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

Roman and Eastern Catholicism in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Christian Church in full communion with the Pope, currently Benedict XVI. Catholicism arrived in what is now Continental United States during the earliest days of the European colonization of the Americas.

In 1492 and onward, the Spanish Catholic missionaries followed closely on the heels of Columbus.^[1] At the time the country was founded on the eastern seacoast only a small fraction of the population were Catholic. The numbers of Catholics has grown over the country's history. It is now the largest Christian church in the United States today. With about 70 million registered residents professing the faith in 2008, the United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world after Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines, respectively.

The 2008 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, a statistical listing of major religious bodies published by National Council of Churches, reports over 67,515,016 registered members of the Roman Catholic Church. The next largest Christian group is a Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, which reports 16,306,246 members.

The Church's leadership body in the United States is the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of bishops and archbishops of the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands, although each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the pope.

In addition to the 195 dioceses represented in the USCCB, there are several dioceses in the nation's other four overseas dependencies. In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the bishops in the six dioceses (one metropolitan archdiocese and five suffragan dioceses) form their own episcopal conference, the Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña.^[2] The bishops in U.S. 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 for Catholics exists in the United States. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, the first diocese established in the country in 1789 with John Carroll as its head, received Prerogative of Place in the 1850s, which confers to its archbishop a subset of the leadership responsibilities granted to primates in other countries. Bishop Carroll's family was very well connected. His cousin, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the richest men in America, was the sole Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence and the first United States senator from Maryland. In 1774, the colonial government commissioned John Carroll, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and his cousin, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, to seek aid from British Canada (which at the time was predominantly French Catholic). The bishop's younger brother, Daniel Carroll, a good friend of James Madison, was one of only five men to sign both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States.^[3][4]

Dioceses

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

• US Catholic Bishops
• US Catholic Cathedrals
• US Catholic Dioceses

Statistics

Represented in the USCCB are 195 archdioceses and dioceses (in the U.S. and the Territory of the Virgin Islands):

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

There are also several dioceses in the nation's other four overseas dependencies. In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the bishops in the six dioceses (one metropolitan archdiocese and five suffragan dioceses) form their own episcopal conference, the Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña. The bishops in U.S. 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.

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

This diocesan list gives the Catholic Church the third highest total number of individual parishes in the U.S., behind Southern Baptists and Methodists. However, because the average Catholic parish is significantly larger than the average church from those denominations, there are more than 4 times as many Catholics as Southern Baptists and more than 8 times as many as Methodists (7,931,733).^[5]

The Church has over 41,406 diocesan and religious-order priests in the United States; also over 30,000 lay ministers (80% of them women), 17,000 men who are ordained as permanent deacons in the United States (a permanent deacon is a man, either married or single, who is ordained to the order of deacons, the first of three ranks in ordained ministry.^[6] They assist priests in administrative and pastoral roles), 63,032 sisters, 5,040 brothers, 16 U.S. Cardinals, 424 active and retired U.S. bishops in the United States, and 5,029 seminarians enrolled in the United States. Overall, it employs more than one million employees with an operating budget of nearly 100 billion dollars to run parishes, diocesan primary and secondary schools, nursing homes, retreat centers, diocesan hospitals, and other charitable institutions.^[7]

150,000 Catholic school teachers operate in the United States, teaching 2.7 million students. Some 225 schools of higher education include: Canisius College, Boston College, Fairfield University, Providence College, Seattle University, Catholic University of America, DePaul University, University of Portland, College of Holy Cross, Fordham University, Georgetown University, La Salle University, Loyola University, Marquette University, Saint Joseph's University, Saint Louis University, Seton Hall University, St. John's University, Stonehill College, University of Notre Dame, University of San Diego, University of San Francisco, University of Santa Clara, Villanova University, University of Dayton, Barry University, Wheeling Jesuit University, University of Dallas, etc. Many of these universities and colleges have established programs abroad and collaborate with schools in other countries. In 2009, for example, representatives of four Jesuit institutions in California (the University of San Francisco, the University of Santa Clara, the Jesuit School of Theology, and Loyola Marymount University) were in consultation with the religious studies faculty of the University of Fudan, Shanghai, China, to broaden the religious studies programs at that university.^[8]

