or archbishops are past the retirement age of 75 needs update The central leadership body of the Catholic Church in the United States is the U S Conference of Catholic Bishops made up of the hierarchy of bishops including archbishops of the United States and the U S Virgin Islands although each bishop is independent in his own diocese answerable only to the Holy See The USCCB elects a president to serve as their administrative head but he is in no way the head of the church or of Catholics in the United States In addition to the 195 dioceses and one exarchate 23 represented in the USCCB there are several dioceses in the nation s other four overseas dependencies In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico the bishops in the six dioceses one metropolitan archdiocese and five suffragan dioceses form their own episcopal conference the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriquena 24 The bishops in US insular areas in the Pacific Ocean the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands the Territory of American Samoa and the Territory of Guam are members of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific No primate exists for Catholics in the United States In the 1850s the Archdiocese of Baltimore was acknowledged a Prerogative of Place which confers to its archbishop some of the leadership responsibilities granted to primates in other countries The Archdiocese of Baltimore was the first diocese established in the United States in 1789 with John Carroll 1735 1815 as its first bishop It was for many years the most influential diocese in the fledgling nation Now however the United States has several large archdioceses and a number of cardinal archbishops By far most Catholics in the United States belong to the Latin or Western Church and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church Rite generally refers to the form of worship liturgical rite in a church community owing to cultural and historical differences as well as differences in practice However the Vatican II document Orientalium Ecclesiarum Of the Eastern Churches acknowledges that these Eastern Catholic communities are true Churches and not just rites within the Catholic Church 25 There are 14 other churches in the United States 23 within the global Catholic Church which are in communion with Rome fully recognized and valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church They have their own bishops and eparchies The largest of these communities in the U S is the Chaldean Catholic Church 26 Most of these churches are of Eastern European and Middle Eastern origin Eastern Catholic Churches are distinguished from Eastern Orthodox identifiable by their usage of the term Catholic 27 In recent years particularly following the issuing of the apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 the United States has emerged as a stronghold for the small but growing Traditionalist Catholic movement along with France England and a few other Anglophone countries 28 29 There are over 600 locations throughout the country where the Traditional Latin Mass is offered 30 Personnel EditThe church employs people in a variety of leadership and service roles Its ministers include ordained clergy bishops priests and deacons and non ordained lay ecclesial ministers theologians and catechists Some Catholics both lay and clergy live in a form of consecrated life rather than in marriage This includes a wide range of relationships from monastic monks and nuns to mendicant friars and sisters apostolic priests brothers and sisters and secular and lay institutes While many of these also serve in some form of ministry above others are in secular careers within or without the church Consecrated life in and of itself does not make a person a part of the clergy or a minister of the church Additionally many lay people are employed in secular careers in support of church institutions including educators health care professionals finance and human resources experts lawyers and others Bishops Edit Leadership of the Catholic Church in the United States is provided by the bishops individually for their own dioceses and collectively through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops There are some mid level groupings of bishops such as ecclesiastical provinces often covering a state and the fourteen geographic regions of the USCCB but these have little significance for most purposes The ordinary office for a bishop is to be the bishop of a particular diocese its chief pastor and minister usually geographically defined and incorporating on average about 350 000 Catholic Christians In canon law the bishop leading a particular diocese or similar office is called an ordinary i e he has complete jurisdiction in this territory or grouping of Christians There are two non geographic dioceses called ordinariates one for military personnel and one for former Anglicans who are in full communion with the Catholic Church Dioceses are grouped together geographically into provinces usually within a state part of a state or multiple states together see map below A province comprises several dioceses which look to one ordinary bishop usually of the most populous or historically influential diocese city for guidance and leadership This lead bishop is their archbishop and his diocese is the archdiocese The archbishop is called the metropolitan bishop who strives to achieve some unanimity of practice with his brother suffragan bishops Some larger dioceses have additional bishops assisting the diocesan bishop and these are called auxiliary bishops or if a coadjutor bishop with right of succession Additionally some bishops are called to advise and assist the bishop of Rome the pope in a particular way either as an additional responsibility on top of their diocesan office or sometimes as a full time position in the Roman Curia or related institution serving the universal church These are called cardinals because they are incardinated onto a second diocese Rome All cardinals under the age of 80 participate in the election of a new pope when the office of the papacy becomes vacant There are 428 active and retired Catholic bishops in the United States In this image the cardinals and bishops are processing through St Peter s Basilica 31 255 active bishops 36 archbishops 144 diocesan bishops 67 auxiliary bishops 8 apostolic or diocesan administrators173 retired bishops 33 retired archbishops 95 retired diocesan bishops 45 retired auxiliary bishopsCardinals Edit There are 16 U S cardinals 32 Six archdioceses are currently led by archbishops who have been created cardinals Blase J Cupich Chicago Daniel DiNardo Galveston Houston Timothy M Dolan New York Sean Patrick O Malley Boston Joseph W Tobin Newark Wilton Daniel Gregory Washington D C One cardinal serves as bishop of a diocese Robert W McElroy San DiegoTwo cardinals are in service to the pope in the Roman Curia or related offices Kevin Farrell Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity Family and Life James Michael Harvey Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the WallsSeven cardinals are retired Raymond Leo Burke patron emeritus of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Prefect Emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura Roger Mahony Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles Adam Maida Archbishop Emeritus of Detroit Edwin Frederick O Brien Grand Master Emeritus of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem Justin Francis Rigali Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia James Stafford Major Penitentiary Emeritus of the Apostolic Penitentiary and Archbishop Emeritus of Denver Donald Wuerl Archbishop Emeritus of Washington D C Clergy and ministers Edit In 2018 21 there were approximately 100 000 clergy and ministers employed by the church in the United States including 36 580 presbyters priests 25 254 diocesan 11 326 religious consecrated 18 291 ordinary permanent deacons 39 651 lay ecclesial ministers 2016 33 23 149 diocesan 16 502 religious consecratedThere are also approximately 30 000 seminarians students in formation for ministry 3 526 candidates for priesthood 2 088 candidates for diaconate 16 585 candidates for lay ecclesial ministryLay employees Edit The 630 