The Catholic Church in the United States is in a state of profound transition. A priest or layman transported through time from 1965 to 2005 would be astonished and most likely disconcerted by the dramatic changes that have taken place in the 40 years following the close of Vatican II.
Evaluating American Influence
Of course, the hierarchical and sacramental nature of the Church remains unchanged. What, however, has clearly changed are the numbers and status of laity, religious, and clergy in the mystical Body of Christ. Related to this is the altered understanding of their roles in the Church.
I am writing this article in the aftermath of what the well-known convert Fr. Richard John Neuhaus referred to as "the long Lent" that the Church in America has undergone. This refers to the painful unraveling of the revelation and past cover-up of thousands of accusations of sexual abuse of young people (some well-founded, others not) by Catholic clergy. Although brutally disillusioning to many of the lay faithful, these accusations were brought against less than 2% of Catholic clergy during this time period, and some of the cases even pre-dated the post-Vatican II era.
As a result, hundreds of Catholic priests have been dismissed from the clerical state and the lay faithful have been scandalized. Nevertheless, contrary to dire predictions both within and without the Church, the scandal has not seemed to lessen sacramental participation or even financial contributions to the 195 dioceses that compose the Church in America. Indeed, as we will see, statistics suggest that the situation in many areas of the Church is bottoming out. In fact, the Church in America may well be on the cusp of a more vibrant era in which the faithful become firmly rooted in the authentic teachings of the Second Vatican Council, as mediated through the magisterium of Pope John Paul and his able successor and close collaborator, Pope Benedict.
If the Church in the US is entering into a decades-long march into the New Evangelization, the United States' status as the only world power will lend tremendous importance to this development. Since Americans find themselves deeply divided on so many essentially moral issues — hence the well-known division between the so-called blue and red states in recent national elections — the health of the Church in America has implications for Catholics around the world.
The purpose of this article is not to compare and contrast North America with other continents; however, it is obvious that in many areas, the Church in the US compares very favorably with the imploding and apostatizing situation in Europe and the chaotic situation in Latin America. Of course, Africa and Asia are another case, as they are in full evangelical bloom. Their growth rates have been off the charts during the last century, clearly presaging that the demographic center of the Church will move east and south in the centuries to come, thus fulfilling Christ's command that the Gospel be preached to all the nations.
There are presently approximately 67 million Catholics in the US, representing 6 percent of the global Catholic population of 1.1 billion. Interestingly, the percentage of Catholics in the American population has remained rather steady in the last forty years, hovering around a quarter of the population. This is actually rather encouraging, given the gradual disintegration of traditional mainstream Protestantism and the growth in the number of those who practice no religion in any real sense. And the actual number of Catholics in the US may be many millions more, given the high level of illegal immigration of Hispanics from Latin America, the majority of whom are Mexican. The enculturation and evangelization of both the legal and illegal immigrants from Latin America will be crucial to the health of the Church in America, as this immigration trend may continue and Hispanics generally have r
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