Catholic Church in the United States

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is the largest Catholic church in the United States.

The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Christian Church in full communion with the Pope. It is the largest single religious denomination in the United States, comprising about 22% of the population. With more than 68 million members, the United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world, after Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines.^[1]

Catholicism arrived in what is now the United States during the earliest days of the European colonization of the Americas. The first Catholic missionaries were Spanish, and came to what is now the United States following the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World.^[2] They established missions in what are now Florida, Georgia, Texas, New Mexico, California, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.^[3] French colonization came later, in the early 1700s, with the French establishing missions in the nine districts of the Louisiana Territory: New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, the Alabamas, Natchez, Yazoo, Natchitoches, Arkansas, Illinois,^[4] and Michigan^[5]

When the United States was founded in 1776 — from the thirteen English-speaking colonies on the eastern seaboard — only a small fraction of the population was Catholic. The number of Catholics has grown during the country's history, at first slowly in the early 1800s through some immigration and also through the acquisition of territories (formerly possessions of France, Spain, and Mexico) with predominately Catholic populations. In the mid 1800s, a rapid influx of Irish and German immigrants made Catholicism the largest religion in the United States. Beginning in the late 1900s, the large numbers of newly arrived Hispanic immigrants served to further increase the US Catholic Church's margin of numerical superiority in size above all other US denominations.

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 pope. In addition to the 195 dioceses and one exarchate^[6] 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 Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña.^[7] 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.

Organization

Provinces and dioceses of the Catholic Church in the US. Each color represents one of the 32 Latin-rite provinces. The color for Omaha (Nebraska) is slightly different from that of Denver (Colorado and Wyoming).

The Catholic Church has the third highest total number of individual parishes in the US, behind Southern Baptists and Methodists. However, because the average Catholic parish is significantly larger than the average church from those denominations, there are more than four times as many Catholics as Southern Baptists and more than 8 times as many as Methodists (7,853,987).^[8] Represented in the USCCB are 195 archdioceses and dioceses (in the US and the Territory of the Virgin Islands):

• 145 Latin Catholic dioceses (that are not archdioceses)
• 33 Latin Catholic archdioceses, and 32 Latin Catholic ecclesiastical provinces (the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services USA is not a metropolitan archdiocese and has no suffragan diocese)
• 15 Eastern Catholic dioceses (that are not archdioceses)
• 1 Eastern Catholic exarchate^[6]
• 2 Eastern Catholic archdioceses, and 2 Eastern Catholic metropoliae

There are also several dioceses in the nation's other four overseas territories. 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 Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña. 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.

As of 2008^[update] of 195 dioceses, 5 dioceses are vacant (sede vacante). Another 14 bishops, including two cardinals, are past the retirement age of 75.

Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral is the mother church of one of the largest Catholic dioceses in the United States.

Clergy, lay ministers and employees

The Church has over 41,406 diocesan and religious-order priests in the United States; also over 30,000 lay ministers (80% of them women), 17,000 men who are ordained as permanent deacons in the United States (a permanent deacon is a man, either married or single, who is ordained to the order of deacons, the first of three ranks in ordained ministry.^[9] They assist priests in administrative and pastoral roles), 63,032 sisters, 5,040 brothers, 16 US Cardinals, 424 active and retired US bishops in the United States, and 5,029 seminarians enrolled in the United States. Overall, it employs more than one million employees with an operating budget of nearly 100 billion dollars to run parishes, diocesan primary and secondary schools, nursing homes, retreat centers, diocesan hospitals, and other charitable institutions.^[10] 150,000 Catholic school teachers operate in the United States, teaching 2.7 million students.