Catholic hospitals in the U S have a combined budget of 101 7 billion and employ 641 030 full time equivalent staff 34 The 6 525 Catholic primary and secondary schools in the U S employ 151 101 full time equivalent staff 97 2 of whom are lay and 2 3 are consecrated and 0 5 are ordained 35 The 261 Catholic institutions of higher tertiary education in the U S employ approximately 250 000 full time equivalent staff including faculty administrators and support staff 36 Overall the Catholic Church employs more than one million employees with an operating budget of nearly 100 billion to run parishes diocesan primary and secondary schools nursing homes retreat centers hospitals and other charitable institutions 37 Approved translations of the Bible EditUSCCB approved translations Edit Prior to 1991 Latin Vulgate Douay Rheims Bible translated by Catholic scholars in exile from England with ecclesiastical authority from the Pope Knox Bible translated by English Monsignor Ronald A Knox version preferred by Fulton Sheen when quoting scripture 1991 present New American Bible Revised Edition Books of the New Testament Alba House Contemporary English Version New Testament First Edition American Bible Society Contemporary English Version Book of Psalms American Bible Society Contemporary English Version Book of Proverbs American Bible Society The Grail Psalter Inclusive Language Version G I A Publications New American Bible Revised Old Testament New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition National Council of Churches The Psalms Alba House The Psalms New International Version St Joseph Catholic Edition Catholic Book Publishing Company The Psalms St Joseph New Catholic Version Catholic Book Publishing Company Revised Psalms of the New American Bible Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition National Council of Churches Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition National Council of Churches So You May Believe A Translation of the Four Gospels Alba House Today s English Version Second Edition American Bible Society Translation for Early Youth A Translation of the New Testament for Children Contemporary English Version American Bible SocietyInstitutions EditParochial schools Edit Main articles Catholic schools in the United States and History of Catholic education in the United States By the middle of the 19th century the Catholics in larger cities started building their own parochial school system The main impetus was fear that exposure to Protestant teachers in the public schools and Protestant fellow students would lead to a loss of faith Protestants reacted by strong opposition to any public funding of parochial schools 38 The Catholics nevertheless built their elementary schools parish by parish using very low paid sisters as teachers 39 In the classrooms the highest priorities were piety orthodoxy and strict discipline Knowledge of the subject matter was a minor concern and in the late 19th century few of the teachers in parochial or secular schools had gone beyond the 8th grade themselves The sisters came from numerous denominations and there was no effort to provide joint teachers training programs The bishops were indifferent Finally around 1911 led by the Catholic University of America in Washington Catholic colleges began summer institutes to train the sisters in pedagogical techniques Long past World War II the Catholic schools were noted for inferior plants compared to the public schools and less well trained teachers The teachers were selected for religiosity not teaching skills the outcome was pious children and a reduced risk of marriage to Protestants 40 However by the later half the 20th century Catholic schools began to perform significantly better than their public counterparts 41 Universities and colleges Edit Main article List of Catholic universities and colleges in the United States According to the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in 2011 there are approximately 230 Catholic universities and colleges in the United States with nearly 1 million students and some 65 000 professors 42 In 2016 the number of tertiary schools fell to 227 while the number of students also fell to 798 006 43 The national university of the church founded by the nation s bishops in 1887 is The Catholic University of America in Washington D C The first Catholic college university of higher learning established in the United States is Georgetown University founded in 1789 44 The richest U S Catholic university is the University of Notre Dame founded in 1842 with an endowment of over 20 billion in 2022 45 In the 2021 edition of U S News amp World Report rankings 10 of the top 100 national universities in the US were Catholic 46 Seminaries Edit Main article List of Catholic seminaries United States According to the 2016 Official Catholic Directory as of 2016 update there were 243 seminaries with 4 785 students in the United States 3 629 diocesan seminarians and 1 456 religious seminarians By the official 2017 statistics there are 5 050 seminarians 3 694 diocesan and 1 356 religious in the United States In addition the American Catholic bishops oversee the Pontifical North American College for American seminarians and priests studying at one of the Pontifical Universities in Rome Healthcare system Edit In 2002 Catholic health care system overseeing 625 hospitals with a combined revenue of 30 billion dollars was the nation s largest group of nonprofit systems 47 In 2008 the cost of running these hospitals had risen to 84 6 billion including the 5 7 billion they donate 48 According to the Catholic Health Association of the United States 60 health care systems on average admit one in six patients nationwide each year 49 According to Merger Watch 2018 Catholic facilities make up about 10 of all sole community providers in the US 49 out of 514 In some states the percentage is much greater in Wisconsin and South Dakota for example Catholic hospitals account for at least 50 of sole community providers 50 Catholic Charities Edit Catholic Charities is active as the largest voluntary social service networks in the United States In 2009 it welcomed in New Jersey the 50 000th refugee to come to the United States from Burma Likewise the US Bishops Migration and Refugee Services has resettled 14 846 refugees from Burma since 2006 51 In 2010 Catholic Charities USA was one of only four charities among the top 400 charitable organizations to witness an increase in donations in 2009 according to a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy 52 Catholic Church and labor Edit Main article Catholic social activism in the United States The church had a role in shaping the U S labor movement due to the involvement of priests like Charles Owen Rice and John P Boland The activism of Geno Baroni was instrumental in creating the Catholic Campaign for Human Development The Catholic Worker Movement was founded in 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin It campaigns on various social justice issues and aims to live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ 53 Prisons Edit Saint Dismas Prison Ministry Established2000 23 years ago 2000 PresidentGeorge WilliamsDirectorRon ZeilingerAffiliationsCatholicWebsitedismasministry wbr orgSaint Dismas Prison Ministry was founded in Milwaukee Wisconsin in 2000 to offer spiritual services for Catholic prisoners in the United States 54 The president is George Williams a priest 55 It was named after Dismas the repentant thief The ministry was founded in 2000 by Ron Zeilinger who found no Catholic organization of a national scope providing Catholic materials 56 57 The ministry distributes bibles to prisoners 58 In 2006 Scott Jensen chose to remain on the ministry board after he was forced to leave the Wisconsin State Assembly following a felony conviction that was later overturned 59 Demographics Edit The map above shows plurality religious denomination by state as of 2014 according to the Pew Research Center Catholicism made up a plurality of the population in four states New Jersey New York Massachusetts and Rhode Island Protestantism 70 79 60 69 50 59 40 49 30 39 Catholicism 40 49 30 39 Mormonism 50 59 Unaffiliated 30 39 There were 70 412 021 registered Catholics in the United States 22 of the