Catholic Church in the United States

{{Main|History of the Catholic Church in the United States}}

Catholicism has had a significant cultural, social, and political impact on the United States.{{Cite book |last1=Kinder |first1=Donald |title=The End of Race? Obama, 2008, and Racial Politics in America |last2=Dale-Riddle |first2=Allison |date=2012 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300183597 |chapter=Religion as a short-term force in 1960}}

{{Main|Catholic Church in the Thirteen Colonies|Spanish missions in California}}

File:St Francis Xavier Church.jpg in Compton, Maryland, the oldest Catholic church in continuous operation from the Thirteen Colonies]]

File:King louis statue tonemapped.jpg in St. Louis{{Cite web |title=The Colonial Beginnings of North American Catholicism |date=April 24, 2017 |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/04/24/colonial-beginnings-north-american-catholicism |publisher=America Magazine |access-date=October 16, 2020 |archive-date=October 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017144741/https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/04/24/colonial-beginnings-north-american-catholicism |url-status=live}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020.]]

One of the Thirteen Colonies of British America, the Province of Maryland, "a Catholic Proprietary",Richard Midddleton, Colonial America, 94–103 was founded with an explicitly English Catholic identity in the 17th century, contrasting itself with the neighboring Protestant-dominated Massachusetts Bay Colony and Colony of Virginia.{{Cite web |title=Roman Catholics, Not Papists: Catholic Identity in Maryland, 1689–1776 |date=July 7, 2016 |url=https://epicpew.com/american-cities-named-saints/ |publisher=Beatrix Betancourt Hardy |access-date=October 15, 2020 |archive-date=February 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211131731/https://epicpew.com/american-cities-named-saints/ |url-status=dead}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020. 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.{{Cite web |title=The United States' Catholic Beginnings in Colonial Maryland |url=http://napa-institute.org/2018/09/25/the-united-states-catholic-beginnings-in-colonial-maryland/ |publisher=NAPA Institute |access-date=October 15, 2020 |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126030615/http://napa-institute.org/2018/09/25/the-united-states-catholic-beginnings-in-colonial-maryland/ |url-status=dead}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020.

Much of the religious situation in the Thirteen Colonies reflected the sectarian divisions of the English Civil War.{{Cite web |title=New England's God: Anti-Catholicism and Colonial New England |url=https://collected.jcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1016&context=mastersessays |publisher=John Carroll University |access-date=October 16, 2020 |archive-date=January 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115205634/https://collected.jcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1016&context=mastersessays |url-status=live}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020. This predicament was especially precarious for Catholics. For this reason, Calvert wanted to provide "a refuge for his fellow Catholics" who were "harassed in England by the Protestant majority." King Charles I, as a "Catholic sympathizer", favored and facilitated Calvert's plan if only to make evident that a "policy of religious toleration could permit Catholics and Protestants to live together in harmony."Alan Taylor, American Colonies (New York: Viking, 2001), 137. {{ISBN|0-670-87282-2}}

The Province of Pennsylvania, which was given to Quaker William Penn by the last Catholic King of England, James II, advocated religious toleration as a principle and some Catholics lived there.{{Cite journal |title="Good Will to All Men... from the King on the throne to the beggar on the dunghill": William Penn, the Roman Catholics and Religious Toleration |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27773762 |publisher=Paul Douglas Newman |jstor=27773762 |last1=Newman |first1=Paul Douglas |journal=Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies |date=1994 |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=457–479 |access-date=October 16, 2020 |archive-date=October 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022171537/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27773762 |url-status=live}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020. There were also some Catholics in the Province of New York, named after King 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.{{Cite web |title=Welfare and Conversion: The Catholic Church in African-American Communities in the U.S. South, 1884–1939 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4315075.pdf |publisher=William Francis Collopy |access-date=October 16, 2020 |archive-date=October 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019101651/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4315075.pdf |url-status=live}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020. There were only 25 priests serving the nation's Catholics. This was less than 2% of the total population in the Thirteen Colonies.

In 1776, after the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted and issued the United States Declaration of Independence and the Continental Army prevailed over the British in the American Revolutionary War, 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. 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.

{{Main|History of the Catholic Church in the United States}}

File:John Carroll Gilbert Stuart.jpg, Archbishop of Baltimore, the first Catholic bishop in the United States. His cousin, Charles Carroll, was one of the 56 Founding Fathers to sign the Declaration of Independence.]]

Anti-Catholicism was the policy for the English who first settled the New England colonies, and it persisted in the face of warfare with the French in New France, now part of Canada.{{Cite book |first1=Ray Allen |last1=Billington |author1-link=Ray Allen Billington |title=The Protestant Crusade: 1800–1860; a study of the origins of American nativism |url=https://archive.org/details/protestantcrusad0000unse |location=New York |publisher=The Macmillan Company |date=1938 |pages=1–15 |via=Internet Archive}} 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.{{Cite book |first1=Richard |last1=Middleton |title=Colonial America 1565–1776 |url=https://archive.org/details/colonialamericah0000midd |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |date=2002 |edition=Third |isbn=978-0-631-22141-8 |via=Internet Archive |page=95}}

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."{{Cite book |first1=Alan |last1=Taylor |author1-link=Alan Taylor (historian) |title=American Colonies |location=New York |publisher=Viking |date=2001 |page=283}} New York proved more tolerant with its Catholic governor, Thomas Dongan, and other Catholic officials.{{sfn|Middleton|2002|p=158}} 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.{{Cite book |first1=Dale |last1=Taylor |title=The Writers' Guide to Everyday Life in Colonial America, 1607–1783 |location=Cincinnati, Ohio |publisher=Writer's Digest Books |date=1997 |page=273 |url=https://archive.org/details/writersguidetoev0000tayl |via=Internet Archive}} 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.{{sfn|Middleton|2002|p=95–100, 145, 158, 159, 349n}}{{sfn|Maynard|1941|p=126}} Another estimate is 35,000 in 1789, 60% in Maryland with not many more than 30 priests.{{Cite book |first1=Mark A. |last1=Noll |title=A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada |date=1992 |location=London |publisher=Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge |isbn=0-281-04693-X |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchristi0000noll |via=Internet Archive |page=205}} 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.{{Cite book |last1=Faragher |first1=John Mack |author1-link=John Mack Faragher |title=The Encyclopedia of Colonial and Revolutionary America |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofco00fara |location=New York |publisher=Da Capo Press |date=1996 |page=376 |isbn=0-306-80687-8 |via=Internet Archive}}

After the Revolution, Rome made entirely new arrangements for the creation of an American diocese under American bishops.{{Cite journal |last1=Breidenbach |first1=Michael |title=Conciliarism and the American Founding |journal=William and Mary Quarterly |date=July 2016 |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=487–88 |doi=10.5309/willmaryquar.73.3.0467 |jstor=10.5309/willmaryquar.73.3.0467 |s2cid=148090971 }}{{Cbignore}}{{sfn|Maynard|1941|p=155}} Numerous Catholics served in the American army and the new nation had very close ties with Catholic France.{{sfn|Maynard|1941|pp=126–142}} 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.{{sfn|Maynard|1941|pp=140–141}} Irish-born Commodore John Barry from Co Wexford, Ireland, often credited as "the Father of the American Navy", also played an important military role.{{Cite book |first1=Martin I. J. |last1=Griffin |title=Catholics and the American Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLQTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 |date=1909 |pages=1–7}} 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."{{sfn|Ellis|1969|p=39}}

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.{{Cite book |first4=Howard C. |last4=Lee |first2=Emily |last2=Albu |first3=Carter |last3=Lindberg |first1=J. William |last1=Frost |first5=Dana L. |last5=Robert |display-authors=1 |title=Christianity: A Social and Cultural History |url=https://archive.org/details/christianitysoci0000unse_l5d3 |edition=2nd |location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |publisher=Prentice Hall |date=1997 |section=33. An American Roman Catholic Church |page=456 |isbn=978-0-13-578071-8 |via=Internet Archive}}

Historian Jay Dolan, writing on the colonial era in 2011, said:

: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.{{Cite book |first1=Jay P. |last1=Dolan |author1-link=Jay P. Dolan |title=The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present |url=https://archive.org/details/americancatholic0000dola |date=2011 |pages=180–81 |publisher=Crown Publishing |isbn=9780307553898 |via=Internet Archive}}

President Washington promoted religious tolerance by proclamations and by publicly attending services in various Protestant and Catholic churches.{{Cite journal |first1=Paul F. |last1=Boller |title=George Washington and Religious Liberty |journal=William and Mary Quarterly |volume=17 |number=4 |date=October 1960 |pages=486–506 |publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture |jstor=1943414 |doi=10.2307/1943414 }}{{cbignore}} The old colonial laws imposing restrictions on Catholics were gradually abolished by the states, and were prohibited in the new federal constitution.{{Cite book |first1=James |last1=MacCaffrey |author1-link=James MacCaffrey |title=History of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century (1789–1908) |publisher=M.H. Gill |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924092366404 |date=1910 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924092366404/page/n289 270] |via=Internet Archive}}

In 1787, two Catholics, Daniel Carroll of the Irish O'Carrolls and Irish born Thomas Fitzsimons, helped draft the new United States Constitution.{{sfn|Maynard|1941|pp=145–146}} 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.{{Cite journal |first1=Catherine |last1=O'Donnell |title=John Carroll and the Origins of an American Catholic Church, 1783–1815 |journal=William and Mary Quarterly |volume=68 |number=1 |date=January 2011 |pages=101–126 |jstor=10.5309/willmaryquar.68.1.0101 |doi=10.5309/willmaryquar.68.1.0101 |publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture }}{{Cbignore}}

{{Main|19th century history of the Catholic Church in the United States}}

File:St Patrick's cathedral NY.jpg of the St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, completed in 1878]]

In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase saw vast territories in French Louisiana transferred over from the First French Republic, areas that would become the following states; Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Minnesota, Louisiana, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, half of Colorado, parts of New Mexico, Texas, and North Dakota.{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Louisiana-Purchase |title=Louisiana Purchase {{!}} History, Facts, & Map|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=July 21, 2017|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525200210/https://www.britannica.com/event/Louisiana-Purchase|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=live}} The French named a number of their settlements after Catholic saints, such as St. Louis, Sault Ste. Marie, St. Ignace, St. Charles and others.{{Cite web |title=The Story Behind 54 American Cities Named After Catholic Saints |date=July 7, 2016 |url=https://epicpew.com/american-cities-named-saints/ |publisher=Epic Pew |access-date=October 15, 2020 |archive-date=February 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211131731/https://epicpew.com/american-cities-named-saints/ |url-status=dead}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020. The Catholic, culturally French population of Americans, descended from this colony are today known as the Louisiana Creole and Cajun people.{{Cite web |title=The Sociolinguistic Situation of Creoles in South Louisiana: Identity, Characteristics, Attitudes |url=https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8282&context=gradschool_disstheses |publisher=Louisiana State University |access-date=October 15, 2020 |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202190453/https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8282&context=gradschool_disstheses |url-status=live}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020.{{Cite web |title=The Catholic soul of Cajun Country |date=January 29, 2010 |url=http://www.catholicdigest.com/travel/201001-29the-catholic-soul-of-cajun-country/ |publisher=Catholic Digest |access-date=October 15, 2020 |archive-date=October 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017131556/http://www.catholicdigest.com/travel/201001-29the-catholic-soul-of-cajun-country/ |url-status=live}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020.

During the 19th century, territories previously belonging to the Catholic Spanish Empire became part of the United States, starting with Florida in the 1820s.Gannon, "The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida, 1513–1870", University of Florida Press, 1983 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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.blm.gov/natacq/pls02/pls1-1_02.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929200726/http://www.blm.gov/natacq/pls02/pls1-1_02.pdf|url-status=dead |title=Table 1.1 Acquisition of the Public Domain 1781–1867|archive-date=September 29, 2006}} 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).{{Cite web |title=Spanish Place Names in the USA: from Colonial to Mainstream |url=https://www.academia.edu/6760370 |publisher=Pascale Smorag |last1=Smorag |first1=Pascale |access-date=October 16, 2020 |archive-date=April 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414034805/https://www.academia.edu/6760370 |url-status=live}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020. In 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States took control of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, and Cuba for a time, all of which had several centuries of Spanish Catholic colonial history, though they were not made into states.{{Cite journal |title=Religion, the Spanish-American War, and the Idea of American Mission |date=2012 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275318626 |journal=Journal of Church and State |doi=10.1093/jcs/csr050 |last1=McCartney |first1=P. T. |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=257–278}} Retrieved on October 15, 2020.

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.

File:Our Lady of Sorrows 080202 feedback.jpg in Chicago]]

File:St. Augustine - Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine - 20220626101741.jpg Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine in St. Augustine, Florida]]

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.{{Cite journal |first1=Richard D. |last1=Alba |title=The Twilight of Ethnicity Among American Catholics of European Ancestry |journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=454 |number=1 |date=1981 |pages=86–97 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/000271628145400108 |url-access=subscription |doi=10.1177/000271628145400108 |via=Sage Journals}} 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.John T. McGreevy, Catholicism and American Freedom: A History (2003) pp 12–28, 129.

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.

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, including Georgetown University (1789), St. Louis University (1818), Boston College, the College of Holy Cross, the University of Santa Clara, and several Loyola Colleges.Peter McDonough, Men astutely trained: A history of the Jesuits in the American Century (2008). 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.James Hennessy, S.J., American Catholics: A history of the Roman Catholic community in the United States (1981) pp 194–203{{Cite journal |first1=Thomas T. |last1=McAvoy |title=The Catholic Minority after the Americanist Controversy, 1899–1917: A Survey |journal=The Review of Politics |date=January 1959 |volume=21 |number=1 |pages=53–82 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/S0034670500021975 |jstor=1405340}} As part of this controversy, the founder of the Paulist Fathers, Isaac Hecker, was accused by the French cleric {{ill|Charles Maignen|fr|Charles Maignen}} {{in lang|fr}} of subjectivism and crypto-Protestantism.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/heckerstudiesess0000unse |title=Hecker Studies: Essays on the Thought of Isaac Hecker |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Farina |date=1983 |location=New York |publisher=Paulist Press |isbn=978-0-8091-2555-5 |via=Internet Archive}}{{cbignore}} Additionally some who sympathized with Hecker in France were accused of Americanism.

{{main|Catholic sisters and nuns in the United States}}

File:GibbonsPhotoStanding.jpg (1834–1921), cardinal archbishop of Baltimore, a widely respected American Catholics leader]]

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.James M. O'Toole, The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America (2008) p 104 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.Margaret M. McGuinness, Called to Serve (2013), ch 8

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.{{Cite web |location=New York |website=The New York Times |last=Goodstein |first=Laurie |title=Vatican ends battle with U.S. Catholic nuns' group |date=April 16, 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/us/catholic-church-ends-takeover-of-leadership-conference-of-women-religious.html |access-date=March 1, 2017 |archive-date=May 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526031044/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/us/catholic-church-ends-takeover-of-leadership-conference-of-women-religious.html |url-status=live}}

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."John Tracy Ellis, The Life of James Cardinal Gibbons, Volume I, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1952) p. 221. Animosity by Protestants waned as Catholics demonstrated their patriotism in World War I, their commitment to charity, and their dedication to democratic values.Tyler Anbinder, "Nativism and prejudice against immigrants" in Reed Ueda, ed., A companion to American immigration (2006) pp: 177–201.

{{Main|20th-century history of the Catholic Church in the United States}}

File:Bishop Fulton J. Sheen 1956.JPG launched his own television show, Life Is Worth Living, which aired during the 1950s, as the church attempted to convey its message to a wider audience with the emergence of mass media and made him a media star]]

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 and 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."Gerard McKevitt, Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1846–1919 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), 1–11, 208–233.

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.{{Cite encyclopedia |first1=Leslie Woodcock |last1=Tentler |title=Greeley, Andrew Moran |url=http://www.anb.org/articles/08/08-02390.html |encyclopedia=American National Biography |date= April 2016 |accessdate=April 30, 2017 |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0802390 |url-access=subscription}}{{cbignore}}

In 1965, 71% of Catholics attended Mass regularly.{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Tom |title=Catholics come home |date=2013 |publisher=Image |isbn=978-0-385-34717-4 |location=New York, New York |pages=23}}

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."{{sfn|Carey|2004|p=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.David Gibson, "Declaration of interdependence," The Tablet July 4, 2009, 8–9.