In 2002, the Church's Catholic health care system, overseeing 625 hospitals with a combined revenue of 30 billion dollars, was also the nation's largest group of nonprofit systems.^[9] In 2008, the cost of running these hospitals had risen to $84.6 billion, including the $5.7 billion they donate.^[10] According to the Catholic Health Association of the United States, 60 health care systems, on average, admit one in six patients nationwide each year.^[11]

Catholic Charities is also active as one of the largest voluntary social service networks in the United States. In 2009 it welcomed in New Jersey the 50,000th refugee to come to the United States from Myanmar. Likewise, the U.S. Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services has resettled 14,846 refugees from Myanmar since 2006.^[12]

There are 68,115,001 registered Catholics in the United States (22% of the U.S. population) according to the Official Catholic Directory 2009. Estimates from recent years generally range around 20% to 28%. Based on Pew Research Center surveys conducted from January 2006 to September 2006, 25.2% of the American population claim to be followers of the Roman Catholic Church (of a national population of 300 million residents). According to a new survey of 35,556 American residents (released in 2008 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life), 23.9% of Americans (both registered and unregistered) identify themselves as Roman Catholic (approximately 72 million of a national population of 306 million residents).^[13] The study also notes that 10% of those people who identify themselves as Protestant in the interview are former Catholics and 8% of those who identity themselves as Catholic are former Protestants.^[14] Nationally, more parishes have opened than closed. The northeastern quadrant of the U.S. (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).^[15] Catholics in the U.S. are about 6% of the church's total worldwide membership.

A poll by The Barna Group in 2004 found Catholic ethnicity to be 60% non-Hispanic white (mostly Irish, Italian, Polish), 31% Hispanic of any race, 4% Black, and 5% other ethnicity (mostly Filipinos and other Asian Americans, and American Indians).^[16]

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

Roman Catholicism by state

By percentage of Catholics

Plurality of religious preference by state, 2001. Catholicism is also largest sect in the "No Religion" plurality states and Hawaii. Alaska's largest sect is Baptist. (The percentage for each column is: <30%, <40%, <50%, >50%. The shadings are based on 2001 data. New Mexico should no longer be dark blue; its percentage is now under 40%. New York, New Jersey, and Vermont should be dark blue, as their percentages are now 40% or higher. Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, and North Dakota should be medium blue — like California — as they are now 30% or higher.)

Parochial schools

The Catholic parochial school system developed in the early-to-mid-nineteenth century partly in response to what was seen as anti-Catholic bias in American public schools. Most states passed constitutional amendments, called Blaine Amendments, forbidding tax money be used to fund parochial schools.^[18] In 2002, the United States Supreme Court partially vitiated these amendments, in theory, when they ruled that vouchers were constitutional if tax dollars followed a child to a school, even if it was religious. However, as of 2009, no state's school system has changed its laws to allow this.^[19]

Supreme Court

In the early 1980s, there was one Catholic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court: William J. Brennan, Jr. This changed in the mid-1980s when President Ronald Reagan appointed Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy to the court, both of whom were Catholic. President George H. W. Bush appointed Clarence Thomas (a Catholic who at the time of his appointment was attending Episcopalian services, though he has since become an active Catholic). President George W. Bush appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both Catholics. As of 2009, the Supreme Court currently has a Catholic majority. With the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court Justice, six of the nine justices are now Catholic. Several scholars have suggested reasons for this change: as Protestantism's dominance in American culture recedes as it has over the last half-century, Catholicism has become a non-issue in court appointments, and "the nation's concerns about diversity have shifted from religion and geography to gender and race." The fact that Catholics are now the largest single religious denomination in the US and increasingly well-educated are also factors to be considered.^[20]