US population in 2017 according to the American bishops count in their Official Catholic Directory 2016 43 This count primarily rests on the parish assessment tax which priests evaluate yearly according to the number of registered members and contributors In July 2021 the Public Religion Research Institute issued its own report based on a new census of 500 000 people It also noted that 22 of 330 million Americans identified as Catholic 12 white 8 Latino and 2 other Black Asian etc 60 Estimates of the overall American Catholic population from recent years generally range around 20 to 28 According to Albert J Menedez research director of Americans for Religious Liberty many Americans continue to call themselves Catholic but do not register at local parishes for a variety of reasons 61 According to a survey of 35 556 American residents released in 2008 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life 23 9 of Americans identify themselves as Catholic approximately 72 million of a national population of 306 million residents 62 The study notes that 10 of those people who identify themselves as Protestant in the interview are former Catholics and 8 of those who identity themselves as Catholic are former Protestants 63 In recent years more parishes have opened than closed citation needed The northeastern quadrant of the US i e New England Mid Atlantic East North Central and West North Central has seen a decline in the number of parishes since 1970 but parish numbers are up in the other five regions i e South Atlantic East South Central West South Central Pacific and Mountain regions and are growing steadily 64 65 Catholics in the US are about 6 of the church s total worldwide 1 3 billion membership See also Black Catholicism A poll by The Barna Group in 2004 found Catholic ethnicity to be 60 non Hispanic white includes Americans with historically Catholic ethnicities such as Irish Italian German Polish or French 31 Hispanic of any nationality mostly Mexicans but also many Cubans Puerto Ricans Dominicans Salvadorans Colombians Guatemalans and Hondurans among others 4 Black including Africans Haitians black Latino and Caribbean and 5 other ethnicity mostly Filipinos Vietnamese and other Asian Americans Americans who are multiracial and have mixed ethnicities and American Indians 66 Among the non Hispanic whites about 16 million Catholics identify as being of Irish descent about 13 million as German about 12 million as Italian about 7 million as Polish and about 5 million as French note that many identify with more than one ethnicity The roughly 7 8 million Catholics who are converts mainly from Protestantism with a smaller number from irreligion or other religions are also mostly non Hispanic white including many people of British Dutch and Scandinavian ancestry 67 Between 1990 and 2008 there were 11 million additional Catholics The growth in the Latino population accounted for 9 million of these They accounted for 32 of all American Catholics in 2008 as opposed to 20 in 1990 68 The percentage of Hispanics who identified as Catholic dropped from 67 in 2010 to 55 in 2013 69 According to a more recent Pew Forum report which examined American religiosity in 2014 and compared it to 2007 70 there were 50 9 million adult Catholics as of 2014 update excluding children under 18 forming about 20 8 of the U S population down from 54 3 million and 23 9 in 2007 Pew also found that the Catholic population is aging forming a higher percentage of the elderly population than the young and retention rates are also worse among the young About 41 of those young raised Catholic have left the faith as opposed to 32 overall about half of these to the unaffiliated population and the rest to evangelical other Protestant faith communities and non Christian faith Conversions to Catholicism are rare with 89 of current Catholics being raised in the religion 8 of current Catholics are ex Protestants 71 2 were raised unaffiliated and 1 in other religions Orthodox Christian Mormon or other nontrinitarian Buddhist Muslim etc with Jews and Hindus least likely to become Catholic of all the religious groups surveyed Overall Catholicism has by far the worst net conversion balance of any major religious group with a high conversion rate out of the faith and a low rate into it by contrast most other religions have in and out conversion rates that roughly balance whether high or low This is credited to the more liberal stance of the church since Vatican II where conversion to Catholicism is no longer encouraged and the de emphasizing of basic Catholic religious beliefs in Catholic education Still according to the 2015 Pew Research Center the Catholic share of the population has been relatively stable over the long term according to a variety of other surveys 72 By race 59 of Catholics are non Hispanic white 34 Hispanic 3 black 3 Asian and 2 mixed or Native American Conversely 19 of non Hispanic whites were Catholic in 2014 down from 22 in 2007 whereas 55 of Hispanics were versus 58 in 2007 In 2015 Hispanics were 38 while blacks and Asians were at 3 each 73 74 Because conversion away from Catholicism as well as dropping out of religion completely is presently occurring much more quickly among Hispanics than among Euro American whites Black 2 9 of US Catholic population 75 and Asian American Catholics it is doubtful they will outnumber the latter three categories of Catholics in the foreseeable future Pew Research Center predicts that by 2050 when the Hispanic population will be 128 million 76 only 40 of third generation Latinos will be Catholic with 22 becoming Protestant 24 becoming unaffiliated and the remainder other 77 This corresponds to a sharp decline in the Catholic percentage among self identified Democrats who are more likely to be nonwhite than Republicans 78 In one study three authors found that around 10 of US Catholics are Secularists meaning that their religious identification is purely nominal 79 By state Edit Church of the Little Flower Coral Gables Florida State Catholic 80 Largest Christian denominationMassachusetts 34 Catholic ChurchRhode Island 42New Jersey 34California 28New York 31New Hampshire 26Connecticut 33Texas 23Arizona 21Illinois 28Louisiana 26North Dakota 26 Evangelical Lutheran Church in AmericaWisconsin 25 Catholic ChurchPennsylvania 24Nebraska 23Florida 21New Mexico 34Vermont 22Maine 21Minnesota 22South Dakota 22 Evangelical Lutheran Church in AmericaColorado 16 Catholic ChurchHawaii 20Montana 17Nevada 25Ohio 18Iowa 18Maryland 15Michigan 18Washington 17Indiana 18Kansas 18Missouri 16Wyoming 14Idaho 10 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day SaintsOregon 12 Catholic ChurchKentucky 10 Southern Baptist ConventionVirginia 12Georgia 9Oklahoma 8Delaware 22 United Methodist ChurchNorth Carolina 9 Southern Baptist ConventionAlaska 16Arkansas 8South Carolina 10Tennessee 6Utah 5 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day SaintsWest Virginia 6 Southern Baptist ConventionMississippi 4Alabama 7Politics EditMain article Catholic Church and politics in the United States Political ideology among American Catholics 81 Conservative 37 Liberal 22 Moderate 36 Don t know 5 There has never been a Catholic religious party in the United States either local state or national similar to Christian democratic parties in Europe The American Solidarity Party however is a minor third party with ideas based on Catholic social teaching Historically a majority of the Catholics in the United States supported the Democratic Party before 1968 Since the election of the Catholic John F Kennedy as President in 1960 Catholics have split about 50 50 between the two major parties but the Democrats have a slight lead due to the growing population of Hispanic Americans On social issues the Catholic Church takes strong positions against abortion 82 which was partly legalized in 1973 by the Supreme Court until it was overturned in 2022 with the Dobbs v Jackson Women s Health Organization case and same sex marriage which was fully legalized in June 2015 The church also condemns embryo destroying research and In vitro fertilization as immoral The church is allied with conservative evangelicals and other Protestants on these issues However the Catholic Church throughout its history has taken special