Roman Catholic Church in the United States

The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is part of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide .

history

The Roman Catholic Church in the United States already had its origins with the colonization of America . But it developed very slowly in the following centuries and its organization and hierarchy was always linked to Europe . Only in the course of the great waves of immigration in the 19th century did it become increasingly independent. It was still heavily dependent on European missionaries until around 1900 , but its structure continued to develop. The first bishopric to be established in the United States was Baltimore , established November 6, 1789. The first bishop and later Archbishop of Baltimore - and thus the first bishop to have a seat in the United States - was John Carroll (1735–1815) .

The various ethnic groups brought their religious traditions with them to their new homeland, which they maintain to this day, but there was increasingly an independent church culture and separation from Europe through spiritual vocations in the USA itself. New dioceses and the men present in the USA continued to emerge - and women's orders were given internal autonomy as independent provinces . New religious orders also emerged in the USA, but they never developed an international character. This development was honored by a separate cardinal for the USA as early as 1875 , when New York Archbishop John McCloskey was accepted into the college of cardinals.

As early as the end of the 19th century, modern trends developed in the Church of the USA, which were viewed critically in Europe. However, they are to be seen on the basis of the religious and ideological mix of this young nation . As early as the 19th century, it was not customary for religious to wear their religious costume on the street . Instead, they wore a black suit with a clerical shirt - unthinkable in Europe at the time.

The 1960s gave the frozen Catholic Church in the USA an enormous boost in development. This created further dioceses and the Catholics, who had previously often been divided into communities from different countries of origin, mixed up. At the same time, the official church understood how to use media such as television , radio or the Internet at an early stage. The donation of the Americans had quickly brought the Church of the USA to prosperity. A prosperity that was also increased through financial transactions. The Catholic Church in the USA, which had not been particularly evident in the universal Church so far, started international charitable activities.

The low sedentariness of the US-Americans means that until today they are closing a religious house much faster and establishing a new one elsewhere. It is the same with other church buildings, which were demolished and rebuilt faster than in Europe. The profitability of a facility is a high maxim.

organization

Different blue colors represent different degrees of Catholic dominance

About a quarter of Americans are Catholic. Because there are several popular denominations among Protestants in the United States , the Roman Catholic Church is the largest single denomination there.

The Roman Catholic Church in the 50 states of the USA and the District of Columbia today consists of 32 (Latin) ecclesiastical provinces with a total of 176 dioceses. In addition there are 18 dioceses of the various Eastern Catholic Churches ( Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church , Melkite Greek Catholic Church , Romanian Greek Catholic Church , Armenian Catholic Church , Syrian Catholic Church , Syrian-Maronite Church of Antioch , Chaldean Catholic Church , Syro-Malabar Church , Syro-Malankara Catholic Church ), which are also strong, as well as a military ordinariate and a staff ordinariate . 77 million Catholics live in these 196 jurisdictions , around 24% of the population. The country's 17,403 parishes are looked after by 26,265 diocesan priests, who are supported by 12,010 religious priests, 4,318 friars and 49,883 religious sisters (data source: CARA). There are another ten (Latin) dioceses on the outskirts of the USA , but only one of them, the Diocese of Saint Thomas on the American Virgin Islands , belongs to the Bishops' Conference of the United States .

The highest proportions of Catholics in the total population can be found in the northeast and southwest of the country. This distribution of the Catholic population is mainly due to different waves of immigration, in the northeast to Germans , Irish , Poles and Italians , in the southwest to Hispanics . The percentage for each state is as follows (as of 2008):

State	Total population	Number Catholics	Percentage share
Alabama	4,627,851	151,554	3.3
Alaska	626.932	52,813	8.4
Arizona	6,338,755	1,026,302	16.2
Arkansas	2,834,797	116.605	4.1
Colorado	4,861,515	707.420	14.6
Connecticut	3,502,309	1,282,153	36.6
Delaware	783,600	233,000	29.7
Florida	18.251.243	2,366,688	13.0
Georgia	9,544,750	730.005	7.6
Hawaii	1,283,388	251,575	19.6
Idaho	1,499,402	165.363	11.0
Illinois	12,852,548	3,870,647	30.1
Indiana	6,345,289	762.076	12.0
Iowa	2,988,046	499,661	16.7
California	36,553,215	10,463,330	28.6
Kansas	2,775,997	415.103	15.0
Kentucky	4,241,474	382,521	9.0
Louisiana	4,293,204	1,188,798	27.7
Maine	1.317.207	191.008	14.5
Maryland	5,618,344	837.338	14.9
Massachusetts	6,449,755	2,709,552	42.0
Michigan	10,071,822	2,206,372	21.9
Minnesota	5,197,621	1,064,696	20.5
Mississippi	2,918,785	107.098	3.7
Missouri	5,878,415	757.349	12.9
Montana	957.861	104.276	10.9
Nebraska	1,774,571	366,894	20.7
Nevada	2,565,382	829.675	32.3
New Hampshire	1,315,828	319.269	24.3
New Jersey	8,685,920	3,562,389	41.0
New Mexico	1,969,915	498,334	25.3
new York	19,297,729	7,166,308	37.1
North Carolina	9,061,032	365.888	4.0
North Dakota	639.715	146.153	22.8
Ohio	11,466,917	2,068,348	18.0
Oklahoma	3,617,316	175.006	4.8
Oregon	3,747,455	442.137	11.8
Pennsylvania	12,432,792	3,530,817	28.4
Rhode Island	1,057,832	629.889	59.5
South carolina	4,407,709	183.356	4.2
South Dakota	796.214	153.357	19.3
Tennessee	6,156,719	141,740	2.3
Texas	23,904,380	6,503,844	27.2
Utah	2,645,330	230,000	8.7
Vermont	621.254	118,000	19.0
Virginia	7,712,091	642.064	8.3
Washington	6,468,424	746.385	11.5
West Virginia	1,812,035	88,974	4.9
Wisconsin	5,601,640	1,650,276	29.5
Wyoming	522.830	47,119	9.0