Institutions

Seminaries

See: List of Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States

Universities and colleges

See: List of Roman Catholic universities and colleges in the United States

There are approximately 225 Catholic schools of higher education in the United States, including: Barry University, Boston College, Canisius College, The Catholic University of America, Christendom College, College of the Holy Cross, College of Saint Elizabeth, DePaul University, Fairfield University, Felician College, Fordham University, Georgetown University, Georgian Court University, Gonzaga University, John Carroll University, La Salle University, Le Moyne College, Loyola Marymount University, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University Maryland, Loyola University New Orleans, Marquette University, Providence College, Regis University, Rockhurst University, St. John's University, Saint Joseph's University, Saint Louis University, St. Michael's College, Saint Peter's College, Santa Clara University, Seattle University, Seton Hall University, Spring Hill College, Stonehill College, Thomas Aquinas College, University of Dallas, University of Dayton, University of Detroit Mercy, University of Notre Dame, University of Portland, University of San Diego, University of San Francisco, University of Scranton, Villanova University, Xavier University (Cincinnati), Xavier University of Louisiana, Wheeling Jesuit University, and others.

Many of these universities and colleges have established programs abroad and collaborate with schools in other countries. In 2009, for example, representatives of four Jesuit institutions in California (University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, Jesuit School of Theology, and Loyola Marymount University) were in consultation with the religious studies faculty of the University of Fudan, Shanghai, China, to broaden the religious studies programs at that university.^[11] In the United States, the US bishops' education committee in 2010 launched a campaign to enroll one million Hispanic students in Catholic schools by 2020. Two programs at the University of Notre Dame will support this campaign: the university's Latino Institute for Catholic Education and the Alliance for Catholic Education, known as ACE, which places college graduates as volunteer teachers in Catholic schools all over the country.^[12]

Parochial schools

The Catholic parochial school system developed in the early-to-mid-nineteenth century. Most states passed constitutional amendments, called Blaine Amendments, forbidding the use of tax money to fund parochial schools.^[13] In 2002, the Supreme Court partially vitiated these amendments, in theory, when they ruled that vouchers were constitutional if tax dollars followed a child to a school, even if it was religious. However, as of 2009, no state's school system has changed its laws to allow this.^[14]

Healthcare system

In 2002, Catholic health care systems, overseeing 625 hospitals with a combined revenue of 30 billion dollars, comprised the nation's largest group of nonprofit systems.^[15] In 2008, the cost of running these hospitals had risen to $84.6 billion, including the $5.7 billion they donate.^[16] According to the Catholic Health Association of the United States, 60 health care systems, on average, admit one in six patients nationwide each year.^[17]

Catholic Charities

Catholic Charities is also active as one of 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, officially the Union of Myanmar. Likewise, the US Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services has resettled 14,846 refugees from Burma since 2006.^[18]

Demographics

There are 68,115,001 registered Catholics in the United States (22% of the US population) according to the American Bishops' count in their Official Catholic Directory 2009. This count primarily rests on the parish assessment tax which pastors evaluate yearly according to the number of registered members and contributors. 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." ^[19] Based on Pew Research Center surveys conducted from January 2006 to September 2006, 25.2% of the American population claim to be followers of the Catholic Church (of a national population of 300 million residents). According to a new 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).^[20] The study also 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.^[21] Nationally, more parishes have opened than closed.

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).^[22] Catholics in the US are about 6% of the church's total worldwide 1.1 billion membership.

A poll by The Barna Group in 2004 found Catholic ethnicity to be 60% non-Hispanic white (mostly Irish, Italian, Polish), 31% Hispanic of any race, 4% Black, and 5% other ethnicity (mostly Filipinos and other Asian Americans, and American Indians).^[23]

Between 1990 and 2008, there were 11 million additional Catholics. Immigration of Latinos accounted for 9 million of these. They comprised 32% of all American Catholics in 2008 as opposed to 20% in 1990.^[24]

Catholicism by state

Supreme Court

In the early 1980s, there was one Catholic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court: William J. Brennan, Jr. This changed in the mid-1980s when President Ronald Reagan appointed Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy to the court, both of whom were Catholic. President George H. W. Bush appointed Clarence Thomas (who had left the Catholic Church in 1968, and was attending Episcopalian services at the time of the appointment, but has since returned to Catholicism). President George W. Bush appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both Catholics, creating a Catholic majority on the Supreme Court for the first time. With the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court Justice, six of the nine justices are now Catholic.^[26]

