12 Facts About American Catholics

Tensions between Protestants and American Catholics continued in the 20th century, especially when a Catholic was running for president as in 1928 and 1960.

American 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.

Some American Catholics, both lay and clergy, live in a form of consecrated life, rather than in marriage.

The American Catholics nevertheless built their elementary schools, parish by parish, using very low-paid sisters as teachers.

The American Catholics Solidarity Party is a minor third party with ideas based on Catholic social teaching.

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In 1785, the estimated number of American Catholics was at 25,000; 15,800 in Maryland, 7,000 in Pennsylvania and 1,500 in New York.

European American 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 Kosciuszko.

In 1787 two American Catholics, Daniel Carroll of the Irish O'Carrolls and Irish born Thomas Fitzsimons, helped draft the new United States Constitution.

American Catholics formulated the first plans for Georgetown University and became the first American bishop in 1789.

The Vatican suspected there was too much liberalism in the American Catholics 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.

American Catholics published hundreds of books and articles, both technical and popular.

In 2011, an estimated 26 million American Catholics were "fallen-away", that is, not practicing their faith.