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
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
- Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau : Diocese of Fairbanks
- Archdiocese of Atlanta : Diocese of Charleston , Diocese of Charlotte , Diocese of Raleigh , Diocese of Savannah
- Archdiocese of Baltimore : Diocese of Arlington , Diocese of Richmond , Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston , Diocese of Wilmington
- Archdiocese of Boston : Diocese of Burlington , Diocese of Fall River , Diocese of Manchester , Diocese of Portland , Diocese of Springfield , Diocese of Worcester
- Archdiocese of Chicago : Diocese of Belleville , Diocese of Joliet in Illinois , Diocese of Peoria , Diocese of Rockford , Diocese of Springfield in Illinois
- Archdiocese of Cincinnati : Diocese of Cleveland , Diocese of Columbus , Diocese of Steubenville , Diocese of Toledo , Diocese of Youngstown
- Archdiocese of Denver : Diocese of Cheyenne , Diocese of Colorado Springs , Diocese of Pueblo
- Archdiocese of Detroit : Diocese of Gaylord , Diocese of Grand Rapids , Diocese of Kalamazoo , Diocese of Lansing , Diocese of Marquette , Diocese of Saginaw
- Archdiocese of Dubuque : Diocese of Davenport , Diocese of Des Moines , Diocese of Sioux City
- Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston : Diocese of Austin , Diocese of Beaumont , Diocese of Brownsville , Diocese of Corpus Christi , Diocese of Tyler , Diocese of Victoria in Texas
- Archdiocese of Hartford : Diocese of Bridgeport , Diocese of Norwich , Diocese of Providence
- Archdiocese of Indianapolis : Diocese of Evansville , Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend , Diocese of Gary , Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana
- Archdiocese of Kansas City (in Kansas): Diocese of Dodge City , Diocese of Salina , Diocese of Wichita
- Archdiocese of Los Angeles : Diocese of Fresno , Diocese of Monterey in California , Diocese of Orange in California , Diocese of San Bernardino , Diocese of San Diego
- Archdiocese of Louisville : Diocese of Covington , Diocese of Knoxville , Diocese of Lexington , Diocese of Memphis , Diocese of Nashville , Diocese of Owensboro
- Archdiocese of Miami : Diocese of Orlando , Diocese of Palm Beach , Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee , Diocese of Saint Augustine , Diocese of Saint Petersburg , Diocese of Venice
- Archdiocese of Milwaukee : Diocese of Green Bay , Diocese of La Crosse , Diocese of Madison , Diocese of Superior
- Archdiocese of Mobile : Diocese of Biloxi , Diocese of Birmingham , Diocese of Jackson
- Archdiocese of Newark : Diocese of Camden , Diocese of Metuchen , Diocese of Paterson , Diocese of Trenton
- Archdiocese of New Orleans : Diocese of Alexandria , Diocese of Baton Rouge , Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux , Diocese of Lafayette , Diocese of Lake Charles , Diocese of Shreveport
- Archdiocese of New York : Diocese of Albany , Diocese of Brooklyn , Diocese of Buffalo , Diocese of Ogdensburg , Diocese of Rochester , Diocese of Rockville Center , Diocese of Syracuse
- Archdiocese of Oklahoma City : Diocese of Little Rock , Diocese of Tulsa
- Archdiocese of Omaha : Diocese of Grand Island , Diocese of Lincoln
- Archdiocese of Philadelphia : Diocese of Allentown , Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown , Diocese of Erie , Diocese of Greensburg , Diocese of Harrisburg , Diocese of Pittsburgh , Diocese of Scranton
- Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon : Diocese of Baker , Diocese of Boise , Diocese of Great Falls-Billings , Diocese of Helena
- Archdiocese of Saint Louis : Diocese of Jefferson City , Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph , Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau
- Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis : Diocese of Bismarck , Diocese of Crookston , Diocese of Duluth , Diocese of Fargo , Diocese of New Ulm , Diocese of Rapid City , Diocese of Saint Cloud , Diocese of Sioux Falls , Diocese of Winona
- Archdiocese of San Antonio : Diocese of Amarillo , Diocese of Dallas , Diocese of El Paso , Diocese of Fort Worth , Diocese of Laredo , Diocese of Lubbock , Diocese of San Angelo
- Archdiocese of San Francisco : Diocese of Honolulu , Diocese of Las Vegas , Diocese of Oakland , Diocese of Reno , Diocese of Sacramento , Diocese of Salt Lake City , Diocese of San Jose in California , Diocese of Santa Rosa in California , Diocese of Stockton
- Archdiocese of Santa Fe : Diocese of Gallup , Diocese of Las Cruces , Diocese of Phoenix , Diocese of Tucson
- Archdiocese of Seattle : Diocese of Spokane , Diocese of Yakima
- Archdiocese of Washington : Diocese of Saint Thomas
- Archeparchy of Philadelphia : Eparchy Saint Josaphat in Parma , Eparchy Saint Nicolas of Chicago , Eparchy Stamford ( Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church )
- Archeparchy of Pittsburgh : Eparchy Parma , Eparchy Passaic , Eparchy Phoenix ( Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church )
Immediate dioceses:
- Eparchy Newton ( Melkite Greek Catholic Church )
- Eparchy Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark ( Syrian Catholic Church )
- Eparchy Our Lady of Lebanon in Los Angeles ( Syrian-Maronite Church of Antioch )
- Eparchie Saint George's in Canton ( Romanian Greek Catholic Church )
- Eparchy Saint Maron in Brooklyn ( Syrian-Maronite Church of Antioch )
- Eparchy Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego ( Chaldean Catholic Church )
- Eparchy Saint Thomas the Apostle of Chicago ( Syro-Malabar Church )
- Eparchie Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit ( Chaldean Catholic Church )
- Our Lady of Nareg Eparchy in Glendale ( Armenian Catholic Church , also includes Canada)
- Eparchy of St. Mary Queen of Peace ( Syro-Malankara Catholic Church , also includes Canada)
- US military ordinariate
- Personnel Ordinariate Kathedra Petri
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.
See also
- List of Roman Catholic Dioceses
- Encyclical Sertum laetitiae (November 1, 1939) by Pope Pius XII. on the 150th anniversary of the first installation of an American bishop
- Jean Jadot , Apostolic Delegate in the USA 1973–1980
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.
- ↑ 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)