In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1990), Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990), and Rust v. Sullivan (1991), Scalia and Kennedy upheld the abortion restrictions in question.^[27]

History

Colonial era (1513–1776)

Charles Carroll, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (1776), was a member of a Catholic church in Maryland

Catholicism first came to the territories now forming the Continental United States before the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Reformation with the Spanish explorers and settlers in present-day Florida (1513) and the southwest United States. The first Christian worship service held in the current United States in 1559 was a Catholic Mass celebrated in Pensacola, Florida. (St. Michael records) Not long after that, the first permanent European colony was established at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. The influence of the Spanish missions in California (1769 and onwards), in Texas (1718) and New Mexico (1590) also form a lasting memorial to part of this heritage.^[28] In the French territories, Catholicism was ushered in with the establishment of colonies, forts and missions in Sault Ste. Marie (1668), Biloxi, Baton Rouge (1699), Detroit (1701), Mobile, Alabama (1702), New Orleans (1718),^[29][30] and St. Louis (1763). As early as 1604, the French established a site in Maine on Saint Croix Island, but it was short-lived. Catholicism in the Spanish (East and West Florida) and French (eastern Louisiana/Quebec) colonies was undisturbed under later administration by Britain.

Thirteen original colonies

In the English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, Catholicism was later to be seen as a stigma, even though it had been involved in English colonization of America from the beginning with John Cabot in 1497. Queen Mary, the Catholic, was also Queen of Chile, but few, if any, English colonies developed from their exploits. Instead, colonies were settled by Anglicans and other Protestants.

English Catholics reintroduced Catholicism with the settling of Avalon and Maryland (1634); these colonies offered a rare example of religious toleration in a fairly intolerant age, particularly among other English colonies which frequently exhibited a quite militant Protestantism. (See the Maryland Toleration Act, and note the pre-eminence of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Catholic circles.) The Duke of York, future King James II of England, was also Catholic and issued the Declaration of Indulgence. Combined between the duke and Baron Baltimore, Catholicism on the proprietary level was highly spread out in 1664, from the Potomac to the Connecticut River, with part of Maine and Massachusetts even held by the duke. New York's western land claims were over a vast expanse, which neighboring Protestant colonies feared to be settled by its Catholic proprietor, in contention with their own land charters.

Catholicism thus became limited to the Middle Colonies, whereas the Southern United States was officially Anglican and New England, in the north, was Calvinist. English colonial religion was on some levels a New World microcosm of the religious politics back in England, as each region had then affiliated with their own preferred denomination. Still, in the 1600s, even though in the American colonies there were certain 'reverberations' that were felt, originating from the tumultuous pro-Catholic and anti-Catholic political purges that were then in full tilt back in distant England. Nonetheless, the colonies did not experience these political purges quite as sharply as back in England. While the Catholic governor of Maryland did have his governmental authority challenged and diminished by the Protestants, there were no pro or anti Catholic executions in the American colonies, as were then taking place back in England.

The Catholics in America, although officially discriminated against by their Southern compatriots, were not in any position to favor the Northern Calvinists, who were more extreme in their dislike of Catholicism. The Calvinists laid siege upon Catholic rule in the Middle Colonies, deposing both the Duke of York/King of England and the then-Lord Baltimore, but Catholic Jacobitism did not thrive in the colonies, apart from such isolated examples as Flora MacDonald, ironically a Calvinist. The Anglicans cooperated in order to retain their position of authority in a time when Calvinism became orthodox and accepted, while Catholicism was diminished. This was especially true in the colony of Maryland in 1690 when charges against Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, were drawn up along with all the previous grievances of the Calvinist and Anglican majority. These grievances included: "the monopoly that Catholics enjoyed in the council [of the Maryland assembly], the support enjoyed by their religious establishments, the disallowance of the assembly's acts, the excessive fees demanded by the proprietary officials [most of whom were Catholic], the conspiracy with the French and American Indians, and the failure to declare for William III and Mary II." Later, Baltimore was stripped of his governmental rights and only left his property rights. The Calvinist and Anglican majority ultimately obtained their objectives: they succeeded in overthrowing Baltimore's proprietary government, they "saved" the Protestant religion, and they assured the place of the assembly with a Protestant majority in that body.^[31]

