Roman Catholicism in the United States
The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church forms the largest Christian denomination in the United States. As of 2003 the United States had over 65.2 million Catholics, approximately 23% of the population. This total exceeds by about four times the size of the next largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention.
No primate for Catholics exists in the United States. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, the first diocese established in the country, received Prerogative of Place in the 1850s, which confers to its archbishop a subset of the leadership responsibilities granted to primates in other countries.
Statistics
Over 19,000 parishes exist in 195 dioceses or archdioceses:
- 32 Latin Catholic Archdioceses
- 146 Latin Catholic Dioceses
- 2 Eastern Catholic Archdioceses or Archeparchies
- 15 Eastern Catholic Dioceses or Eparchies
The Church has over 30,000 diocesan priests, and over 15,000 priests vowed to a specific order; also over 30,000 lay ministers, 13,000 deacons, 75,000 sisters, and 5600 brothers.
150,000 Catholic school teachers operate in the U.S., teaching 2.7 million elementary and high school students.
History
Roman Catholicism first came to the territories now forming the United States with the Spanish explorers and settlers in present-day Florida (1513 - ) and the south-west. The influence of the California missions (1769 and onwards) forms a lasting memorial to part of this heritage.
Anglophone Catholicism received a boost with the settling of Maryland (1634): this colony offered a rare example of Catholic-oriented religious toleration in a fairly intolerant age and amongst other English "plantations" 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.)
Subsequent mass-immigration -- especially of Catholics from Ireland, from southern Europe (Italy, Portugal), from Poland, from the Philippines and from Latin America -- has impacted the flavor of Catholicism in the United States.
(Note figures such as Isaac Hecker.)
Dioceses
The following list details the dioceses in the United States. Archdioceses appear with the symbol (+) after their name.
- Alabama: Birmingham, Mobile (+)
- Alaska: Anchorage (+), Fairbanks, Juneau
- Arizona: Byzantine Eparchy of Van Nuys for the Ruthenians, Phoenix, Tucson
- Arkansas: Little Rock
- California: Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles for Maronites, Fresno, Los Angeles (+), Monterey, Oakland, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco (+), San Jose, Santa Rosa, Stockton
- Colorado: Denver (+), Colorado Springs, Pueblo
- Connecticut: Bridgeport, Hartford (+), Norwich, Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of Stamford
- Delaware: Wilmington
- Florida: Miami (+), Orlando, Palm Beach, Pensacola-Tallahassee, Saint Augustine, Saint Petersburg, Venice
- Georgia: Atlanta (+), Savannah
- Hawaii: Honolulu
- Idaho: Boise
- Illinois: Belleville, Chicago (+), Eparchy of St. Thomas Syro-Malabar, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, St. Nicholas in Chicago for Ukrainians, Springfield
- Indiana: Evansville, Fort Wayne-South Bend, Gary, Indianapolis (+), Lafayette in Indiana
- Iowa: Davenport, Archdiocese of Dubuque (+), Des Moines, Sioux City
- Kansas: Dodge City, Kansas City in Kansas (+), Salina, Wichita
- Kentucky: Covington, Knoxville, Lexington, Louisville (+), Owensboro
- Louisiana: Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Houma-Thibodaux, Lafayette, Lake Charles, New Orleans (+), Shreveport
- Maine: Portland in Maine
- Maryland: Baltimore (+)
- Massachusetts: Boston (+), Fall River, Newton , Springfield in Massachusetts, Worcester
- Michigan: Detroit (+), Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, Gaylord, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marquette, Saginaw
- Minnesota: Crookston, Duluth, New Ulm, Saint Cloud, Saint Paul and Minneapolis (+), Winona
- Mississippi: Biloxi, Jackson
- Missouri: Jefferson City, Kansas City-Saint Joseph, Springfield-Cape Girardeau, St. Louis (+)
- Montana: Great Falls-Billings, Helena
- Nebraska: Grand Island, Lincoln, Omaha (+)
- Nevada: Las Vegas, Reno
- New Hampshire: Manchester
- New Jersey: Camden, Metuchen, Newark (+), Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark of the Syrians, Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic of the Ruthenians, Paterson, Trenton
- New Mexico: Santa Fe (+), Gallup, Las Cruces
- New York: Albany, Apostolic Exarchate of Armenian Catholics, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Lithuanian Catholics outside Lithuania, New York (+), Ogdensburg, Rochester, Rockville Centre, St. Maron of Brooklyn for the Maronites, Syracuse
- North Carolina: Charlotte, Raleigh
- North Dakota: Bismarck, Fargo
- Ohio: Byzantine Eparchy of Parma, Cincinnati (+), Cleveland, Columbus, Romanian Eparchy of St. George in Canton, Steubenville, Toledo, Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of St. Josaphat in Parma, Youngstown
- Oklahoma: Oklahoma City (+), Tulsa
- Oregon: Baker, Portland in Oregon (+)
- Pennsylvania: Allentown, Altoona-Johnstown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia (+), Philadelphia for Ukrainians, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Byzantine Rite, Scranton
- Rhode Island: Providence
- South Carolina: Charleston
- South Dakota: Rapid City, Sioux Falls
- Tennessee: Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville
- Texas: Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Galveston-Houston, Laredo, Lubbock, San Angelo, San Antonio (+), Tyler, Victoria
- Utah: Salt Lake City
- Vermont: Burlington
- Virginia: Arlington, Richmond
- Washington: Seattle (+), Spokane, Yakima
- West Virginia: Wheeling-Charleston
- Wisconsin: Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee (+), Superior
- Wyoming: Cheyenne
U.S. dioceses also include the following:
- District of Columbia: Military Services (+), Washington (+)
- Puerto Rico: Arecibo, Caguas, Mayaguez, Ponce, San Juan (+)
- Virgin Islands: St. Thomas Virgin Islands