The four Catholic Supreme Court justices nominated in the last decade have become reliable votes for abortion restriction. In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1990), Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990), and Rust v. Sullivan (1991), Scalia and Kennedy upheld the restrictions in question. The majority of Catholic judges have been appointed by Republicans (traditionally opposed to abortion), while Protestant and Jewish judges have been appointed by Democrats (traditionally tolerant of abortion). However, there is still a difference between Catholic judges and Protestant judges. While many Protestant judges were pro-choice, only one Catholic judge has ever ruled against abortion restrictions, and that was in one of six cases. This makes for predictable voting patterns in the Supreme Court, at least when it comes to abortion issues.^[21]

History

Colonial era

View across Fifth Avenue of the St. Patrick's Cathedral and Lee Lawrie's colossal bronze statue of Atlas, New York City

Catholicism first came to the territories now forming the continental United States before the Protestant Reformation with the Spanish explorers and settlers in present-day Florida (1513) and the Southwest. The first Christian worship service held in the current United States in 1559 was a Catholic Mass celebrated in Pensacola, FL. (St. Michael records) Not long after that, the first permanent European colony was established at St. Augustine in 1565. The influence of the Alta California missions (1769 and onwards) also forms a lasting memorial to part of this heritage.^[22] In the French territories, Catholicism was ushered in with the establishment of colonies and forts in Detroit (1701), St. Louis (1763), Mobile (1702), Biloxi, Baton Rouge (1699), and New Orleans (1718).^[23][24] As early as 1604, the French established a site in Maine on Saint Croix Island, but it was short-lived. Catholicism in the Spanish (East and West Florida) and French (eastern Louisiana/Quebec) colonies was undisturbed under later administration by Britain.

In the English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, Catholicism was later to be seen as a stigma, even though it had been involved in English colonization of America from the beginning with John Cabot in 1497. Queen Mary, the Catholic, was also Queen of Chile, but few, if any, English relations developed from this, since men such as Hawkins preferred the Spanish Main and others like Frobisher, the Northwest Passage. Elizabeth, in restoring Anglicanism to favor Calvinism, had her lieutenants Drake and Raleigh attempt to found Anglican settlements. English Catholics reintroduced Catholicism with the settling of Avalon and Maryland (1634); these colonies offered a rare example of religious toleration in a fairly intolerant age, particularly among other English colonies which frequently exhibited a quite militant Protestantism. (See the Maryland Toleration Act, and note the pre-eminence of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Catholic circles.) The Duke of York, future King James II of England, was also Catholic and issued the Declaration of Indulgence. Combined between the duke and Baron Baltimore, Catholicism on the proprietary level was highly spread out in 1664, from the Potomac to the Connecticut rivers, with part of Maine and Massachusetts even held by the duke. New York's western land claims were over a vast expanse, which neighboring Protestant colonies feared to be settled by its Catholic proprietor, in contention with their own land charters.

Catholicism thus became limited to the Middle Colonies, whereas the South was officially Anglican and New England, in the north, was Calvinist. English colonial religion was a New World microcosm of spiritual conditions back in England, as each had then affiliated with their own kind. Whereas Catholicism was once the predominant English affiliation (with some Lollardy), the Reformation disestablished this and caused a split between magisterial and radical reformations which departed from the usual custom. The South was thus a Broad Church blend of Catholicism and Calvinism, whereas the North was strictly Low Church Calvinist, and each responded to the English Civil War in their own way. The North supported Oliver Cromwell with troops and the South supported Charles I, who was later considered a martyr.

The Catholics in America, although officially discriminated against by their Southern compatriots, were not in any position to favor the Northern Calvinists, who were more extreme in their dislike of Catholicism. The Calvinists laid siege upon Catholic rule in the Middle Colonies, deposing both the Duke of York/King of England and the then-Lord Baltimore, but Jacobitism did not thrive in the colonies, apart from such isolated examples as Flora MacDonald, ironically a Calvinist. The Anglicans cooperated in order to retain their position of authority in a time when Calvinism became orthodox and accepted, while Catholicism was diminished.