concern for numerous vulnerable groups This has led to progressive alliances as well with the church championing causes such as a strong welfare state unionization 83 immigration for those fleeing economic or political hardship 84 opposition to capital punishment 85 environmental stewardship 86 opposition and critical evaluation of modern warfare 87 The Catholic Church s teachings coming from the perspective of a global church do not conform easily to the American political binary of liberals and conservatives A majority of Catholics who favor abortion rights support the Democrats while most anti abortion Catholics support the Republicans In August 2012 the New York Times reviewed the religion of the nine top national leaders the presidential and vice presidential nominees the Supreme Court justices the House Speaker and the Senate majority leader There were nine Catholics six justices both vice presidential candidates and the Speaker three Jews all from the Supreme Court two Mormons including the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and one African American Protestant incumbent President Barack Obama There were no white Protestants 88 In 2021 30 9 of Congress was Catholic and 24 5 of the Senate was of the faith 89 Social issues Edit The Catholic Church s involvement in social or political movements was not very prominent until bishops in the United States addressed problems on racism in 1958 in a written piece called Discrimination and Christian Conscience In the 1960s the Catholic Church showed support in the Selma to Montgomery marches which involved the attendance of Dutch priest Henri Nouwen 90 History EditMain article History of the Catholic Church in the United States Early colonial period Edit Main articles Catholic Church in the Thirteen Colonies and Spanish missions in California St Francis Xavier Church in Compton Maryland is the oldest Catholic church in continuous operation from the Thirteen Colonies The Province of Maryland was founded with an English Catholic identity 91 One of the colonies of British America the Province of Maryland a Catholic Proprietary 92 was founded with an explicitly English Catholic identity in the 17th century contrasting itself with the neighbouring Protestant dominated Massachusetts Bay Colony and Colony of Virginia 91 It was named after the Catholic Queen Henrietta Maria the wife of Charles I of England Politically it was under the influence of Catholic colonial families of Maryland such as the Calvert Baron Baltimore and the Carroll family the latter of Irish origin 93 Much of the religious situation in the Thirteen Colonies reflected the sectarian divisions of the English Civil War and in a larger sense the aftermath of the English Reformation 94 Furthermore radical Puritans who were viewed as outsiders in England for their opposition to the establishment Laudian leaning Anglican Church saw settlement in the American Colonies particularly with the Plymouth Colony as a way to escape religious restrictions against them in the motherland and were often theologically even more hostile to Catholics than the situation in England itself 94 The Province of Pennsylvania which was given to the Quaker William Penn by the last Catholic King of England James II advocated religious toleration as a principle and thus some Catholics lived there 95 96 There were also some Catholics in the Province of New York named after the aforementioned James II In 1785 the estimated number of Catholics was at 25 000 15 800 in Maryland 7 000 in Pennsylvania and 1 500 in New York 97 There were only 25 priests serving the faithful This was less than 2 of the total population in the Thirteen Colonies 97 Following the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776 the United States came to incorporate into itself territories with a pre existing Catholic history under their previous governance by New France and New Spain the two premier European Catholic powers active in North America 95 The territorial evolution of the United States since 1776 has meant that today more areas that are now part of the United States were Catholic in colonial times before they were Protestant In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase saw vast territories in French Louisiana transferred over from the Catholic Kingdom of France areas that would become the following states Arkansas Iowa Missouri Kansas Oklahoma Nebraska Minnesota Louisiana South Dakota Wyoming and Montana half of Colorado and North Dakota parts of New Mexico Texas and North Dakota 98 The French named a number of their settlements after Catholic saints such as St Louis Sault Ste Marie St Ignace St Charles and others 99 The Catholic culturally French population of Americans descended from this colony are today known as the Louisiana Creole and Cajun people 100 101 The Apotheosis of St Louis in St Louis Missouri Much of what is today the United States once fell under New France and New Spain Catholic powers who named many cities after Catholic saints 95 During the 19th century territories previously belonging to the Catholic Spanish Empire became part of the United States starting with Florida in the 1820s 102 Most of the Spanish American territories with a Catholic heritage became independent during the early 19th century this included Mexico on the border of the United States The United States subsequently annexed parts of Mexico starting with Texas in the 1840s and after the end of the Mexican American War an area known as the Mexican Cession including what would become the states of California Nevada Utah most of Arizona the rest of New Mexico Colorado and Wyoming 103 To an even greater extent than the French the Spanish had named many settlements in the colonial period after Catholic saints or in reference to Catholic religious symbolism names that they would retain after becoming part of the United States especially in California Los Angeles San Francisco San Diego Sacramento San Bernardino Santa Barbara Santa Monica Santa Clarita San Juan Capistrano San Luis Obispo and numerous others as well as Texas San Antonio San Juan San Marcos and San Angelo New Mexico Santa Fe and Florida St Augustine 99 104 As late as 1898 following the Spanish American War the United States took control of Puerto Rico Guam and the Philippines as well as Cuba for a time all of which had several centuries of Spanish Catholic colonial history though they were not made into states 105 Towards the founding of the United States Edit Main article History of the Catholic Church in the United States Anti Catholicism was official government policy for the English who settled the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard 106 Maryland was founded by a Catholic Lord Baltimore as the first non denominational colony and was the first to accommodate Catholics A charter was issued to him in 1632 107 In 1650 the Puritans in the colony rebelled and repealed the Act of Toleration Catholicism was outlawed and Catholic priests were hunted and exiled By 1658 the Act of Toleration was reinstated and Maryland became the center of Catholicism into the mid 19th century In 1689 Puritans rebelled and again repealed the Maryland Toleration Act These rebels cooperated with the colonial assembly dominated by Anglicans to endow the Church of England with tax support and to bar Catholics and Quakers from holding public office 108 New York interestingly enough proved more tolerant with its Catholic governor Thomas Dongan and other Catholic officials 109 Freedom of religion returned with the American Revolution In 1756 a Maryland Catholic official estimated seven thousand practicing Catholics in Maryland and three thousand in Pennsylvania 110 The Williamsburg Foundation estimates in 1765 Maryland Catholics at 20 000 and 6 000 in Pennsylvania The population of these colonies at the time was approximately 180 000 and 200 000 respectively By the time the American War for Independence started in 1776 Catholics formed 1 6 or 40 000 persons of the 2 5 million population of the 13 colonies 111 112 Another estimate is 35 000 in 1789 60 in Maryland with not many more than 30 priests 113 John Carroll first Catholic Bishop in 1785 two years after the Treaty of Paris 1783 reported 24 000 registered communicants in the new country of