{{when|date=May 2017}}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."Attendance at Religious Service" in Religious Landscape Study, Pew Research, May 12, 2015.

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".Austin Ivereigh, "God Makes a Comeback: An Interview with John Micklethwait, America, October 5, 2009, 13–14.

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."{{Cite web |url=http://chnonline.org/special-sections/parenting/10172-why-wont-my-kids-go-to-church.html |title=Why won't my kids go to church |first1=Karen |last1=Mahoney |date=February 23, 2011 |publisher=Archdiocese of Milwaukee Catholic Herald |access-date=April 18, 2012 |archive-date=August 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819082724/http://www.chnonline.org/special-sections/parenting/10172-why-wont-my-kids-go-to-church.html |url-status=live}} 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.

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. 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."Mark A. Noll. THE NEW SHAPE OF WORLD CHRISTIANITY (Downers Grove, IL.: IVP Academic, 2009), 74 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.' "Arthur Meyers, "Social Justice Warrior," Commonweal, July 6, 2018. 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 to return to the State of Grace, necessary to receive Holy Communion.{{Cite magazine |first1=Kaya |last1=Oakes |url=http://religiondispatches.org/american-sin-why-pope-francis-mercy-is-not-our-mercy/ |title=American Sin: Why Pope Francis' Mercy is Not Our Mercy |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160226025156/http://religiondispatches.org/american-sin-why-pope-francis-mercy-is-not-our-mercy/ |archivedate=February 26, 2016 |magazine=Religion Dispatches |date=February 8, 2016 |url-status=live}} As one of the precepts of the church, it is also required that every Catholic makes a valid confession at least once a year.{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P75.HTM |title=The Precepts of the Church |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216041801/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P75.HTM |archivedate=February 16, 2024 |work=Catechism of the Catholic Church |url-status=live}}

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.{{Cite web |first1=Matthew |last1=Bunson |url=https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/12/11/ewtnrealclear_poll_us_catholics_open_to_reelecting_trump_141926.html |title=EWTN/RealClear Poll: U.S. Catholics Open to Reelecting Trump |work=Real Clear Politics |date=December 11, 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211165004/https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/12/11/ewtnrealclear_poll_us_catholics_open_to_reelecting_trump_141926.html |archivedate=December 11, 2019}}. The poll of 1,223 Catholics was taken in November 2019.

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.{{Cite web |url=https://onepeterfive.com/catholicism-chicago-cupich/ |title=Does Catholicism have a Future in Chicago? Traditionalism and Cardinal Cupich |date=December 29, 2021 |website=One Peter 5 |access-date=August 11, 2022 |archive-date=August 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811002755/https://onepeterfive.com/catholicism-chicago-cupich/ |url-status=live}} 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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nun-shortage-is-reaching-crisis-with-fewer-sisters-in-the-us/ar-AA102eXL?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=0d08dd22a22a48198447fe49b4cb1c27 |title=Nun shortage is reaching crisis with fewer sisters in the US |date=July 27, 2022 |website=MSN.com |access-date=August 11, 2022 |archive-date=August 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811001839/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nun-shortage-is-reaching-crisis-with-fewer-sisters-in-the-us/ar-AA102eXL?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=0d08dd22a22a48198447fe49b4cb1c27 |url-status=live}}

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.Bunsen, 2019

Following the death of Pope Francis in 2025, the conclave elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the first United States-born pope in history. Prevost, an Augustinian, was born in Chicago and attended Villanova University outside of Philadelphia. He chose the papal name of Leo XIV upon his election.

{{See also|List of Catholic dioceses in the United States}}

File:US Roman Catholic dioceses map.png

File:Gerald Farinas Holy Name Cathedral from Street.jpg in Chicago, the mother church of one of the largest Catholic dioceses in the United States]]

File:Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, Los Angeles.JPG, the head church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and second-largest Catholic church in the United States{{Cite web |url=https://opendata.socrata.com/dataset/World-s-Largest-Cathedrals/sfaz-u3mt |title=World's Largest Cathedrals – Socrata |website=opendata.socrata.com|access-date=October 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512110147/https://opendata.socrata.com/dataset/World-s-Largest-Cathedrals/sfaz-u3mt|archive-date=May 12, 2013|url-status=dead}}]]

File:Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral.jpg in Raleigh, North Carolina, the fifth- largest cathedral in the United States{{Cite web |url=https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/raleighs-holy-name-of-jesus-cathedral-to-hold-first-mass-wednesday_20180307104522242/1016925839 |title=Raleigh's Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral holds first mass |last=Zarcone |first=Patrick |date=July 26, 2017 |website=WNCN |language=en-US |access-date=April 11, 2019 |archive-date=April 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411130744/https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/raleighs-holy-name-of-jesus-cathedral-to-hold-first-mass-wednesday_20180307104522242/1016925839 |url-status=live}}]]

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.{{Cite web |url=https://cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/ |title=Frequently Requested Church Statistics |work=cara.georgetown.edu |publisher=Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate |quote=Parishes [...] 17,007 |access-date=October 25, 2019 |archive-date=October 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024175103/http://cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/ |url-status=live}} 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.Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches 2010(Nashville: Abington Press, 2010), 12.

In the United States, there are 197 ecclesiastical jurisdictions:

• 177 Latin Church dioceses
• including 32 Latin Catholic archdioceses
• 18 Eastern Catholic eparchies
• including 2 Eastern Catholic archeparchies
• including 1 Eparchy (for the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church)
• 2 ordinariates
• one personal ordinariate 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|2024}}, 8 dioceses out of 196 are vacant (sede vacante).

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 exarchateOn July 14, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI erected the Syro-Malankara Catholic Exarchate in the United States. 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).{{Cite web |title=Catholic Church in Puerto Rico |url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/country/pr.html |last=Cheney |first=David M. |access-date=July 27, 2009 |archive-date=June 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606034539/http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/country/pr.html |url-status=live}} 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 Church 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.Richard McBrien, THE CHURCH/THE EVOLUTION OF CATHOLICISM (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009), 450. Also see: BASIC VATICAN COUNCIL II: THE BASIC SIXTEEN DOCUMENTS (Costello Publishing, 1996). 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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-eastcath-statistics/eastcatholic-stat09.pdf |first1=Ronald |last1=Roberson |title=The Eastern Catholic Churches 2009 |publisher=Catholic Near East Welfare Association |via=Information sourced from Annuario Pontificio 2009 edition|access-date=February 6, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111212051218/http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-eastcath-statistics/eastcatholic-stat09.pdf|archive-date=December 12, 2011|url-status=dead}} Retrieved November 2009 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.McBrien, 241,281, 365,450

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.{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/17/latin-mass-pope-francis/ |title=These Americans are devoted to the old Latin Mass. They are also at odds with Pope Francis |last=Harlan |first=Chico |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-date=September 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920161450/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/17/latin-mass-pope-francis/ |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/parish/traditional-latin-mass-movement-sows-division-archbishop-says |title=Traditional Latin Mass 'movement' sows division, archbishop says |last=Wooden |first=Cindy |website=National Catholic Reporter |date=July 20, 2021 |access-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-date=November 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103003034/https://www.ncronline.org/news/parish/traditional-latin-mass-movement-sows-division-archbishop-says |url-status=live}} There are over 600 locations throughout the country where the Traditional Latin Mass is offered.{{Cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-power-of-the-latin-mass-11631199405 |title=The Power of the Latin Mass: A new decree from Pope Francis discourages the use of an ancient liturgy that carries special meaning for some worshippers |last=Rocca |first=Francis |website=Wall Street Journal |date=September 9, 2021 |access-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-date=November 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103005641/https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-power-of-the-latin-mass-11631199405 |url-status=live}}{{Current event inline |date=April 2024 |hide=y}}

{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}

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.