At the time of the American Revolution, Catholics formed 1.6% of the population of the thirteen colonies (35,000 out of 4,000,000, including slaves), and only one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll, was a Catholic.^[25] One of the reasons Americans rebelled from British rule was the fact that French Canada was allowed freedom of religion under the Quebec Act, whereas the English colonies were still expected to worship at an official church. This kind of double standard inspired a nationalistic disgust in the colonists, who ultimately chose to make the First Amendment of their Bill of Rights contain a guarantee of freedom of religion. Irish Catholics (unlike Lord Baltimore and the Earl of Ulster/Duke of York, their English landlords) were initially mostly barred from settling in the colonies, but later came to seek refuge from their troubled homeland and this is what revived Catholicism in America after independence.

19th century

The number of Roman Catholics in Continental United States increased almost overnight with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Adams-Onís Treaty (purchasing Florida) in 1819, and in 1847 with the incorporation of the northern territories of Mexico into the United States (Mexican Cession) at the end of the Mexican American War.^[26][27] Catholics formed the majority in these continental areas and had been there for centuries.^[28] Most were descendants of the original settlers, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, benefiting in the Southwest, for example, from the livestock industry introduced by Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino in 1687.^[29][30][31] However, U.S. Catholics increased most dramatically and significantly in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century due to a massive influx of European immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany (especially the south and west), Austria-Hungary, and the Russian Empire (largely Poles). Substantial numbers of Catholics also came from French Canada during the mid-19th century and settled in New England. Although these ethnic groups tended to live and worship apart initially, over time they intermarried so that, in modern times, many Catholics are descended from more than one ethnicity.

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

Some anti-immigrant and Nativism movements, like the Know Nothings and the Ku Klux Klan, have also been anti-Catholic. Indeed, for most of the history of the United States, Catholics have been victims of discrimination and persecution. It was not until the time of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy in the following century that Catholics lived in the U.S. largely free of suspicion. The Ku Klux Klan-ridden South discriminated against Catholics (as they did the Jews and African Americans) for their commonly Irish, Italian, Polish, German, or Spanish ethnicity.^[32] Many Protestants in the Midwest and the North labeled Catholics as "anti-American "Papists", "incapable of free thought without the approval of the Pope." For example, in 1850, Franklin Pierce, as the U. S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire, presented resolutions for the removal of restrictions on Catholics from holding office in that state, as well as the removal of property qualifications for voting; however, these pro-Catholic measures were submitted to the electorate and were unsurprisingly defeated.^[33] As the nineteenth century progressed, animosity between Protestants and Catholics waned; most Protestant Americans came to understand that, despite anti-Catholic rhetoric, Roman Catholics were not trying to seize control of the government. Nonetheless, concerns continued into the twentieth century that there was too much "Catholic influence" on the government.

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

20th-21st centuries

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

By the beginning of the 20th century, approximately one-sixth of the population of the United States was Roman Catholic. Modern Catholic immigrants come to the United States from the Philippines, Poland, and Latin America, especially from Mexico. This multiculturalism and diversity has greatly impacted the flavor of Catholicism in the United States. For example, many dioceses serve in both the English language and the Spanish language. Also, when many parishes were set up in the United States, separate churches were built for parishioners from Ireland, Germany, Italy, etc. In Iowa, the development of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, the work of Bishop Loras and the building of St. Raphael's Cathedral illustrate this point.

In the later 20th century "[...] the Catholic Church in the United States became the subject of controversy due to allegations of clerical child abuse of children and adolescents, of episcopal negligence in arresting these crimes, and of numerous civil suits that cost Catholic dioceses hundreds of millions of dollars in damages."^[34] Because of this, higher scrutiny and governance, as well as protective policies and diocesan investigation into seminaries have been enacted to correct these former abuses of power, and safeguard parishioners and the Church from further abuses and scandals. Many see in these reforms (along with Vatican II) signs of a new era of lay initiative and collaboration.^[35]

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. ^[36]

Recently John Micklethwait, editor of The Economist and co-author of God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World, said that American Catholicism, which he describes in his book as "arguably the most striking Evangelical success story of the second half of the nineteeth century," has competed quite happily "without losing any of its basic characteristics." It has thrived in America's "pluralism."^[37]

American Catholic Servants of God, Venerables, Beatified, and Saints

Saints portal

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

The following are some notable American Servants of God and all Venerables, Beatified, and Saints of the U.S.:

Top six Catholic pilgrimage destinations in the U.S.