whom 90 were in Maryland and Pennsylvania 114 John Carroll Archbishop of Baltimore was the first Catholic bishop in the United States His cousin Charles Carroll was a signer of the Declaration of Independence After the Revolution Rome made entirely new arrangements for the creation of an American diocese under American bishops 115 116 Numerous Catholics served in the American army and the new nation had very close ties with Catholic France 117 General George Washington insisted on toleration for example he issued strict orders in 1775 that Pope s Day the colonial equivalent of Guy Fawkes Night was not to be celebrated European Catholics played major military roles especially Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur comte de Rochambeau Charles Hector comte d Estaing Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko 118 Irish born Commodore John Barry from Co Wexford Ireland often credited as the Father of the American Navy also played an important military role 119 In a letter to Bishop Carroll Washington acknowledged this unique contribution of French Catholics as well as the patriotic contribution of Carroll himself And I promise that your fellow citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishments of their Revolution and the establishment of their government nor the important assistance which they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic religion is professed 120 Beginning in approximately 1780 there was a struggle between lay trustees and bishops over the ownership of church property with the trustees losing control following the 1852 Plenary Councils of Baltimore 121 Of the colonial era historian Jay Dolan says They had lived as second class citizens discriminated against politically professionally and socially The revolution changed all this New laws and new constitutions gave them religious freedom leading John Carroll to observe in 1779 that Roman Catholics are members of Congress assemblies and hold civil and military posts 122 President Washington promoted religious tolerance by proclamations and by publicly attending services in various Protestant and Catholic churches 123 The old colonial laws imposing restrictions on Catholics were gradually abolished by the states and were prohibited in the new federal constitution 124 In 1787 two Catholics Daniel Carroll of the Irish O Carrolls and Irish born Thomas Fitzsimons helped draft the new United States Constitution 125 John Carroll was appointed by the Vatican as Prefect Apostolic making him superior of the missionary church in the thirteen states He formulated the first plans for Georgetown University and became the first American bishop in 1789 126 19th century 1800 1900 Edit Main article 19th century history of the Catholic Church in the United States The nave of the St Patrick s Cathedral New York City completed in 1878The number of Catholics surged starting in the 1840s as German Irish and other European Catholics came in large numbers After 1890 Italians and Poles formed the largest numbers of new Catholics but many countries in Europe contributed as did Quebec By 1850 Catholics had become the country s largest single denomination Between 1860 and 1890 their population tripled to seven million Catholic revival Edit Historian John McGreevy identifies a major Catholic revival that swept across Europe North America and South America in the early 19th century It was nurtured in the world of Catholic urban neighborhoods parishes schools and associations whose members understood themselves as arrayed against and morally superior to the wider American society The Catholic Revival is called Ultramontanism It included a new emphasis on Thomistic theology for intellectuals For parishioners it meant a much deeper piety that emphasized miracles saints and new devotions such as compulsory Sunday attendance regular confession and communion praying the rosary a devotion to the Blessed Virgin and meatless Fridays There was a deeper respect for bishops and especially the Pope with more direct control by the Vatican over selecting bishops and less autonomy for local parishes There was a sharp increase in Mass attendance religious vocations soared especially among women Catholics set up a parochial school system using the newly available nuns and funding from the more religious parents Intermarriage with Protestants was strongly discouraged It was tolerated only if the children were brought up Catholics The parochial schools effectively promoted marriage inside the faith By the late 19th century dioceses were building foreign language elementary schools in parishes that catered to Germans and other non English speaking groups They raised large sums to build English only diocesan high schools which had the effect of increasing ethnic intermarriage and diluting ethnic nationalism 127 Leadership was increasingly in the hands of the Irish The Irish bishops worked closely with the Vatican and promoted Vatican supremacy that culminated in Papal infallibility proclaimed in 1870 128 The bishops began standardizing discipline in the American Church with the convocation of the Plenary Councils of Baltimore in 1852 1866 and 1884 These councils resulted in the promulgation of the Baltimore Catechism and the establishment of The Catholic University of America The Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows ChicagoJesuit priests who had been expelled from Europe found a new base in the U S They founded numerous secondary schools and 28 colleges and universities such as Georgetown University 1789 St Louis University 1818 Boston College the College of Holy Cross the University of Santa Clara and several Loyola Colleges 129 Many other religious communities like the Dominicans Congregation of Holy Cross and Franciscans followed suit In the 1890s the Americanism controversy roiled senior officials The Vatican suspected there was too much liberalism in the American Church and the result was a turn to conservative theology as the Irish bishops increasingly demonstrated their total loyalty to the Pope and traces of liberal thought in the Catholic colleges were suppressed 130 131 As part of this controversy the founder of the Paulist Fathers Isaac Hecker was accused by the French cleric Charles Maignen article in French of subjectivism and crypto Protestantism 132 Additionally some who sympathized with Hecker in France were accused of Americanism Nuns and sisters Edit Main article Catholic sisters and nuns in the United States Nuns and sisters played a major role in American religion education nursing and social work since the early 19th century In Catholic Europe convents were heavily endowed over the centuries and were sponsored by the aristocracy But there were very few rich American Catholics and no aristocrats Religious orders were founded by entrepreneurial women who saw a need and an opportunity and were staffed by devout women from poor families The numbers grew rapidly from 900 sisters in 15 communities in 1840 50 000 in 170 congregations in 1900 and 135 000 in 300 different congregations by 1930 Starting in 1820 the sisters always outnumbered the priests and brothers 133 Their numbers peaked in 1965 at 180 000 then plunged to 56 000 in 2010 Many women left their orders and few new members were added 134 James Gibbons 1834 1921 cardinal archbishop of Baltimore was the widely respected leader of American Catholics On April 8 2008 Cardinal William Levada prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI met with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious leaders in Rome and communicated that the CDF would conduct a doctrinal assessment of the LCWR expressing concern that the nuns were expressing radical feminist views According to Laurie Goodstein the investigation which was viewed by many U S Catholics as a vexing and unjust inquisition of the sisters who ran the church s schools hospitals and charities was ultimately closed in 2015 by Pope Francis 135 Anti Catholicism Edit Some anti Catholic political movements appeared the Know Nothings in the 1840s American Protective Association in the 1890s and the second Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s were active in the United States But even as early as 1884 in the face of outbreaks of anti Catholicism