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:

File:Cardinals .jpg in November 2014{{Cite news |url=https://www.thecompassnews.org/2014/11/pope-bishops-must-servants-vain-careerists-power-honor/ |title=Pope: Bishops must be servants, not vain careerists after power, honor {{!}} The Compass|date=November 5, 2014|work=The Compass|access-date=September 27, 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=September 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928045752/https://www.thecompassnews.org/2014/11/pope-bishops-must-servants-vain-careerists-power-honor/|url-status=live}}|alt=]]

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

There are 16 U.S. cardinals.{{Cite web |title=Bishops and Dioceses |url=https://www.usccb.org/about/bishops-and-dioceses |website=USCCB |access-date=January 2, 2021 |archive-date=January 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111213051/https://www.usccb.org/about/bishops-and-dioceses |url-status=live}}

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

• Blase J. Cupich – Chicago
• Timothy M. Dolan – New York
• Robert W. McElroy – Washington, D.C.
• Joseph W. Tobin – Newark

Two 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 Walls

Ten cardinals are retired:

• Raymond Leo Burke – patron emeritus of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Prefect Emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura
• Daniel DiNardo – Archbishop Emeritus of Galveston-Houston
• Wilton Daniel Gregory – Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C.
• 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
• Seán Patrick O'Malley – Archbishop Emeritus of Boston
• 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.

In 2018, 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)This number is conservative, as it only counts those in parish ministry, but there are many in deanery, diocesan, or chaplaincy work
• 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

The 630 Catholic hospitals in the U.S. have a combined budget of $101.7 billion, and employ 641,030 full-time equivalent staff.{{Cite web |url=https://www.chausa.org/docs/default-source/general-files/mini_profile-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=0 |title=Untitled Page |website=www.chausa.org |access-date=March 19, 2017 |archive-date=March 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308234659/https://www.chausa.org/docs/default-source/general-files/mini_profile-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=0 |url-status=live}}

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ncea.org/NCEA/Proclaim/Catholic_School_Data/Catholic_School_Data.aspx |title=Catholic School Data |publisher=National Catholic Educational Association |access-date=March 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320053953/http://www.ncea.org/NCEA/Proclaim/Catholic_School_Data/Catholic_School_Data.aspx |archive-date=March 20, 2017 |url-status=dead}}

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.accunet.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3797#sthash.xHjNPgWO.dpbs |title=FAQs – Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities |access-date=March 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320143331/http://www.accunet.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3797#sthash.xHjNPgWO.dpbs |archive-date=March 20, 2017 |url-status=dead}}

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.Thomas Healy, "A Blueprint for Change," America September 26, 2005, 14.

{{Main|Catholic schools in the United States|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.Thomas E. Buckley, "A Mandate for Anti-Catholicism: The Blaine Amendment," America September 27, 2004, 18–21. The Catholics nevertheless built their elementary schools, parish by parish, using very low-paid sisters as teachers.Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience (1985) pp 262–74

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.Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience (1985) pp 286–91 However, by the later half the 20th century Catholic schools began to perform significantly better than their public counterparts.{{Cite web |url=https://edpolicy.education.jhu.edu/is-the-catholic-school-effect-real-new-research-challenges-the-catholic-primary-school-advantage/ |title=Is the "Catholic School Effect" Real? New Research Challenges the Catholic Primary School Advantage |last=Baynham |first=Erin |date=June 19, 2014 |website=Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy |language=en-US |access-date=September 29, 2019 |archive-date=October 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021002611/https://edpolicy.education.jhu.edu/is-the-catholic-school-effect-real-new-research-challenges-the-catholic-primary-school-advantage/ |url-status=live}} In 2024, the National Catholic Educational Association reported that 99% of the students in 1,174 Catholic secondary schools graduated on time and 85% of them went on to four-year colleges.William McGurn, "Catholic Schools and Jewish Rye," Wall Street Journal, Jan., 28, 2025, A 17.

{{main|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.Jerry Filteau, "Higher education leaders commit to strengthening Catholic identity," NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, Vol 47, No. 9, February 18, 2011, 1 In 2016, the number of tertiary schools fell to 227, while the number of students also fell to 798,006.{{Cite web |url=http://www.renodiocese.org/documents/2016/9/2016%202017%20directory.pdf |title=Diocese of Reno, 2016–2017 Directory |page=72 |quote='Colleges and Universities [...] 217' and 'Total Students [...] 798,006' |access-date=March 17, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318085655/https://renodiocese.org/documents/2016/9/2016%202017%20directory.pdf |archive-date=March 18, 2017}} 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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.georgetown.edu/about/history |title=Georgetown University: History |website=Georgetown University |access-date=June 30, 2015 |archive-date=June 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620204934/https://www.georgetown.edu/about/history |url-status=live}} The richest U.S. Catholic university is the University of Notre Dame (founded in 1842) with an endowment of over 20 billion in 2022.Christine Williamson, "Notre Dame's endowment skyrockets," Crain's Chicago Business, Jan, 26, 2022 In the 2025 edition of U.S. News & World Report rankings, 9 of the top 100 national universities and 6 of the top national liberal arts colleges in the US were Catholic."2025 Best National University Rankings" U.S. News & World Report, September 2025.

{{Main|List of Catholic seminaries#United States}}

According to the 2016 Official Catholic Directory, {{as of|2016|lc=y}} 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.

{{Further|Catholic Health Association of the United States}}

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.Arthur Jones, "Catholic health care aims to make 'Catholic' a brand name," National Catholic Reporter July 18, 2003, 8. In 2008, the cost of running these hospitals had risen to $84.6 billion, including the $5.7 billion they donate.{{Cite news |first=Sister Mary Ann |last=Walsh |title=Catholic health care for a broken arm; a cast and new shoes |publisher=The Florida Catholic |location=Orlando, Florida |page=A11 |date=September 10, 2009}} According to the Catholic Health Association of the United States, 60 health care systems, on average, admit one in six patients nationwide each year.Alice Popovici, "Keeping Catholic priorities on the table," National Catholic Reporter June 26, 2009, 7. 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."Katie Hafner, "When the Religious Objection Comes From Your Local Hospital," The New York Times, August 16, 2018, p. 14.

{{Main|Catholic Charities USA}}

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."50,000th refugee settled," National Catholic Reporter July 24, 2009, 3. 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.Michael Sean Winters, "Catholic giving bucks national trend," The Tablet, October 23, 2010, 32.

File:Plurality Religious Denomination by U.S. State.svg. Catholics made up a plurality of the population in four of the nation's 50 states: Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

{{div col|colwidth=10em}}

Protestant

{{legend|#08519C|70 – 79%}}

{{legend|#3182BD|60 – 69%}}

{{legend|#6BAED6|50 – 59%}}

{{legend|#9ECAE1|40 – 49%}}

{{legend|#C6DBEF|30 – 39%}}

Catholic

{{legend|#FC9272|40 – 49%}}

{{legend|#FCBBA1|30 – 39%}}

Mormon

{{legend|#9E9AC8|50 – 59%}}

Unaffiliated

{{legend|#D9D9D9|30 – 39%}}

{{div col end}}]]

The number of Catholics grew rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries through high fertility and immigration, especially from Ireland and Germany,Michael V. Gannon, "Before and after Modernism: The Intellectual Isolation of the American Priest," in The Catholic Priest In The United States: Historical Investigations, edited by John Tracy Ellis (Collegeville: St. John's University Press, 1971) 300. Gannon notes: "The German states provided the second largest immigration of Catholics [after the Irish], clergy and lay, some 606,791 in the period 1815–1865, and another 680,000 between 1865 and 1900, while the Irish immigration in the latter period amounted to only 520,000." 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.

