The Roman Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination in the world, is also the largest single church in the United States, with approximately one-quarter of the population as members. Adherents tend to be more numerous in the Northeast, the Great Lakes/Midwest and the Southwest/California, with fewer members in the South and in the Plains states, though shifting economic growth has altered this pattern somewhat. Additionally large influxes of Catholic Hispanics have emigrated from Mexico and areas of Central and South America into the Southwest and other areas of the country with the total population of adherents in the United States growing over the last decades.

Early Catholic immigrants in the US faced religious persecution from the Protestant and nativist populations, though, with time, Catholic numbers afforded them a measure of security against prejudice. They built schools and initiated strong mutual support systems, including parochial schools and religious colleges. As they worked towards assimilation into US culture, tensions with Rome arose over the extent of interaction the Church might have with this rapidly modernizing culture. The Papal condemnation of this assimilation in 1890 suppressed attempts at change for nearly seventy years.

Ultimately however, the ghetto mentality of the Church in the US was fractured by the election of John XXIII as Pope in 1958 and his calling of the Second Vatican Council (1962–5), a watershed in the life of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Second Vatican Council had a dramatic effect on the lives of the faithful in the United States. Among the changes instigated by the council, three stand out. The first is the emphasis on the importance of the laity in the Church. As an increasingly affluent and educated group of believers, Catholic laity in America desired a larger role in influencing Church governance and in determining how their donations might be spent.

The second is the change in the language of the liturgy from Latin to English.

Previously, many congregants were unable to follow the Latin Tridentine liturgy and would often be occupied in practices such as praying the Rosary during the Mass. With the use of English, and with the priest now facing the people rather than with his back to them, the laity were expected to participate actively in the Mass. This change resulted in the expectation of many of the laity that they might take larger roles in the liturgy. These expectations have been fulfilled to some extent, with lay people assisting in the proclamation of the scripture and in the distribution of communion during the Mass as well as, in many parishes, acting in advisory capacities in the decision-making of the parish.

A third result of the council is the affirmation of the goodness in other faith traditions, Christian and otherwise. In the time before the council, the Church taught that salvation was available only through the Catholic Church and emphasized this point through the discipline of the parish setting with its close-knit communities. Other Christians and people of other faiths could not receive the salvation of Jesus Christ, according to Church teaching. In relation to other Christians, the council stated that the ideal for Christianity was the restoration of Christian unity rather than the return of non-Catholic Christians to the Roman Catholic Church. In relation to people of other faiths, the Council also effectively conceded the possibility of revelation outside the Christian faith, a concession unique among Christian denominations. Thus, the RCC no longer considers itself the unique path to salvation, only the pre-eminent one. This position is a remarkable turnaround for the Church and one that has led to continued tension and confusion among some of the faithful as it has called into question the centrality of the Church for community and for the faith of the laity In reaction to these changes in the selfunderstanding of the Church, groups espousing the older teachings of the Church have arisen since the council. Some groups have lobbied for the return to the Latin Tridentine Mass, others have emphasized more traditional pieties, such as the Rosary and novenas, and others have emphasized a more rigorous following of the magisterium, or teaching authority of the Church. This authority is often equated with the pronouncements of the headquarters of the Church, the Roman Curia, though traditionally it has also rested in the work of theologians.

Other movements in the Church include an increased emphasis on the social teaching of the Church, especially in regard to the rights of the poor and homeless, to the environment, to nuclear armaments and to the economy. The United States bishops have released pastoral letters addressing these issues and suggesting an appropriate, faithbased response to them. These teachings have not been without controversy, as socially and politically conservative Catholics have taken issue with most of them and publicly attacked the bishops’ position. At the same time, Pope John Paul II, with his socially progressive and theologically conservative agenda, has appointed increasing percentages of theologically conservative but socially progressive bishops in US dioceses.

Developing from the Second Vatican Council and its emphasis on personal moral decisionmaking, the heightened role of the laity has called into question the central role of the clergy and of religious men and women. Far fewer men enter seminaries and religious orders than prior to the Council, while most women’s orders have only a fraction of previous numbers. Those seminaries that do attract larger numbers of candidates often espouse a more traditional religious sensibility. Where priests, brothers and sisters once worked, now lay people do much the same work of teaching and administering parishes. Other issues with which the Church has struggled are charges of sexual abuse by the clergy the role of women and the possibility of married priests.