Catholic leaders like James Cardinal Gibbons were filled with admiration for their country The oftener I go to Europe Gibbons said the longer I remain there and the more I study the political condition of its people I return home filled with greater admiration for our own country and am more profoundly grateful that I am an American citizen 136 Animosity by Protestants waned as Catholics demonstrated their patriotism in World War I their commitment to charity and their dedication to democratic values 137 20th 21st centuries Edit Main article 20th century history of the Catholic Church in the United States In the era of intense emigration from the 1840s to 1914 bishops often set up separate parishes for major ethnic groups from Ireland Germany Poland French Canada and Italy In Iowa the development of the Archdiocese of Dubuque the work of Bishop Loras and the building of St Raphael s Cathedral to meet the needs of Germans and Irish is illustrative Noteworthy too was the contribution of 400 Italian Jesuit expatriates who between 1848 1919 planted dozens of institutions to serve the diverse population out West By century s end they had founded colleges later to become universities in San Francisco Santa Clara Denver Seattle and Spokane to meet the cultural and religious needs of people of that region They also ministered to miners in Colorado to Native Peoples in several states and to Hispanics in New Mexico building churches in the latter state publishing books and newspapers and running schools in both the public and private sectors 138 By the beginning of the 20th century approximately one sixth of the population of the United States was Catholic Modern Catholic immigrants come to the United States from the Philippines Poland and Latin America especially Mexico and Central America This multiculturalism and diversity has influenced the conduct of Catholicism in the United States For example most dioceses offer Mass in a number of languages and an increasing number of parishes offer Masses in the official language of the church Latin due to its universal nature Sociologist Andrew Greeley an ordained Catholic priest at the University of Chicago undertook a series of national surveys of Catholics in the late 20th century He published hundreds of books and articles both technical and popular His biographer summarizes his interpretation He argued for the continued salience of ethnicity in American life and the distinctiveness of the Catholic religious imagination Catholics differed from other Americans he explained in a variety of publications by their tendency to think in sacramental terms imagining God as present in a world that was revelatory rather than bleak The poetic elements in the Catholic tradition its stories imagery and rituals kept most Catholics in the fold according to Greeley whatever their disagreements with particular aspects of church discipline or doctrine Despite the unchanging nature of church doctrine Greeley insisted that Humanae Vitae the 1968 papal encyclical upholding the Catholic ban on contraception is solely responsible for the sharp decline in weekly Mass attendance between 1968 and 1975 139 In 1965 71 of Catholics attended Mass regularly 140 Bishop Fulton J Sheen became a media personality with his own television show Life Is Worth Living which aired during the 1950s as the church in the United States attempted to present its message before a wider audience in the mass media age In the later 20th century the Catholic Church in the United States became the subject of controversy due to allegations of clerical child abuse of children and adolescents of episcopal negligence in arresting these crimes and of numerous civil suits that cost Catholic dioceses hundreds of millions of dollars in damages 141 Because of this higher scrutiny and governance as well as protective policies and diocesan investigation into seminaries have been enacted to correct these former abuses of power and safeguard parishioners and the church from further abuses and scandals One initiative is the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management NLRCM a lay led group born in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal and dedicated to bringing better administrative practices to 194 dioceses that include 19 000 parishes nationwide with some 35 000 lay ecclesial ministers who log 20 hours or more a week in these parishes 142 when According to a 2015 study by Pew Researchers 39 of Catholics attend church at least once a week and 40 once or twice a month 143 Although the issue of trusteeism was mostly settled in the 19th century there have been some related issues In 2005 an interdict was issued to board members of St Stanislaus Kostka Church St Louis Missouri in an attempt to get them to turn over the church property to the Archdiocese of St Louis In 2006 a priest was accused of stealing 1 4 million from his parish prompting a debate over Connecticut Raised Bill 1098 as a means of forcing the Catholic church to manage money differently Related to issues of asset ownership some parishes have been liquidated and the assets taken by the diocese instead of being distributed to nearby parishes which in violation of church financial rules In 2009 John Micklethwait editor of The Economist and co author of God Is Back How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World said that American Catholicism which he describes in his book as arguably the most striking Evangelical success story of the second half of the nineteenth century has competed quite happily without losing any of its basic characteristics It has thrived in America s pluralism 144 In 2011 an estimated 26 million American Catholics were fallen away that is not practicing their faith Some religious commentators commonly refer to them as the second largest religious denomination in the United States 145 Recent Pew Research survey results in 2014 show about 31 7 of American adults were raised Catholic while 41 from among that group no longer identify as Catholic 70 In a 2015 survey by researchers at Georgetown University Americans who self identify as Catholic including those who do not attend Mass regularly numbered 81 6 million or 25 of the population and 68 1 million or 20 of the American population are Catholics tied to a specific parish About 25 of US Catholics say they attend Masses once a week or more and about 38 went at least once a month The study found that the number of US Catholics has increased by 3 to 6 each decade since 1965 and that the Catholic Church is the most diverse in terms of race and ethnicity in the US with Hispanics accounting for 38 of Catholics and blacks and Asians 3 each 73 The Catholic Church in the US represents perhaps the most multi ethnic organization of any kind and so is a major laboratory for cross cultural cooperation and cross cultural communication completely within the nation s borders 146 It is as if it wishes to forge a broader ecclesial identity to give newcomers a more inclusive welcome similar to the aspirations of 19th century church leaders like Archbishops John Ireland and James Gibbons who wanted Catholic immigrants to become fully American rather than strangers in a strange land 147 Only 2 percent of American Catholics go to confession on a regular basis while three quarters of them go to confession once a year or less often a valid confession is required by the Church after committing mortal sin in order to return to the State of Grace necessary to receive Holy Communion 148 As one of the precepts of the church it is also required that every Catholic makes a valid confession at least once a year 149 According to Matthew Bunsen s analysis of a Real Clear poll of American Catholics in late 2019 Catholicism has been battered by the winds of secularism materialism and relativism Failures in catechesis and formation have created wide gaps in practice and belief that stretch now into every aspect of Catholic life 150 Since 1970 weekly church attendance among Catholics has dropped from 55 to 20 the number of priests declined from 59 000 to 35 000 and the number of people who have left Catholicism has increased from under 2 million in 1975 to over 30 million today 151 In 2022 there were fewer than 42 000 nuns left in the United States a 76 decline over 