Since 1960, the percentage of Americans who are Catholic has fallen from about 25% to 22%.{{Cite web |url=http://blog.adw.org/2010/12/is-the-bottom-really-falling-out-of-catholic-mass-attendance-a-recent-cara-survey-ponders-the-question/ |title=Is the Bottom Really Falling Out of Catholic Mass Attendance? A Recent CARA Survey Ponders the Question – Community in Mission |date=December 15, 2010 |access-date=December 17, 2011 |archive-date=April 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425134552/http://blog.adw.org/2010/12/is-the-bottom-really-falling-out-of-catholic-mass-attendance-a-recent-cara-survey-ponders-the-question/ |url-status=live}} In a 2021 Pew Research study, "21% of US adults described themselves as Catholic, identical to the Catholic share of the population in 2014.""About Three-In-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated, Pew Research Center, December 14, 2021, 3. In absolute numbers, Catholics have increased from 45 million to 72 million. {{As of|2018|04|09|df=us}}, 39% of American Catholics attend church weekly, compared to 45% of American Protestants.{{Cite web |last=Saaf |first=Lydia |title=Catholics' Church Attendance Resumes Downward Slide |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspx |date=April 9, 2018 |publisher=Gallup |access-date=April 21, 2020 |archive-date=August 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801163138/https://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspx |url-status=live}}

About 10% of the United States' population {{as of|2010|lc=y}} are former Catholics or non-practicing, almost 30 million people.David Gibson, "Five Myths about Catholic sexual abuse scandal", Washington Post, April 18, 2010. 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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/10/10/7-facts-about-american-catholics/ |title=7 facts about American Catholics |first1=David |last1=Masci |first2=Gregory A. |last2=Smith |access-date=December 22, 2023 |archive-date=December 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231222052928/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/10/10/7-facts-about-american-catholics/ |url-status=live}} 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%."Where They Were And Where They Went," Commonweal, Volume 147, Number 4, April 2020, 43. 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 ), owing to their sheer numbers, reside in households with a yearly income of $100,000-or-more than any other individual religious group,{{Cite web |first1=David |last1=Masci |title=How income varies among U.S. religious groups |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/10/11/how-income-varies-among-u-s-religious-groups/ |publisher=Pew Research Center |date=October 11, 2016}} (19% of 70 million is 13.3 million American Catholics) 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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/04/the-most-and-least-educated-u-s-religious-groups/ |title=The most and least educated U.S. religious group |publisher=Pew Research Center |date=October 16, 2016 |quote=Over 19 million Catholics – 26% of the US Catholic population – are college graduates |access-date=March 22, 2022 |archive-date=April 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404014100/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/04/the-most-and-least-educated-u-s-religious-groups/ |url-status=live}}

There were 70,412,000 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. 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.).Mark Pattison, "New census of 500,000 people reveals shifts in U.S. religious landscape," National Catholic Reporter, July 13, 2021. 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."Albert J. Mendedez, "American Catholics, A Social and Political Portrait," THE HUMANIST, September/October 1993, 17–20. 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).Michael Paulson, "US religious identity is rapidly changing," Boston Globe, February 26, 2008, 1 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.Ted Olsen, "Go Figure," Christianity Today, April 2008, 15 In recent years, more parishes have opened than closed.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

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.Dennis Sadowski, "When parishes close, there is more to deal with than just logistics," National Catholic Reporter July 7, 2009, 6.Robert David Sullivan, "Parishes without pastors decline, but only because more churches have closed," AMERICA, May 24, 2019, p.14 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).{{Cite web |url=http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=15 |title=Catholics |website=The Barna Group |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050305223609/http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=15 |archivedate=March 5, 2005 |url-status=dead}} 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.Pew Report, March 17, 2012. 2.6% of all Americans (320 million) are former Protestants, currently Catholic. 7.8 million.

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.{{Cite news |first=Patricia |last=Zapor |title=Study finds Latinos who leave their churches are choosing no faith |url=http://www.jknirp.com/nofaith.htm |publisher=the Florida Catholic |location=Orlando, Florida |pages=A11 |date=April 8, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225161416/http://jknirp.com/nofaith.htm | archive-date=December 25, 2010 | url-status=dead}} The percentage of Hispanics who identified as Catholic dropped from 67% in 2010 to 55% in 2013.{{Cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2014/05/07/the-shifting-religious-identity-of-latinos-in-the-united-states/ |title=The Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the United States |date=May 7, 2014 |access-date=November 12, 2014 |archive-date=May 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140507140638/http://www.pewforum.org/2014/05/07/the-shifting-religious-identity-of-latinos-in-the-united-states/ |url-status=live}}

According to a more recent Pew Forum report which examined American religiosity in 2014 and compared it to 2007,{{Cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/ |title=America's Changing Religious Landscape |publisher=Pew Research |date=May 12, 2015 |access-date=May 15, 2015 |archive-date=April 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410223438/https://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/ |url-status=live}} there were 50.9 million adult Catholics {{as of|2014|lc=y}} (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,"Statistics on Religion in America Report," Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 3/17/12 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. 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."America's Changing Religious Landscape," Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015. 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.{{Cite news |title=Immigration boosting US Catholic numbers |url=http://www.manilatimes.net/immigration-boosting-us-catholic-numbers/220344/ |work=The Manila Times |agency=Agence France-Presse |date=September 23, 2015 |access-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-date=January 29, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160129210848/http://www.manilatimes.net/immigration-boosting-us-catholic-numbers/220344/ |url-status=live}}"Religion in Latin American [and among the US Hispanic population]" Pew Research Center, Nov. 13, 2014. 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)"'Act Justly, love goodness': Black Catholics in America," AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG 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),pewresearch.org>hispanic>2008/02/11> us-population-projection only 40% of "third generation Latinos" will be Catholic, with 22% becoming Protestant, 24% becoming unaffiliated, and the remainder, other.Elizabeth Diaz, "The Rise of Evangelicos," TIME, July 4, 2013. 24. This corresponds to a sharp decline in the Catholic percentage among self-identified Democrats, who are more likely to be nonwhite than Republicans.{{Cite web |url=https://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/ |title=U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious | Pew Research Center |date=2015-11-03 |access-date=May 9, 2019 |archive-date=June 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612130142/https://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/ |url-status=live}} In one study, three authors found that around 10% of US Catholics are "Secularists", "meaning that their religious identification is purely nominal."Kenneth Woodward, "Beyond the Gummed Labels," Commonweal, June 2021, 49–50. Woodward reviews the book, Secular Surge, by David E, Campell, Geoffey C. Layman, and John C. Green (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021)

File:Comber Hall.jpg in Coral Gables, Florida]]

{{main|Catholic Church and politics in the United States|Catholic social activism in the United States}}

Catholicism has had a significant political impact on the United States, and the religion has historically been associated with left-wing politics and the Democratic Party. Since the 1970s, Catholics are often being regarded as swing voters.

The 1840s saw Catholics began to identify with the Democrats against the conservative and evangelical-influenced Whigs.Richard Carwardine, Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America (1993) pp. 89, 106–7. In the 1890s, Catholics favored the Democratic Party over the Republicans.{{Cite news |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/10/13/explainer-history-catholic-vote-united-states-republican-democrat |title=Explainer: A brief history of the Catholic Vote in the United States |work=America |publisher=Society of Jesus |date=October 20, 2020 |first=Robert David |last=Sullivan |access-date=October 8, 2023 |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928075132/https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/10/13/explainer-history-catholic-vote-united-states-republican-democrat |url-status=live}} This continued into the 20th century, where Catholics formed a core part of the New Deal Coalition.

Al Smith governor of New York was the first Catholic nominated for president by a major party as the Democratic nominee in the 1928 election.