See also: List of Shrines in U.S.

1. National Shrine of the North American Martyrs, Auriesville, New York
2. El Santuario de Chimayó, Chimayó, New Mexico, north of Santa Fe (settled in 1609). Chimayó is sometimes called the "Lourdes of America."
3. Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg, Maryland
4. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore, Maryland
5. National Shrine of St. John Neumann (in St. Peter the Apostle Church), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.^[38]

Notable American Catholics

For living U.S. bishops, see: List of the Catholic bishops of the United States

Some notable American Catholics, living and deceased (baptized and/or buried in a Roman Catholic service) include (in alphabetical order): Mortimer Adler, Samuel Alito, Lucille Ball, Msgr. Geno Baroni, John Barry, P.G.T. Beauregard, Regina Benjamin, Joe Biden, Black Elk, Robert Bork, Thea Bowman, Tom Brady, Donna Brazile, Sam Brownback, Orestes Brownson, William F. Buckley, Jr., Jeb Bush, John Cabot, Kit Carson, César Chávez, Stephen Colbert, Harry Connick Jr., Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Mario Cuomo, Robert De Niro, Joe DiMaggio, Andre Dubus, Fr. Francis P. Duffy, Farrah Fawcett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Flynn, Fr. Stan Fortuna, Norman Francis, Andy Garcia, Melinda Gates, James Cardinal Gibbons, Mel Gibson, Newt Gingrich, Rudolph Giuliani, Mary Ann Glendon, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, James Groppi, Sean Hannity, Ernest Hemingway, Bob Hope, Bobby Jindal, Luci Baines Johnson, Anthony Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Alan Keyes, Joyce Kilmer, Thaddeus Kosciusko, Lawrence Kudlow, Marquis de La Fayette, Vince Lombardi, Clare Boothe Luce, Rocky Marciano, Chris Matthews, Claude McKay, Fr. Thomas Merton, Ricardo Montalban, Mother Angelica, Bishop Francis Mugavero, Janet Napolitano, Bernard Nathanson, Liam Neeson, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Flannery O'Connor, Bill O'Reilly, Al Pacino, Gregory Peck, Nancy Pelosi, Walker Percy, Carl Pohlad, Katherine Anne Porter, Casimir Pulaski, Charles Rangel, Anne Rice, Bill Richardson, Cokie Roberts, John Glover Roberts, Bishop Joseph Rosati, Tim Russert, Babe Ruth, Antonin Scalia, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Martin Scorsese, Donna Shalala (Eastern Catholic), Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Martin Sheen, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Maria Shriver, Sargent Shriver, Frank Sinatra, Al Smith, Sonia Sotomayor, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Steele, Andrew Sullivan, Allen Tate, Clarence Thomas, Andy Warhol (Eastern Catholic), John Wayne, Brian Williams,^[39] Tennessee Williams.

See also

• History of Roman Catholicism in the United States
• Saint Patrick's Battalion
• Catholic Church and politics in the United States
• American Cardinals Dinner
• List of living cardinals (sortable by name, country, and birthdate)
• List of the Catholic bishops of the United States
• List of the Catholic cathedrals of the United States
• List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
• Category:Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States (including ecclesiastical provinces)
• Eastern Catholic Churches
• Catholic Church by country
• Christianity in the United States
• Religions by country