50 years with fewer than 1 of nuns under age 40 152 The RealClear poll data indicates that the Latino element has now reached 37 percent of the Catholic population and growing It is 60 percent Democratic while the non Latinos are split about 50 50 politically Although many Americans still identify as Catholics their religious participation rates are declining Today only 39 of all Catholics go to Mass at least weekly Nearly two thirds of Catholics say that their trust in the church leadership has been undermined by the clergy sex abuse crisis Nevertheless 86 of all Catholics still consider religion important in their own lives 153 Some notable American Catholics EditFor living US bishops see List of Catholic bishops in the United States Further information Category American Roman Catholics Entertainment Stephen Colbert Television host 154 Jimmy Fallon Television host 155 156 157 Lady Gaga Singer 158 Mel Gibson Actor Madonna Singer songwriter dancer actress Grace Kelly Actress amp Princess of Monaco Jimmy Kimmel Television host 159 Conan O Brien Television host 160 Frank Sinatra Singer actor Arnold Schwarzenegger Actor 161 Martin Sheen Actor activist 162 Mark Wahlberg Actor 163 John Wayne Actor 164 165 166 Politics Amy Coney Barrett Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 167 Joe Biden 46th President of the United States Charles Carroll of Carrollton Founding Father of the U S 168 Daniel Carroll Founding Father of the U S Alexander Haig 59th Secretary of State Brett Kavanaugh Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 169 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis First Lady of the United States John F Kennedy 35th President of the United States 170 Ted Kennedy U S Senator brother of President Kennedy and Robert Bobby Kennedy Robert F Kennedy U S Attorney General presidential candidate 1968 Edmund Muskie 58th Secretary of State John Roberts 17th Chief Justice of the United States 171 Clarence Thomas Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 172 Roger B Taney 5th Chief Justice of the United States 173 Melania Trump First Lady of the United States 174 175 Edward Douglass White 9th Chief Justice of the United StatesOther Kobe Bryant Professional basketball player John Carroll Archbishop of Baltimore Toni Morrison Novelist 176 Servants of God and those declared venerable beatified and canonized saints Edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed April 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message For a full list of Servants of God and other open causes see List of American saints and beatified people The following are some notable Americans declared as Servants of God venerables beatified and canonized saints Servants of God Thea Bowman Simon Brute Vincent Robert Capodanno Walter Ciszek Terence Cooke Dorothy Day Black Elk 177 Demetrius Gallitzin Julia Greeley John Hardon Isaac Hecker Emil Kapaun Eusebio Francisco Kino Mary Elizabeth Lange Rose Hawthorne Lathrop James Miller Joseph Muzquiz Frank Parater Felix Varela Paul Wattson 178 Annella Zervas Venerables Nelson Baker Frederic Baraga Cornelia Connelly Henriette DeLille Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli Patrick Peyton 179 Aloysius Schwartz Fulton J Sheen Augustus Tolton Pierre ToussaintBeatified Solanus Casey Teresa Demjanovich Michael J McGivney 180 James Alfred Miller FSC Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Stanley Rother Francis Xavier SeelosSaints Frances Xavier Cabrini Marianne Cope Jean de Lalande Damien De Veuster Katharine Drexel Rose Philippine Duchesne Rene Goupil Mother Theodore Guerin Isaac Jogues John Neumann Junipero Serra Elizabeth Ann Seton Kateri TekakwithaTop pilgrimage destinations in the United States EditNational Shrine of The Divine Mercy Stockbridge Massachusetts National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa Doylestown Pennsylvania Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe La Crosse Wisconsin National Shrine of St Francis of Assisi San Francisco California Saint Anthony s Chapel Pittsburgh Pennsylvania National Blue Army Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Washington Township Warren County New Jersey National Shrine of the North American Martyrs Auriesville New York Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Baltimore Maryland El Santuario de Chimayo Chimayo New Mexico north of Santa Fe Basilica of the National Shrine of St Elizabeth Ann Seton Emmitsburg Maryland Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Hanceville Alabama Basilica of Our Lady of Victory Lackawanna New York National Shrine of Saint John Neumann in St Peter the Apostle Church Philadelphia Pennsylvania Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Washington D C 181 National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help Champion Wisconsin See also Edit Catholicism portal Saints portal United States portalHistory of the Catholic Church in the United States Catholic Home Missions Catholic Church by country Catholic Church and politics in the United States List of Catholic dioceses in the United States includes lists of Eastern Catholic eparchies List of American Catholic priests List of Catholic authors List of converts to the Catholic Church List of Catholic scientists List of Catholic clergy scientists List of Catholic musicians America Needs Fatima Christianity in the United States Holy See United States relations Eastern Catholic ChurchesReferences Edit CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN THE APOSTOLATE CARA Georgetown University gt Frequently Requested Church Statistics gt Parishes cara georgetown edu frequently requested church statistics Black Catholics seek worship spaces free of racism Diocese of Raleigh March 28 2022 Retrieved August 7 2023 The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency www cia gov Archived from the original on June 13 2007 Retrieved September 27 2018 Brenan Megan March 29 2021 Religiosity Largely Unaffected by Events of 2020 in U S Gallup com Retrieved June 8 2022 Catholic Data Catholic Statistics Catholic Research cara georgetown edu Archived from the original on January 20 2016 Retrieved August 20 2013 Alan Taylor American Colonies New York Viking 2001 465 Taylor 137 Taylor 137 Richard Middleton Colonial America A History 1565 1776 Malden Mass Blackwell 2002 95 Michael V Gannon Before and after Modernism The Intellectual Isolation of the American 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September 9 2010 The actor born Ramon Antonio Gerard Estevez is a devout Roman Catholic Zaimov Stoyan January 18 2012 Mark Wahlberg talks central role of faith and prayer in his daily life Christian Today Australia Archived from the original on August 26 2014 Retrieved July 28 2015 The religion of John Wayne actor Adherents com Archived from the original on November 19 2005 Retrieved October 20 2008 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint unfit URL link Kerr David October 4 2011 My granddaddy John Wayne California Catholic Daily Archived from the original on October 6 2011 Retrieved October 4 2011 Company Our Sunday Visitor Catholic Publishing Everyone called him Duke John Wayne s conversion to Catholicism Our Sunday Visitor Catholic Publishing Company Archived from the original on June 12 2018 Retrieved June 10 2018 Escobar Allyson September 21 2020 Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court America The Jesuit Review Archived from the original on September 22 2020 Retrieved December 14 2020 Charles Carroll of Carrollton The American Catholic Quarterly Review Vol XXIV 1899 Five things to know about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh USA Today July 9 2018 Retrieved December 16 2018 Kennedy John F June 18 2002 Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association American Rhetoric Archived from the original on August 2 2016 Retrieved September 17 2007 Todd S Purdum Jodi Wilgoren and Pam Belluck Court Nominee s Life Is Rooted in Faith and Respect for Law New York Times July 21 2005 Escobar Allyson July 18 2018 Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court America New York New York America Press Society of Jesus Retrieved June 16 2019 Bunson Matthew March 20 2017 Catholics and the Supreme Court National Catholic Register Retrieved