Two Catholics have been President of the United States: Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) and Joe Biden (2021–2025), {{citation needed span|date=October 2024|text=both predominantly of Irish heritage.}} In 2016, Pope Francis said of Donald Trump: "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian."{{Cite news |last=Yardley |first=Jim |date=February 18, 2016 |title=Pope Francis Suggests Donald Trump Is 'Not Christian' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/americas/pope-francis-donald-trump-christian.html |access-date=December 6, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180118/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/americas/pope-francis-donald-trump-christian.html |url-status=live}} According to the Pew Research Center, Catholics are the most likely of any major Christian group in the United States to support the morality of casual sex.{{Cite web |last=Diamant |first=Jeff |date=August 31, 2020 |title=Half of U.S. Christians say casual sex between consenting adults is sometimes or always acceptable |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/08/31/half-of-u-s-christians-say-casual-sex-between-consenting-adults-is-sometimes-or-always-acceptable/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018023127/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/08/31/half-of-u-s-christians-say-casual-sex-between-consenting-adults-is-sometimes-or-always-acceptable/ |archive-date=October 18, 2023 |access-date=October 7, 2023 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}} Surveys have repeatedly indicated that laity are more culturally liberal than the median voter,{{Cite news |last1=Goodstein |first1=Laurie |last2=Thee-Brenan |first2=Megan |date=March 5, 2013 |title=U.S. Catholics in Poll See a Church Out of Touch |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/us/poll-shows-disconnect-between-us-catholics-and-church.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801235837/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/us/poll-shows-disconnect-between-us-catholics-and-church.html |archive-date=August 1, 2023 |access-date=October 7, 2023 |newspaper=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} including on abortion rights{{Cite news |last1=Crary |first1=David |date=June 3, 2022 |title=AP-NORC poll details rift between lay Catholics and bishops |url=https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-religion-government-and-politics-a43a25ff7ffe1e340c26f985de7df95a |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231124090537/https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-religion-government-and-politics-a43a25ff7ffe1e340c26f985de7df95a |archive-date=November 24, 2023 |access-date=October 7, 2023 |website=AP News |language=en}} and same-sex marriage. However, the Catholic Church officially opposes both.{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Fifth Commandment |url=http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm |access-date=April 15, 2021 |website=Vatican.va |publisher=Holy See Press Office |archive-date=May 14, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514012545/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm |url-status=live}} Church leadership tends to lean more orthodox.{{Cite news |last=Arnett |first=George |date=September 22, 2015 |title=How big is the impact of Catholicism on public life in the US? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/datablog/2015/sep/22/impact-of-catholicism-america |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180239/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/datablog/2015/sep/22/impact-of-catholicism-america |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |access-date=December 6, 2023 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} There are also some fundamentalist-like activist conservative groups.{{cite book |surname=Dinges |given=William D. |surname2=Hitchcock |given2=James |chapter=Roman Catholic Traditionalism and Activist Conservatism in the United States |chapter-url={{Google books|id=qd5yzP5hdiEC|plainurl=y|page=66|keywords=|text=}} |editor-surname=Marty |editor-given=Martin E. |editor-link=Martin E. Marty |editor-surname2=Appleby |editor-given2=R. Scott |editor-link2=R. Scott Appleby |year=1991 |title=Fundamentalisms Observed |series=The Fundamentalism Project, 1 |place=Chicago, Il; London |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=66–141 |url={{Google books|id=qd5yzP5hdiEC|plainurl=y|page=}} |isbn=0-226-50878-1}}

In 2023, Pope Francis criticized the Catholic Church in the United States as reactionary, saying that ideology had replaced faith in some parts of it.{{Cite web |title=Pope Francis calls US Catholic Church 'reactionary' – DW – 08/28/2023 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/pope-francis-calls-us-catholic-church-reactionary/a-66647198 |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=dw.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Pope says there is a 'strong reactionary' element in U.S. Catholic Church {{!}} USCCB |url=https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/pope-says-there-strong-reactionary-element-us-catholic-church |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=www.usccb.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2023-08-28 |title=Pope Francis blasts "backwards" U.S. conservatives, "reactionary attitude" in U.S. church - CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-criticizes-us-conservatives-church/ |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}} In November 2023, the Pope removed a conservative Texas bishop, Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas.{{Cite web |date=2023-11-12 |title=Pope Francis removes a leading US conservative critic as bishop of Tyler, Texas |url=https://www.wbaltv.com/article/pope-francis-removes-critic-bishop-texas/45812885 |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=WBAL |language=en}}

{{for|living US bishops|List of Catholic bishops in the United States}}

{{further|Category:American Roman Catholics}}

[[Pope Leo XIV is the first American to be elected pope.]]

{{div col}}

• Pope Leo XIV – 267th & current Pope
• Robert Barron – Bishop of Winona–Rochester
• Timothy Dolan – Archbishop of New York

{{div col end}}

Entertainment

{{div col}}

• Jim Caviezel
• Stephen Colbert – Television host{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.timeout.com/newyork/DetailsAr.do?file=hotseat/506/506.hotseat.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820014908/http://www.timeout.com/newyork/DetailsAr.do?file=hotseat%2F506%2F506.hotseat.html |archive-date=August 20, 2006 |title=Joyce Words |first=David |last=Cote |magazine=Time Out New York |date=June 9, 2005 |access-date=July 30, 2008 |url-status=dead}} Via the Internet Archive.
• Jimmy Fallon – Television host{{Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/05/23/136462013/late-night-thank-you-notes-from-jimmy-fallon |title=Late Night 'Thank You Notes' From Jimmy Fallon |website=NPR.org |language=en |access-date=March 27, 2020 |archive-date=April 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200409232131/https://www.npr.org/2011/05/23/136462013/late-night-thank-you-notes-from-jimmy-fallon |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.beliefnet.com/celebrity-faith-database/f/jimmy-fallon.aspx |title=Jimmy Fallon |publisher=Beliefnet |access-date=April 16, 2020 |archive-date=February 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205144026/https://www.beliefnet.com/celebrity-faith-database/f/jimmy-fallon.aspx |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |url=https://churchpop.com/2014/11/22/bill-murray-jimmy-fallon-miss-old-latin-mass/ |title=Bill Murray and Jimmy Fallon Miss the Old Latin Mass |date=November 22, 2014 |access-date=April 16, 2020 |archive-date=April 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421020143/https://churchpop.com/2014/11/22/bill-murray-jimmy-fallon-miss-old-latin-mass/ |url-status=live}}
• Lady Gaga – Singer{{Cite web |publisher=ChurchPOP |date=May 10, 2016 |quote=Thank you Father Duffell for a beautiful homily as always and lunch at my pop's restaurant. I was so moved today when you said.. 'The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect but the food that God gives us.' – Father Duffell, Blessed Sacrament Church. Nourishment. [sic] |url=https://churchpop.com/2016/05/10/lady-gaga-thanks-priest-beautiful-homily-eucharist-facebook/ |title=Lady Gaga Thanks Priest for "Beautiful Homily" About the Eucharist on Facebook |access-date=April 16, 2020 |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806184722/https://churchpop.com/2016/05/10/lady-gaga-thanks-priest-beautiful-homily-eucharist-facebook/ |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |date=May 11, 2016 |publisher=Crux |quote=the American songwriter, singer and actress has also posted two pictures of herself attending a Catholic Mass. |url=https://cruxnow.com/church/2016/05/lady-gagas-mass-pics-and-posts-on-faith-stir-catholic-reaction/ |title=Lady Gaga's Mass pics and posts on faith stir Catholic reaction |access-date=April 16, 2020 |archive-date=June 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618190603/https://cruxnow.com/church/2016/05/lady-gagas-mass-pics-and-posts-on-faith-stir-catholic-reaction/ |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |date=September 18, 2017 |publisher=ChurchPOP |url=https://churchpop.com/2017/09/18/lady-gaga-posts-photo-of-her-praying-rosary-with-explanation-for-tour-cancelation/ |title=Lady Gaga Posts Photo of Herself Praying Rosary with Explanation for Tour Cancelation |access-date=April 16, 2020 |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806182257/https://churchpop.com/2017/09/18/lady-gaga-posts-photo-of-her-praying-rosary-with-explanation-for-tour-cancelation/ |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |last=Ward |first=Pete |isbn=9780429994937 |publisher=Routledge |title=Celebrity Worship |date=2019 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wtW_DwAAQBAJ&q=lady+gaga+catholic&pg=PT161 |quote=Her identification as a Catholic, while advocating progressive viewpoints, has ensured that Lady Gaga has often been criticised by religious commentators. |ref=none}}
• Mel Gibson – Actor
• Madonna – Singer, songwriter, dancer, actress
• Grace Kelly – Actress & Princess of Monaco
• Jimmy Kimmel – Television host{{Cite web |publisher=ChurchPOP |quote=Kimmel was raised Catholic, was an altar server, and says he is a practicing Catholic. |url=https://churchpop.com/2017/12/07/jimmy-kimmel-defends-his-catholic-faith-against-attack-from-roy-moore/ |title=Jimmy Kimmel Defends His Catholic Faith Against Attack from Roy Moore |date=December 7, 2017 |access-date=April 16, 2020 |archive-date=February 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205144032/https://churchpop.com/2017/12/07/jimmy-kimmel-defends-his-catholic-faith-against-attack-from-roy-moore/ |url-status=live}}
• Conan O'Brien – Television hostStated on Inside the Actors Studio, 2009. also {{Cite magazine |last1=Doyle |first1=Patrick |title=The Last Word: Conan O'Brien on Catholicism, 'The Simpsons' and Life As Late Night's Elder Statesman |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/conan-obrien-late-night-simpsons-catholicism-780706/ |access-date=January 21, 2019 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=January 21, 2019 |archive-date=January 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122044033/https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/conan-obrien-late-night-simpsons-catholicism-780706/ |url-status=live}}
• Frank Sinatra – Singer, actor
• Arnold Schwarzenegger – Actor{{Cite web |title=Maria Shriver Ends Her Silence On Husband's Campaign |publisher=NBC |url=http://www.knbc.com/politics/2463270/detail.html |date=September 8, 2003 |access-date=April 18, 2008}}{{Dead link|date=July 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• Martin Sheen – Actor, activist{{Cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-chamaco-20100825,0,2597362.story |title='Chamaco' a one-two punch of boxing, bilingualism |date=August 25, 2010 |first=Reed |last=Johnson |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=September 9, 2010 |quote=The actor born Ramón Antonio Gerard Estévez is a devout Roman Catholic |archive-date=September 3, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100903204528/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-chamaco-20100825,0,2597362.story |url-status=live}}
• Mark Wahlberg – Actor{{Cite web |url=http://au.christiantoday.com/article/mark-wahlberg-talks-central-role-of-faith-and-prayer-in-his-daily-life/12692.htm |title=Mark Wahlberg talks central role of faith and prayer in his daily life |first=Stoyan |last=Zaimov |publisher=Christian Today Australia |date=January 18, 2012|access-date=July 28, 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826174701/http://christiantoday.com.au/article/mark-wahlberg-talks-central-role-of-faith-and-prayer-in-his-daily-life/12692.htm | archive-date=August 26, 2014}}
• John Wayne – Actor{{Cite web |url=http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/John_Wayne.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051119121939/http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/John_Wayne.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=November 19, 2005 |title=The religion of John Wayne, actor |publisher=Adherents.com |access-date=October 20, 2008}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=9e13fe4d-3aac-4aec-abab-032cc267b317 |title=My granddaddy John Wayne |work=California Catholic Daily |first=David |last=Kerr |date=October 4, 2011 |access-date=October 4, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006041651/http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=9e13fe4d-3aac-4aec-abab-032cc267b317 |archive-date=October 6, 2011}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.osv.com/osvnewsweekly/byissue/article/tabid/735/artmid/13636/articleid/14534/everyone-called-him-duke-john-waynes-conversion-to-catholicism.aspx |title=Everyone called him 'Duke': John Wayne's conversion to Catholicism |website=Our Sunday Visitor |first1=Karen |last1=Edmisten |date=April 22, 2014 |access-date=June 10, 2018|archive-date=June 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612144020/https://www.osv.com/osvnewsweekly/byissue/article/tabid/735/artmid/13636/articleid/14534/everyone-called-him-duke-john-waynes-conversion-to-catholicism.aspx|url-status=dead}}
• Jane Wyman