References

Additional reading

• Abell, Aaron. American Catholicism and Social Action: A Search for Social Justice, 1865-1950 (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1960).
• Bales, Susan Ridgley. When I Was a Child: Children's Interpretations of First Communion (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2005).
• Carroll, Michael P. American Catholics in the Protestant Imagination: Rethinking the Academic Study of Religion (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
• Christiano, Kevin. "The Catholic Church and Recent Immigrants to the United States: A Review of Research," in Helen Rose Ebaugh, ed., Vatican II and American Catholicism: Twenty-five Years Later (Greenwich, Ct.: JAI Press, 1991).
• D'Antonio, William V., James D. Davidson, Dean R. Hoge, and Katherine Meyer. American Catholics: Gender, Generation, and Commitment (Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor Visitor Publishing Press, 2001).
• Deck, Allan Figueroa, S.J. The Second Wave: Hispanic Ministry and the Evangelization of Cultures (New York: Paulist, 1989).
• Dolan, Jay P. The Immigrant Church: New York Irish and German Catholics, 1815-1865 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).
• Donovan, Grace. "Immigrant Nuns: Their Participation in the Process of Americanization," in Catholic Historical Review 77, 1991, 194-208.
• Ellis, John Tracy. Documents of American Catholic History 2nd ed. (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1956).
• Ellis, J.T. American Catholicism 2nd ed.(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969).
• Fialka, John J. Sisters: Catholic Nuns and the Making of America (New York: St. Martin Press, 2003).
• Finke, Roger. "An Orderly Return to Tradition: Explaining Membership Growth in Catholic Religious Orders," in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , 36, 1997, 218-230.
• Fisher, James T. On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York (Ithaca: Cornell University, 2009) ISBN 9780801448041.
• Fogarty, Gerald P., S.J. Commonwealth Catholicism: A History of the Catholic Church in Virginia, ISBN 978-0268022648.
• Galloway, Patricia K., ed., La Salle and His Legacy: Frenchmen and Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1982).
• Garraghan, Gilbert J. The Jesuits of the Middle United States Vol. II (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1984).
• Greeley, Andrew. "The Demography of American Catholics, 1965-1990" in The Sociology of Andrew Greeley (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994).
• Godfrey, Donal. Gays and Grays: The Story of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church (Lanham, Md: Lexington, 2007).
• Greer, Allan. Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
• Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995). Interesting note on Afro-Creole Catholic culture.
• Horgan, Paul. Lamy of Santa Fe (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1975).
• John, Elizabeth A. H. Storms Brewed in Other Men's Worlds: Confrontation of Indians, Spanish, and French in the Southwest: 1540-1795 2nd ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996).
• Jonas, Thomas J. The Divided Mind: American Catholic Evangelists in the 1890s (New York: Garland Press, 1988).
• Jones, Arthur. Pierre Toussaint (New York: Doubleday, 2003).
• Maynard, Theodore The Story of American Catholicism, Volumes I and II (New York: Macmillan Company, 1960).
• McDermott, Scott. Charles Carroll of Carrollton—Faithful Revolutionary ISBN 1889334685.
• McKevitt, Gerald. Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1848-1919 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006).
• McMullen, Joanne Halleran and Jon Parrish Peede, eds. Inside the Church of Flannery O'Connor: Sacrament, Sacramental, and the Sacred in Her Fiction (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2007).
• Milanich, Jerald T. "Francisan Missions and Native Peoples in Spanish Florida," in Hudson and Tesser, eds., Forgotten Centuries (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994), 276-303.
• O'Malley, John, SJ. The First Jesuits (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993).
• Poyo, Gerald E. Cuban Catholics in the United States, 1960-1980: Exile and Integration (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 2007).
• Sanders, James W. The Education of an urban Minority: Catholics in Chicago, 1833-1965 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).
• Schroth, Raymond A. The American Jesuits: A History (New York: New York University Press, 2007).
• Schultze, George E. Strangers in a Foreign Land: The Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the United States (Lanham, Md:Lexington, 2007).
• Shannon, James P. Catholic Colonization on the Western Frontier (New haven: Yale University Press, 1957).
• Walch, Timothy. Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1996).
• Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992). Spanish missionaries present.
• Wood, Peter H. "La Salle: Discovery of a Lost Explorer," American Historical Review LXXXIX, April, 1984, 294-323.