November 8 2018 Sieczkowski Cavan May 25 2017 Melania Trump Will Be The First Catholic To Live At The White House Since JFK HuffPost Archived from the original on May 26 2017 Retrieved May 26 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump Is Catholic Spokeswoman Confirms The Catholic Herald May 26 2017 Archived from the original on May 26 2017 Retrieved May 26 2017 Emma Brockes Interview I want to feel what I feel Even if it s not happiness THE GUARDIAN April 13 2012 Jon Sweeney The saint who danced for Queen Victoria The Tablet 23 January 2021 10 11 Prayer Intentions Father Paul of Graymoor Guild www fatherpaulofgraymoor org Facebook com HCFM org Beatification of Father Michael McGivney Knights of Columbus www kofc org 10 Top Catholic Shrines in the U S February 15 2012 Archived from the original on October 18 2020 Retrieved February 7 2020 Further reading EditSurveys Edit Carey Patrick W Catholics in America A history Praeger 2004 online emphasis on biographies Curan Robert Emmett Shaping American Catholicism Maryland and New York 1805 1915 Catholic University of America 2012 D Antonio William V American Catholics today New realities of their faith and their church Rowman amp Littlefield 2007 Dolan Jay P In Search of an American Catholicism A History of Religion and Culture in Tension 2003 Ellis J T American Catholicism 2nd ed University of Chicago Press 1969 Gillis Chester Roman Catholicism in America Columbia University Press 2020 Marty Martin E Modern American Religion Vol 1 The Irony of It All 1893 1919 1986 Modern American Religion Vol 2 The Noise of Conflict 1919 1941 1991 Modern American Religion Volume 3 Under God Indivisible 1941 1960 1999 covers all major denominations McGuinness Margaret M and James T Fisher eds Roman Catholicism in the United States A Thematic History Fordham University Press 2019 Maynard Theodore The Story of American Catholicism 2 vol Macmillan 1960 Morris Charles R American Catholic The Saints and Sinners Who Built America s Most Powerful Church 1998 a popular history O Toole James M The Faithful A History of Catholics in America 2008 Bishops priests nuns Edit Carey Patrick W An Immigrant Bishop John England s Adaptation of Irish Catholicism to American Republicanism Catholic University of America Press 2022 Coburn Carol K and Martha Smith Spirited Lives How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life 1836 1920 1999 pp 129 58 excerpt and text search Cummings Kathleen Sprows A saint of our own how the quest for a holy hero helped Catholics become American UNC Press 2019 D Antonio William V James D Davidson Dean R Hoge and Katherine Meyer American Catholics Gender Generation and Commitment Huntington Ind Our Sunday Visitor Visitor Publishing Press 2001 Donovan Grace Immigrant Nuns Their Participation in the Process of Americanization in Catholic Historical Review 77 1991 194 208 Ellis J T The Life of James Cardinal Gibbons Bruce Publishing Company 1963 Finke Roger An Orderly Return to Tradition Explaining Membership Growth in Catholic Religious Orders in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 36 1997 218 30 Garraghan Gilbert J The Jesuits of the Middle United States Vol II Loyola University Press 1984 Horgan Paul Lamy of Santa Fe McGraw Hill 1975 New Mexico Jonas Thomas J The Divided Mind American Catholic Evangelists in the 1890s Garland Press 1988 Kantowicz Edward R Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago and the Shaping of Twentieth Century American Catholicism Journal of American History 68 1 1981 52 68 online McDermott Scott Charles Carroll of Carrollton Faithful Revolutionary ISBN 1 889334 68 5 McGuinness Margaret M Called to Serve A History of Nuns in America New York University Press 2013 266 pages excerpt McKevitt Gerald Brokers of Culture Italian Jesuits in the American West 1848 1919 Stanford University Press 2006 Schroth Raymond A The American Jesuits A History New York University Press 2007 Shelley Thomas J Slouching toward the Center Cardinal Francis Spellman Archbishop Paul J Hallinan and American Catholicism in the 1960s US Catholic Historian 17 4 1999 23 49 online Stepsis Ursula and Dolores Liptak Pioneer Healers The History of Women Religious in American Health Care 1989 375ppDemography ethnicity and race Edit Avalos Hector Introduction to the U S Latina and Latino Religious Experience 2005 excerpt Deck Allan Figueroa S J The Second Wave Hispanic Ministry and the Evangelization of Cultures Paulist Press 1989 Dolan Jay P The Immigrant Church New York Irish and German Catholics 1815 1865 Johns Hopkins University Press 1975 Dolan Jay P The Irish Parish US Catholic Historian 25 2 2007 13 24 online Donlon Regina ed German and Irish Immigrants in the Midwestern United States 1850 1900 2018 excerpt Donnan Conor J Kindred Spirits and Sacred Bonds Irish Catholics Native Americans and the Battle Against Anglo Protestant Imperialism 1840 1930 US Catholic Historian 38 3 2020 1 23 excerpt Garcia Angel The Kingdom Began In Puerto Rico Neil Connolly s Priesthood In The South Bronx Fordham University Press 2020 Greeley Andrew The Demography of American Catholics 1965 1990 in The Sociology of Andrew Greeley Atlanta Scholars Press 1994 Hall Gwendolyn Midlo The Development of Afro Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century Louisiana State University Press 1995 McCaffrey Lawrence John The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America Catholic U of America Press 1997 Monzell Thomas I The Catholic Church and the Americanization of the Polish immigrant Polish American Studies 1969 26 1 pp 1 15 online Poyo Gerald E Cuban Catholics in the United States 1960 1980 Exile and Integration Notre Dame University Press 2007 Pula James S Polish American Catholicism A Case Study in Cultural Determinism US Catholic Historian 27 3 2009 1 19 online Radzilowski John A Social History of Polish American Catholicism US Catholic Historian 27 3 2009 21 43 online Schultze George E Strangers in a Foreign Land The Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the United States Lexington 2007 Spalding Thomas W German parishes east and west US Catholic Historian 14 2 1996 37 52 online Sullivan Eileen P The Shamrock and the Cross Irish American Novelists Shape American Catholicism U of Notre Dame Press 2016 Specialized studies Edit Abell Aaron American Catholicism and Social Action A Search for Social Justice 1865 1950 Hanover House 1960 Bales Susan Ridgley When I Was a Child Children s Interpretations of First Communion University of North Carolina 2005 Brown Mary Elizabeth Variations on the Themes of Parish History A Case Study of Saint Mary s Kutztown Pennsylvania Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 106 1 2 1995 39 54 online Carroll Michael P American Catholics in the Protestant Imagination Rethinking the Academic Study of Religion Johns Hopkins University Press 2007 McMullen Joanne Halleran and Jon Parrish Peede eds Inside the Church of Flannery O Connor Sacrament Sacramental and the Sacred in Her Fiction Macon GA Mercer University Press 2007 Sanders James W The Education of an urban Minority Catholics in Chicago 1833 1965 Oxford University Press 1977 Walch Timothy Parish School American Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present Crossroad Publishing 1996 Historiography Edit Dries Angelyn Perils of Ocean and Wilderness A Field Guide to North American Catholic History Catholic Historical Review 102 2 2016 pp 251 83 Gleason Philip The Historiography of American Catholicism as Reflected in The Catholic Historical Review 1915 2015 Catholic Historical Review 101 2 2015 pp 156 222 online Thomas J Douglas A Century of American Catholic History US Catholic Historian 1987 25 49 in JSTORPrimary sources Edit Ellis John Tracy Documents of American Catholic History 2nd ed Milwaukee Bruce Publishing Co 1956 External links EditUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops Global Catholic Statistics 1905 and Today by Albert J Fritsch SJ PhD The percentage of Catholics in the U S 1890 2010 Largest religious groups in the United States Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Catholic Church in the United States amp oldid 1170009469, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, 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