{{div col end}}

Politics

{{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width=250

| image1 = Charles_Carroll_of_Carrollton_-_Michael_Laty.jpg

| image2 = John_F._Kennedy,_White_House_color_photo_portrait.jpg

| image3 = Joe_Biden_presidential_portrait.jpg

| image4 = VancePortrait.jpg

| footer = Charles Carroll III (top left) was the only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence. John F. Kennedy (top right) and Joe Biden (bottom left) are the only Catholics to have ever been elected President; additionally, Biden and JD Vance (bottom right) are also the only Catholics to have ever been elected Vice President.

}}

{{div col}}

• Samuel Alito – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
• Amy Coney Barrett – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court{{Cite magazine |first=Allyson |last=Escobar |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/07/18/why-do-catholics-make-majority-supreme-court |title=Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court? |magazine=America: The Jesuit Review |date=September 21, 2020|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922052728/https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/07/18/why-do-catholics-make-majority-supreme-court|archive-date=September 22, 2020|access-date=December 14, 2020}}
• Joe Biden – 46th President of the United States
• Charles Carroll of Carrollton – Founding Father of the U.S.[https://archive.org/stream/americancatholic24philuoft#page/n189/mode/2up "Charles Carroll, of Carrollton,"] The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XXIV, 1899.
• Daniel Carroll – Founding Father of the U.S.
• Alexander Haig – 59th Secretary of State
• Brett Kavanaugh – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court{{Cite news |title=Five things to know about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/09/supreme-court-nominee-brett-kavanaugh-five-things/770210002 |access-date=December 16, 2018 |work=USA Today |date=July 9, 2018 |archive-date=February 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214231455/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/09/supreme-court-nominee-brett-kavanaugh-five-things/770210002/ |url-status=live}}
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – First Lady of the United States
• John F. Kennedy – 35th President of the United States
• 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
• Nancy Pelosi – 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives
• John Roberts – 17th Chief Justice of the United StatesTodd 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.
• Marco Rubio - 72nd Secretary of State{{cite news|last=Oppenheimer|first=Mark|date=November 26, 2010|title=Marco Rubio: Catholic or Protestant?|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/us/27beliefs.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216124845/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/us/27beliefs.html|archive-date=February 16, 2017}}
• Sonia Sotomayor – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
• Clarence Thomas – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court{{Cite magazine |last=Escobar |first=Allyson |date=July 18, 2018 |title=Why do Catholics make up a majority of the Supreme Court? |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/07/18/why-do-catholics-make-majority-supreme-court |magazine=America |publisher=America Press (Society of Jesus) |location=New York City |access-date=June 16, 2019 |archive-date=September 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922052728/https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/07/18/why-do-catholics-make-majority-supreme-court |url-status=live}}
• Roger B. Taney – 5th Chief Justice of the United States{{Cite news |last1=Bunson |first1=Matthew |title=Catholics and the Supreme Court |url=http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/catholics-and-the-supreme-court |access-date=November 8, 2018 |publisher=National Catholic Register |date=March 20, 2017 |archive-date=November 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181110080247/http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/catholics-and-the-supreme-court |url-status=live}}
• Melania Trump – First Lady of the United States{{Cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/melania-trump-catholic-white-house_us_59270d0ce4b0265790f5f76f |title=Melania Trump Will Be The First Catholic To Live At The White House Since JFK |first=Cavan |last=Sieczkowski |date=May 25, 2017 |work=HuffPost|access-date=May 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526193809/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/melania-trump-catholic-white-house_us_59270d0ce4b0265790f5f76f|archive-date=May 26, 2017|url-status=live}}{{Cite magazine |title=US First Lady Melania Trump Is Catholic, Spokeswoman Confirms |date=May 26, 2017 |magazine=The Catholic Herald |url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/05/25/us-first-lady-melania-trump-is-catholic-spokeswoman-confirms/|access-date=May 26, 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170526172605/http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/05/25/us-first-lady-melania-trump-is-catholic-spokeswoman-confirms/|archive-date=May 26, 2017|url-status=dead}}
• JD Vance – Vice President of the United States
• Edward Douglass White – 9th Chief Justice of the United States

{{div col end}}

Other

• Kobe Bryant – Professional basketball player
• John Carroll – Archbishop of Baltimore
• Toni Morrison – NovelistEmma Brockes, "Interview: I want to feel what I feel. Even if it's not happiness," THE GUARDIAN, April 13, 2012.