By 1785, Catholics in the U.S. numbered 35,000, less than two percent of the white population. However, many scholars believe that approximately 12% of white Americans during this period were from families that were originally Catholic; these were mainly settlers of Irish, Dutch, and German origin who had lost their Catholic identity in America.

Florida

As noted above, the first permanent European Catholic settlement in what is now continental United States was St. Augustine, Florida. Spain established it in 1565 to thwart the attempt by French Huguenots, under Jean Ribaut, to establish a colony near the mouth of the St. John's River. It also established it to support Spain's Treasure Fleets as they made their way through the Straits of Florida, a favorite place for French, Dutch, and English corsairs to lie in wait. Finally, the Spanish felt a moral imperative to convert the native Peoples to Christianity. After founding St. Augustine and destroying the fledgling French colony, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, prominent mariner, entrepreneur and head to the Spanish colony, proceeded to establish various forts around the coast of Florida, including one at Tampa Bay, another at Charlotte Harbor, three on the St. John's River and one, Santa Elena, on Port Royal Sound. Missions were established in all these areas.^[32]

The period 1635–1675 proved to be the most successful mission period. During these years Franciscans operated between forty and seventy mission stations, catering for perhaps 26,000 Hispanicized natives, who were organized into four provinces: Timucua in central Florida, Guale along the Georgia coast, Apalachee on the northeastern edge of the gulf, and Apalachicola to the west.^[33]

New Mexico

Like Florida, New Mexico began as a result of conquistador greed and missionary zeal. The area was extensively explored by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado in 1540–1542, in an attempt to find the seven cities of Cibola, a fabled Indian kingdom. In his search, Coronado marched through present day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. In he early 1590s, Juan de Onate approached King Philip II of Spain for a commission to colonize the area of New Mexico and convert the Native Peoples. Within a ten year period, the original expedition of 500 people, including 130 soldiers, ten Franciscans, and the remaining Spanish colonists—men, women and children—founded Santa Fe.^[34]

Texas

Because the Spanish fear the French might establish an overland route from the Mississippi to New Mexico to siphon off its trade, the Spanish set up missions in the area that came to be known as Texas (especially East Texas), using the Franciscans to win over the Native Peoples. The Spanish had already founded El Paso in 1657, but needed to expand east. Eventually they founded a new town called San Antonio in 1718 and other settlements.^[35]

Louisiana

From 1682 onwards, the French had tried to establish themselves in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Valley. By 1673, Fr. Jacques Marquette, the Jesuit in charge of the mission at Michilimackinac, and Louis Joliet, a trader and explorer, had explored much of the upper and middle Mississippi Valley, encouraging further exploration. It took another nine years before the entire course of the Mississippi River was explored by Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Not until 1718, however, did the French establish permanent towns in Louisiana, which encompassed much of the Mississippi Valley and beyond, dividing the region into nine districts with New Orleans the designated the capitol.^[36]

Compared to the Spanish, the French were more practical in their attitudes toward the Native Peoples. While they attempted to convert the natives,they did not have the same need to impose absolute obedience and conformity. The priests, mainly Jesuits, were content to introduce them to Christianity in stages, allowing them to keep their traditional customs to emphasize the similarities between their Native beliefs and Christianity. In work or labor, there was no attempt to extract forced labor, encouraging Natives to bring their furs for French goods. There was also intermarriage between the French and Native Peoples. This symbiotic relationship helped align most of the Natives west of the Allegheny mountains to the French.^[37]