The Catholic Church in the United States is represented by the Bishops' Conference of the United States ( "United States Conference of Catholic Bishops USCCB").

Pope Leo XIII. established an Apostolic Delegate on January 24, 1893 , which led Pope John Paul II to a nunciature on January 10, 1984 . Apostolic Nuncio has been Archbishop Christophe Pierre since April 12, 2016 .

List of bishoprics according to ecclesiastical provinces

Archbishoprics and Dioceses in the United States

Immediate dioceses:

Cases of abuse

In recent years a large number of cases of sexual abuse of children and adolescents by Catholic clergy have come to light in the United States , particularly from the 1940s and into the 1990s. The cases had not been made public for years. More than 10,000 victims had sued nationwide. The private organization BishopAccountability , founded by Catholic lay people, published a number of 3,000 individual perpetrators online after reviewing internal church documents. The problem of the abuse scandals not only cost the US Church a lot of reputation, it has also driven numerous dioceses to the brink of insolvency. The Archbishop of Boston has not been in his residence since 2004 , but in a rented apartment.

In July 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay a total of $ 660 million in compensation as an out-of-court settlement to approximately 500 plaintiffs. The Church thereby avoided a trial for the sexual abuse of children. With the agreed payment from Los Angeles, the church compensation payments add up to around two billion US dollars (1.45 billion euros). The 2006 documentary Deliver Us from Evil explores the problem based on the story of a Northern California priest who is accused of the potential sexual abuse of potentially hundreds of children.

Cardinal Bernard Francis Law , then Archbishop of Boston, resigned leadership of the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002 on charges of failure to adequately prosecute and report cases of child sexual abuse among its diocesan priests.

During a six-day trip from April 16 to 21, 2008 to the USA, Pope Benedict XVI expressed himself . “Deeply ashamed” of pedophile priests and repeatedly called on the Catholic Church in the USA to purify and renew it after the abuse scandals. In a symbolic gesture, he also met men and women who had been abused by priests as children or adolescents. At the same time, however, Benedict also praised the deep spirituality in the USA.

In the past few decades, around 1,000 cases of abuse have been reported in the state of Pennsylvania.

literature

Patrick Carey: Catholics in America: A History . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2nd ed. 2008, ISBN 978-0-7425-6233-2 .
Arnd Franke: Stewardship. The most important pastoral concept in the USA as an inspiration for the German context . Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2019, ISBN 978-3-402-13380-4 , pp. 112-121.
Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea: Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church . Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville 2007, ISBN 978-0-82651547-6 .
Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea, Virginia Goldner (Ed.): Predatory priests, silenced victims. The sexual abuse crisis and the Catholic Church . Analytic Press, Mahwah 2007.

Individual evidence

↑ Entry on Archdiocese of Baltimore on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved December 25, 2015.

^ Entry on John Carroll on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved December 25, 2015.

↑ http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html

^ "Frequently Requested Church Statistics" . Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

↑ Bishops' Conference of the United States : US Catholic Population by State ( Memento of the original of November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Millions for abuse victims - US church buys itself freely on n-tv.de.
^ Domradio: Discontent before the papal trip: US victims' association calls for the resignation of Cardinal Law
↑ 1000 new cases at zeit.de

Web links

Website of the US Bishops' Conference (English)
bishop-accountability.org (English)
Entry on the Catholic Church in the United States on .catholic-hierarchy.org (English)

[1] Entry on Archdiocese of Baltimore on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved December 25, 2015.

[2] Entry on John Carroll on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved December 25, 2015.

[3] ttp://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html

[CARA-4] "Frequently Requested Church Statistics" . Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.