{{More citations needed section|date=April 2020}}{{for|a full list of Servants of God and other open causes|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

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Thea Bowman
• Michelle Duppong
• Simon Bruté
• Vincent R. Capodanno
• Walter Ciszek
• Terence Cooke
• Dorothy Day
• Black ElkJon Sweeney, "The saint who danced for Queen Victoria," The Tablet, 23, January 2021, 10–11.
• Demetrius Gallitzin
• Julia Greeley
• John Hardon
• Isaac Hecker
• Eusebio Francisco Kino
• Mary Elizabeth Lange
• Rose Hawthorne Lathrop
• Joseph Muzquiz
• Frank Parater
• Félix Varela
• Paul Wattson{{Cite web |url=http://www.fatherpaulofgraymoor.org/ |title=Prayer Intentions – Father Paul of Graymoor Guild |website=www.fatherpaulofgraymoor.org |access-date=November 6, 2020 |archive-date=October 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025000405/http://fatherpaulofgraymoor.org/ |url-status=live}}
• Annella Zervas

{{div col end}}

Venerables

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Nelson Baker
• Frederic Baraga
• Cornelia Connelly
• Henriette DeLille
• Emil Kapaun
• Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli
• Patrick PeytonFacebook.com/HCFM.org/
• Aloysius Schwartz
• Fulton J. Sheen
• Augustus Tolton
• Pierre Toussaint

{{div col end}}

Beatified

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Solanus Casey
• Teresa Demjanovich
• Michael J. McGivney{{Cite web |url=https://www.kofc.org/en/events/father-mcgivney-beatification/index.html |title=Beatification of Father Michael McGivney | Knights of Columbus |website=www.kofc.org |access-date=November 6, 2020 |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101233004/https://www.kofc.org/en/events/father-mcgivney-beatification/index.html |url-status=live}}
• James Alfred Miller
• Carlos Manuel Rodriguez
• Stanley Rother
• Francis Xavier Seelos

{{div col end}}

Saints

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Frances Xavier Cabrini
• Marianne Cope
• Jean de Lalande
• Damien De Veuster
• Katharine Drexel
• Rose Philippine Duchesne
• René Goupil
• Mother Théodore Guérin
• Isaac Jogues
• John Neumann
• Junípero Serra
• Elizabeth Ann Seton
• Kateri Tekakwitha

{{div col end}}

• National Shrine of The Divine Mercy (Stockbridge, Massachusetts)
• National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa (Doylestown, Pennsylvania)
• National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes (Emmitsburg, Maryland)
• 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.){{Cite web |url=https://religioustravelplanningguide.com/10-top-catholic-shrines-in-the-u-s/ |title=10 Top Catholic Shrines in the U.S. |date=February 15, 2012|access-date=February 7, 2020|archive-date=October 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018134422/https://religioustravelplanningguide.com/10-top-catholic-shrines-in-the-u-s/|url-status=dead}}
• National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion (Champion, Wisconsin)
• Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

{{Portal|Catholicism|Saints|United States}}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Catholic Church and politics in the United States
• Catholic Church by country
• Catholic Home Missions
• Christianity in the United States
• Eastern Catholic Churches
• History of the Catholic Church in the United States
• Holy See–United States relations
• List of American Catholic priests
• List of Catholic authors
• List of Catholic clergy scientists
• List of Catholic dioceses in the United States (includes lists of Eastern Catholic eparchies)
• List of Catholic musicians
• List of Catholic scientists
• List of converts to the Catholic Church

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Further|History of the Catholic Church in the United States#Further reading}}

• {{Cite book |last1=Carey |first1=Patrick W. |title=Catholics in America: A history |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Praeger |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-275-98255-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/catholicsinameri0000care_i0l2 |via=Internet Archive}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=PBIoAH4ko3kC&dq=catholics&pg=PP15 online]; emphasis on biographies
• 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)
• {{Cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=John Tracy |author1-link=John Tracy Ellis |title=American Catholicism |edition=2nd |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1969 |url=https://archive.org/details/americancatholic1969elli |via=Internet Archive}}
• 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.
• {{Cite book |last1=Maynard |first1=Theodore |author1-link=Theodore Maynard |title=The story of American Catholicism |date=1941 |location=New York |publisher=The Macmillan Company |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofamericanc0000mayn}}
• McGuinness Margaret M. and James T. Fisher (eds.) Roman Catholicism in the United States: A Thematic History. (Fordham University Press, 2019).
• Morris, Charles R. American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church (1998), a popular history [https://archive.org/details/americancatholic0000morr_d7v3 online]
• New Catholic 'Encyclopedia (1967), comprehensive coverage of all topics by Catholic scholars
• O'Toole, James M. The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America (2008) [The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America online]

• 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 [https://www.amazon.com/Spirited-Lives-Catholic-American-1836-1920/dp/0807847747/ 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. [https://www.hist.pku.edu.cn/pub/bjdxlsxx/attachments/cfc2952bfaf94b08ae7a3098d5f1a675.pdf 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; [https://www.amazon.com/Called-Serve-History-Nuns-America/dp/0814795560/ 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).
• Stepsis, Ursula and Dolores Liptak. Pioneer Healers: The History of Women Religious in American Health Care (1989) 375pp

• Avalos, Hector. Introduction to the U.S. Latina and Latino Religious Experience (2005) [https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Latina-Latino-Religious-Experience/dp/0391042408 excerpt]
• Castañeda-Liles, María Del Socorro. Our lady of everyday life: La Virgen de Guadalupe and the Catholic imagination of Mexican women in America (Oxford University Press, 2018).
• 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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25156622 online]
• 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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20147794 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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40468581 online]
• Radzilowski, John. "A Social History of Polish-American Catholicism." US Catholic Historian 27.3 (2009): 21–43. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40468582 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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154552 online]
• Sullivan, Eileen P. The Shamrock and the Cross: Irish American Novelists Shape American Catholicism (U of Notre Dame Press, 2016).

• 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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44209772 online]
• Carroll, Michael P. American Catholics in the Protestant Imagination: Rethinking the Academic Study of Religion ( Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
• {{cite book |surname=Dinges |given=William D. |surname2=Hitchcock |given2=James |chapter=Roman Catholic Traditionalism and Activist Conservatism in the United States |chapter-url={{Google books|id=qd5yzP5hdiEC|plainurl=y|page=66|keywords=|text=}} |editor-surname=Marty |editor-given=Martin E. |editor-link=Martin E. Marty |editor-surname2=Appleby |editor-given2=R. Scott |editor-link2=R. Scott Appleby |year=1991 |title=Fundamentalisms Observed |series=The Fundamentalism Project, 1 |place=Chicago, Il; London |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=66–141 |url={{Google books|id=qd5yzP5hdiEC|plainurl=y|page=}} |isbn=0-226-50878-1}}
• Hunt, Thomas C., Ellis A. Joseph, and Ronald James Nuzzi, eds. Catholic schools in the United States: An encyclopedia (2 vol. Greenwood Press, 2004) 805pp; covers K12 schools, not colleges [https://archive.org/details/catholicschoolsi0002unse/page/n3/mode/2up vol 2 online]
• 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).
• {{Cite book |last=Petro |first=Anthony Michael |title=After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPoJCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA282|access-date=May 11, 2020 |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-939128-8}}
• 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).

• Dries, Angelyn. " 'Perils of Ocean and Wilderness': A Field Guide to North American Catholic History." Catholic Historical Review 102.2 (2016) pp 251–83.
• Ellis, John Tracy, and Robert Trisco. A Guide to American Catholic History (ABC-Clio, 1982) annotated guide to 1240 books. [https://archive.org/details/guidetoamericanc00john online]
• 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. [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/catholic_historical_review/v101/101.2S.gleason.html online]
• Thomas, J. Douglas. "A Century of American Catholic History." US Catholic Historian (1987): 25–49. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25153781 in JSTOR]

• Ellis, John Tracy. Documents of American Catholic History 2nd ed. (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1956). [https://ia600206.us.archive.org/4/items/documentsofameri00elli/documentsofameri00elli.pdf online]

• [http://www.usccb.org/ United States Conference of Catholic Bishops]
• [http://www.earthhealing.info/catholicstats.pdf Global Catholic Statistics: 1905 and Today] by Albert J. Fritsch, SJ, PhD
• [http://www.vividmaps.com/2017/09/the-percentage-of-catholics-in-us-1890.html The percentage of Catholics in the U.S. (1890–2010)]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20180820080454/http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html Largest religious groups in the United States]}}

{{Roman Catholic ecclesiastical provinces in the United States}}

{{North America in topic|Catholic Church in|groupstyle=background-color:gold|titlestyle=background-color:gold}}

{{Demographics of the United States}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catholic Church in the United States}}

United States