In Louisiana, black slaves managed to develop their own culture, consisting of a mixture of European and African backgrounds. Many blacks became Catholic as their masters. A number of blacks also gained their freedom legally. Some were rewarded for their duties as militiamen and others for their service to grateful owners. A number of black women were also liberated by their white French partners on the birth of a child to protect the latter's status, despite an edict that all manumissions had to be settled by the Supreme Council of the Province. Though technically there was a ban on the transference of property to blacks to maintain French cultural and/or patriarchal dominance, in practice some white men did protect their black partners and mixed offspring by secretly transferring property to them. As a result free blacks accounted for 10% of the African Louisiana population by 1760, on the eve of the American Revolution. The majority, especially free, single, black women resided in the area of New Orleans where employment was available. Life, however, was not easy for them, often forcing them to live on the margins of society, but as free women.^[38]

American Revolution and aftermath (1776–1800)

At the time of the American Revolution, Catholics formed 1.6% of the population of the thirteen colonies.^[39] For a discussion on Catholic immigration to America before 1776, see David N. Doyle, Ireland, Irishmen, and Revolutionary America, 1760–1820 (Cork, 1981), 59–61; and Kathy A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (New York, 1985), 137–49. One of the reasons Americans rebelled from British rule was the fact that French Canada was allowed freedom of religion under the Quebec Act, whereas the English colonies were still expected to worship at an official church. This kind of double standard inspired a nationalistic disgust in the colonists, who ultimately chose to make the First Amendment of their Bill of Rights contain a guarantee of freedom of religion. Irish Catholics (unlike Lord Baltimore and the Earl of Ulster/Duke of York, their English Catholic landlords) were initially barred from settling in some of the colonies (before 1688, for example, Catholics had not arrived in New England), though "New York had an Irish Catholic governor, Thomas Dugan, and other Catholic officials."^[40] Middleton also notes: at one time or another, five colonies "specifically excluded Catholics from the franchise: Virginia, New York, Maryland, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. Another four excluded Jews."^[41] Throughout the Revolution American Catholics technically remained under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Bishop of the London District. But even during the colonial period the successive bishops had accepted the charge reluctantly and were too far away to exercise much control. During the war, however, when the jurisdiction was in the hands of Bishop James Talbot, the brother of the Earl of Shrewsbury and coadjutor to Bishop Richard Challoner, he refused to have any communication with those who were his American ecclesiastical subjects. This was because neither he nor Challoner had any sympathy with the American rebel Catholics. They did not realize that American Catholics (though rebels) were rendering, as John Carroll said later, a service to their English Catholic brethren. This lack of communication, technically at least, proved a blessing in disguise and removed all possibility of the accusation that American Catholics were receiving orders from an English Catholic bishop. At the close of the war, however, Bishop Talbot went so far as to refuse to give faculties to two Maryland priests who asked to return home. This eventually enabled Rome to make entirely new arrangements for the creation of an American diocese under American bishops.^[42][43][44]

The question often arises as to what proportion of Catholics served in the American armies. John Carroll's says this about Catholic participation: "Their blood flowed as freely, in proportion to their numbers, to cement the fabric of independence as that of their fellow citizens. They concurred with perhaps greater unanimity than any other body of men in recommending and promoting from whose influence America anticipates all the blessings of justice, peace, plenty, good orders, and civil and religious liberty." Some Catholics were more prominent than others. Thomas Fitzsimmons was Washington's secretary and aide-de-camp. General Moylan was quartermaster general and afterwards in command of a cavalry regiment. John Barry is regarded as the father of the American navy. Another notable was Thomas Lloyd (stenographer).^[45]

The French alliance also had a considerable effect upon the fortunes of the American Catholic Church. Washington, for example, issued strict orders in 1775 that "Pope's Day," the colonial equivalent of Guy Fawkes Night, was not to be celebrated, lest the sensibilities of the French should be offended. Massachusetts sent a chaplain to the French fleet when it arrived. And when the French fleet appeared at Newport, Rhode Island, that colony repealed its act of 1664 that refused citizenship to Catholics. Foreign officers who served, either as soldiers of fortune in the American army or with the French allies, also put the Revolution in debt to Catholics, especially owing to Count Casimir Pulaski, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, De Grasse, Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing, and Marquis de Lafayette. Likewise, Bernardo de Galvez, the Governor of Louisiana, who prevented Louisiana's seizure by the British. His efforts prevented the British from gaining a position on the west bank of the Mississippi, crucial for keeping the British out of that area at the end of the war. Galveston, Texas is named after him.^[46]