External links

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

Catholic Church Organizations, Papacy, Teachings and Liturgical Traditions History Jesus · Twelve Apostles · Early Christianity · History of the Papacy · Councils · Crusades · Missions · Great Schism of East · Great Schism of West · Reformation · Counter-Reformation · Roman Catholicism by country Hierarchy Pope · Cardinals · Patriarchs · Major Archbishops · Primates · Metropolitans · Archbishops · Diocesan Bishops Theology Trinity · Original sin · One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church · Worship · Divine Grace · Salvation · Sermon on the Mount · The Ten Commandments · Dogma · Body and Soul Sacraments Baptism · Confirmation · Eucharist · Penance · Anointing of the Sick · Holy Orders · Matrimony Mariology Mariology · Veneration · History of Mariology · Mariology of the saints · Mariology of the popes · Marian Doctrines · Mother of God · Perpetual Virginity · Immaculate Conception  · Assumption Doctors of the Church Albertus Magnus · Ambrose · Anselm of Canterbury · Anthony of Padua · Thomas Aquinas · Athanasius of Alexandria · Augustine of Hippo · Basil of Caesarea · Bede · Robert Bellarmine · Bernard of Clairvaux · Bonaventure · Petrus Canisius · Catherine of Siena · Peter Chrysologus · John Chrysostom · Cyril of Alexandria · Cyril of Jerusalem · Peter Damian · Ephrem the Syrian · Francis de Sales · Gregory the Great · Gregory of Nazianzus · Hilary of Poitiers · Isidore of Seville · Jerome · John of Damascus · John of the Cross · Lawrence of Brindisi · Leo the Great · Alphonsus Liguori · Thérèse de Lisieux · Teresa of Ávila Pope Benedict XVI Conclave · Theology · Works · Deus Caritas Est · Sacramentum Caritatis · Summorum Pontificum · Spe Salvi · Caritas in Veritate Preceding Popes Pope John Paul II · Pope Paul VI · Pope John XXIII · Pope Pius XII · Pope Pius XI · Pope Benedict XV · Pope Pius X · Pope Leo XIII · Pope Pius IX Orders & Societies Assumptionist · Augustinian Order · Benedictines · Capuchin Order · Carmelites · Carthusians · Congregations of Holy Cross · Dominican Order · Franciscan orders · Jesuits · Oratory of Saint Philip Neri Vatican II Definition of the Church · Gaudium et Spes · Lumen Gentium · Nostra Aetate Particular Churches sorted by Liturgical Traditions Alexandrian · Coptic · Ethiopic · Antiochian · Maronite · Syriac · Syro-Malankara · Armenian · Armenian · Byzantine · Albanian · Belarusian · Bulgarian · Croatian · Greek · Hungarian · Italo-Greek · Macedonian · Melkite · Romanian · Russian · Ruthenian · Slovak · Ukrainian · East Syrian · Chaldean · Syro-Malabar · Roman · Ambrosian · Sarum · Mozarabic · Anglican Use · Latin · Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter Pope Portal Catholicism Portal

Roman Catholicism in North America Sovereign states Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama1  · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago1 · United States Dependencies and other territories Anguilla · Aruba1  · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Greenland · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Montserrat · Netherlands Antilles1 · Puerto Rico · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Turks and Caicos Islands · United States Virgin Islands 1 Territories also in or commonly considered to be part of South America.

Demographics of the United States Demographic history Economic and social Affluence · Educational attainment · Homeownership · Household income · Immigration · Income inequality · Language · Middle classes · Personal income · Poverty · Social class · Unemployment by state · Wealth Religion Prominent examples: Buddhist Americans · Christian Americans (Catholic Americans, Mormon Americans, Protestant Americans, etc.) · Hindu Americans · Jewish Americans · Muslim Americans · Neopagan Americans · Non-religious Americans · Sikh Americans Race, ethnicity, and ancestry Ethnic groups in the United States · American people by ethnic or national origin · History of the United States by ethnic group · American culture by ethnicity · Race and ethnicity in the United States Census · Ethnic groups in the United States · Maps of American ancestries · 2000 Census · Race/ethnicity by EEOC · Racism Major examples: Arab and Middle Eastern Americans · Black Americans (African Americans, African immigrants, Afro-Caribbeans, etc.) · Asian Americans (Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Indian Americans, Japanese Americans, Pacific Islander Americans, etc.)  · Hispanic and Latino Americans (Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans in the United States, Cuban Americans, etc.) · White Americans (European Americans, Jewish Americans (by ethnic origin), etc.) · Multiracial Americans · Native Americans (Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, etc.)