In 1787 two Catholics, Daniel Carroll and Thomas Fitzsimmons, were members of the Continental Congress that met in Philadelphia to help frame the new United States Constitution.^[47] Four years later, in 1791, the First Amendment to the American Constitution was ratified. This amendment included the wording, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." This amendment officially granted freedom of religion to all American citizens, and began the eventual repeal of all anti-Catholic laws from the statute books of all of the new American states.

19th century (1800–1900)

The nave of the St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City

The number of Catholics in the Continental United States increased almost overnight with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Adams–Onís Treaty (purchasing Florida) in 1819, and in 1847 with the incorporation of the northern territories of Mexico into the United States (Mexican Cession) at the end of the Mexican–American War.^[48][49] Catholics formed the majority in these continental areas and had been there for centuries.^[50] Most were descendants of the original settlers, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, benefiting in the Southwest, for example, from the livestock industry introduced by Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino in 1687.^[51][52][53] However, US Catholics increased most dramatically and significantly in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century due to a massive influx of European immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany (especially the south and west), Austria–Hungary, and the Russian Empire (largely Poles). Substantial numbers of Catholics also came from French Canada during the mid-19th century and settled in New England. Although these ethnic groups tended to live and worship apart initially, over time they intermarried so that, in modern times, many Catholics are descended from more than one ethnicity.

By 1850, Catholics had become the country’s largest single denomination. Between 1860 and 1890, their population in the United States tripled through immigration; by the end of the decade it would reach seven million. This influx would eventually bring increased political power for the Catholic Church and a greater cultural presence, which led simultaneously to a growing fear of the Catholic "menace" among America's Protestants.

Some anti-Catholic political movements like the Know Nothings, and organizations like the Orange Institution, American Protective Association, and the Ku Klux Klan, were active in the United States. Indeed, for most of the history of the United States, Catholics have been victims of discrimination and persecution. It was not until the time of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy in the following century that Catholics lived in the US largely free of suspicion. The Philadelphia Nativist Riot, Bloody Monday, the Orange Riots in New York City in 1871 and 1872,^[54] and The Ku Klux Klan-ridden South discriminated against Catholics (as they did the Jews and African Americans) for their commonly Irish, Italian, Polish, German, or Spanish ethnicity.^[55] Many Protestants in the Midwest and the North labeled Catholics as "anti-American Papists", "incapable of free thought without the approval of the Pope." For example, in 1850, Franklin Pierce, as the US Attorney for the District of New Hampshire, presented resolutions for the removal of restrictions on Catholics from holding office in that state, as well as the removal of property qualifications for voting; however, these pro-Catholic measures were submitted to the electorate and were unsurprisingly defeated.^[56] As the nineteenth century progressed, animosity between Protestants and Catholics waned; most Protestant Americans came to understand that, despite anti-Catholic rhetoric, Catholics were not trying to seize control of the government. Nonetheless, concerns continued into the twentieth century that there was too much "Catholic influence" on the government.

William T. Sherman, George Meade, and Philip Sheridan were prominent generals during the American Civil War.^[57] In 1864, Mrs. Sherman, wife of the general, took up resident in South Bend for the sole purpose of having her young family educated at the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary's College.^[58] After the war, however, the Sherman children were educated elsewhere. Thomas Ewing Sherman, the eldest child, studied at Georgetown University and later became a Jesuit priest.

The Basilica Of Our Lady Of Sorrows, Chicago

Notable during the second half of the 19th century was the work of 400 Italian Jesuits who left Italy for the American West between 1848-1919. Most of these Jesuits left their homeland involuntarily, expelled by Italian nationalists in the successive waves of Italian unification that dominated Italy. When they came to the West, they ministered to Indians in the Northwest, Irish-Americans in San Francisco and Mexican Americans in the South West; they also ran the nation's most influential Catholic seminary, in Woodstock, Md. In addition to their pastoral work, they founded numerous high schools and colleges, including Regis University, Santa Clara University, the University of San Francisco, Gonzaga University and Seattle University.^[59]

In the latter half of the 19th century, the first attempt at standardizing discipline in the American Church occurred with the convocation of the Plenary Councils of Baltimore. These councils resulted in the promulgation of the Baltimore Catechism and the establishment of The Catholic University of America.

20th–21st centuries

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is the head church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

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 from Mexico. This multiculturalism and diversity has greatly impacted the flavor of Catholicism in the United States. For example, many dioceses serve in both English and Spanish. Also, when many parishes were set up in the United States, separate churches were built for parishioners from Ireland, Germany, Italy, etc. In Iowa, the development of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, the work of Bishop Loras and the building of St. Raphael's Cathedral illustrate this point.

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."^[60] 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. Many see in these reforms (along with Vatican II) signs of a new era of lay initiative and collaboration.^[61]

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.^[62]

Recently 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."^[63]

American Catholic Servants of God, Venerables, Beatified, and 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 American Servants of God and all Venerables, Beatified, and Saints of the US:

Top six Catholic pilgrimage destinations in the US

See also: List of Shrines in US

1. National Shrine of the North American Martyrs, Auriesville, New York
2. El Santuario de Chimayó, Chimayó, New Mexico, north of Santa Fe (settled in 1609). Chimayó is sometimes called the "Lourdes of America."
3. Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg, Maryland
4. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore, Maryland
5. National Shrine of St. John Neumann (in St. Peter the Apostle Church), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.^[64]

Notable American Catholics

For living US bishops, see: List of the Catholic bishops of the United States

See also: List of American Catholics

Some notable American Catholics, living and deceased (baptized and/or buried in a Roman Catholic service) include (in alphabetical order): Mortimer Adler, Samuel Alito, Lucille Ball, Msgr. Geno Baroni, John Barry, P.G.T. Beauregard, Regina Benjamin, Black Elk, Lindy Boggs, Robert Bork, Thea Bowman, Tom Brady, Giannina Braschi, Donna Brazile, Sam Brownback, Orestes Brownson, Dave Brubeck, Pat Buchanan, William F. Buckley, Jr., Jeb Bush, Kit Carson, César Chávez, Chris Christie, Stephen Colbert, Harry Connick Jr., Gary Cooper, Fr. John Corapi, Bing Crosby, Mario Cuomo, Joe DiMaggio, Andre Dubus, Fr. Francis P. Duffy, Bishop John England, Farrah Fawcett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Flynn, Fr. Stan Fortuna, Norman Francis, Andy Garcia, Melinda Gates, James Gibbons, Mel Gibson, Newt Gingrich, Rudolph Giuliani (not practicing), Mary Ann Glendon, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, James Groppi, Dr. Scott Hahn, Sean Hannity, Ernest Hemingway, Bob Hope, Bobby Jindal, Luci Baines Johnson, Anthony Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry (not practicing), Alan Keyes, Joyce Kilmer, Russell Kirk, Thaddeus Kosciusko, Lawrence Kudlow, Marquis de La Fayette, Vince Lombardi, James Longstreet, Clare Boothe Luce, Rocky Marciano, Mel Martinez, Chris Matthews, Joseph McCarthy, Bob McDonnell, Claude McKay, Fr. Thomas Merton, Ricardo Montalban, Mother Angelica, Bishop Francis Mugavero, Janet Napolitano, Bernard Nathanson, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Flannery O'Connor, Cardinal John O'Connor, Eugene O'Neill, Bill O'Reilly, Peter Pace, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, Father Frank Pavone, Gregory Peck, Walker Percy, Carl Pohlad, Katherine Anne Porter, Casimir Pulaski, Charles Rangel, Anne Rice, Bill Richardson, Cokie Roberts, John Glover Roberts, Bishop Joseph Rosati, Marco Rubio, Tim Russert, Babe Ruth, Rick Santorum, Antonin Scalia, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donna Shalala (Eastern Catholic), Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Martin Sheen, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Maria Shriver, Sargent Shriver, Frank Sinatra, Al Smith, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Steele, Ed Sullivan, Allen Tate, Clarence Thomas, David Vitter, John Wayne, Brian Williams,^[65] Tennessee Williams.

See also

• Saint Patrick's Battalion
• Catholic Church and politics in the United States
• American Cardinals Dinner
• List of living cardinals (sortable by name, country, and birthdate)
• Eastern Catholic Churches
• Catholic Church by country
• Christianity in the United States
• Religions by country
• US Catholic Bishops
• US Catholic Cathedrals
• US Catholic Dioceses
• List of Cardinals

References

Further reading

• Abell, Aaron. American Catholicism and Social Action: A Search for Social Justice, 1865–1950 (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1960).
• Bales, Susan Ridgley. When I Was a Child: Children's Interpretations of First Communion (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2005).
• Carroll, Michael P. American Catholics in the Protestant Imagination: Rethinking the Academic Study of Religion (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
• Christiano, Kevin. "The Catholic Church and Recent Immigrants to the United States: A Review of Research," in Helen Rose Ebaugh, ed., Vatican II and American Catholicism: Twenty-five Years Later (Greenwich, Ct.: JAI Press, 1991).
• 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).
• Deck, Allan Figueroa, S.J. The Second Wave: Hispanic Ministry and the Evangelization of Cultures (New York: Paulist, 1989).
• Dolan, Jay P. The Immigrant Church: New York Irish and German Catholics, 1815–1865 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).
• Dolan, Jay P. In Search of an American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension (2003)
• Donovan, Grace. "Immigrant Nuns: Their Participation in the Process of Americanization," in Catholic Historical Review 77, 1991, 194–208.
• Ellis, J.T. American Catholicism 2nd ed.(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969).
• Fialka, John J. Sisters: Catholic Nuns and the Making of America (New York: St. Martin Press, 2003).
• 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.
• Fogarty, Gerald P., S.J. Commonwealth Catholicism: A History of the Catholic Church in Virginia, ISBN 978-0-268-02264-8.
• Garraghan, Gilbert J. The Jesuits of the Middle United States Vol. II (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1984).
• 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 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995). Interesting note on Afro-Creole Catholic culture.
• Horgan, Paul. Lamy of Santa Fe (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1975).
• Jonas, Thomas J. The Divided Mind: American Catholic Evangelists in the 1890s (New York: Garland Press, 1988).
• 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), perspective by leading Protestant historian
• Maynard, Theodore The Story of American Catholicism, Volumes I and II (New York: Macmillan Company, 1960).
• McDermott, Scott. Charles Carroll of Carrollton—Faithful Revolutionary ISBN 1-889334-68-5.
• McKevitt, Gerald. Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1848–1919 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006).
• 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).
• Morris, Charles R. American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church (1998), a standard history
• O'Malley, John, SJ. The First Jesuits (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993).
• Poyo, Gerald E. Cuban Catholics in the United States, 1960–1980: Exile and Integration (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 2007).
• Sanders, James W. The Education of an urban Minority: Catholics in Chicago, 1833–1965 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).
• Schroth, Raymond A. The American Jesuits: A History (New York: New York University Press, 2007).
• Schultze, George E. Strangers in a Foreign Land: The Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the United States (Lanham, Md:Lexington, 2007).
• Shannon, James P. Catholic Colonization on the Western Frontier (New haven: Yale University Press, 1957).
• Walch, Timothy. Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1996).
• Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992). on Spanish missionaries

Primary sources

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

External links

• Global Catholic Statistics: 1905 and Today by Albert J. Fritsch, SJ, PhD
• Largest religious groups in the United States

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