Catholic Bishops in the United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Fichter ◽  
Thomas P. Gaunt ◽  
Catherine Hoegeman ◽  
Paul M. Perl
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Benedict Xvi ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Church ◽  
Catholic Bishops

During the past 30 years the Catholic bishops of the United States have captured the national headlines with their statements on nuclear disarmament and economic justice, their struggles to address sexual abuse by clergy, their concerns about abortion and religious freedom, and their defense of refugees and immigrants. The nearly 200 bishops leading local dioceses, though, are a varied mix of Church leaders. In 2016 all of the bishops were surveyed with an eye to better understanding who are the bishops as individuals (their background, education, and experiences), what are their day-to-day activities, their challenges and satisfactions as Church leaders, how they manage their dioceses, and how they speak out on public issues. The data are enriched by frequent quotes and anecdotes from the interviewed bishops. During the past 25 years the Church has gone from Pope John Paul II to Benedict XVI to Pope Francis, and the Catholic Church in the United States, along with its bishops, are dramatically different. The bishops of the United States have had their leadership tested by the sex abuse scandals, the movement of Catholics from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West, and the arrival of more Catholic immigrants than they have seen in a century along with the ongoing decline in the number of priests and sisters serving the Catholic community. This book provides a unique and comprehensive view of who the bishops are, where they are from, and how they are leading the Church in the United States in the era of Pope Francis.

A Saint of Our Own

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Sprows Cummings
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Panoramic View ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Heaven And Earth ◽  
The Church ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Over Time

Canonization, the process by which the Catholic Church names saints, may be fundamentally about holiness, but it is never only about holiness. In the United States, it was often about the ways in which Catholics defined, defended, and celebrated their identities as Americans. This book traces saint-seeking in the United States from the 1880s, the decade in which U.S. Catholics nominated their first candidates for canonization, to 2015, the year Pope Francis named the twelfth American saint in the first such ceremony held on U.S. soil. It argues that U.S. Catholics’ search for a saint of their own sprung from a desire to persuade the Vatican to recognize their country’s holy heroes. But Rome was not U.S. saint-seekers only audience. For the U.S. Catholic faithful, saints served not only as mediators between heaven and earth, but also between the faith they professed and the American culture in which they lived. This panoramic view of American sanctity, focused on figures at the nexus of holiness and U.S. history, this book explores U.S. Catholics’ understanding of themselves both as members of the church and as citizens of the nation—and reveals how those identities converged, diverged, and changed over time.

Aftermath

2021 ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Spencer W. McBride
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Decision To Leave ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
The Church

This chapter describes the aftermath of the assassination of Joseph Smith. This aftermath includes mourning and a funeral in Nauvoo, debates over who should succeed Smith as the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who the Mormons should vote for in the election, and the decision to leave the United States altogether. The Mormons were contemplating leaving the United States before Smith’s murder, but the violent act seemed to make this departure the only way forward in the minds of many church leaders. They had come to realize that without significant reform, the United States was incapable of protecting them. This chapter also considers the result of the presidential election of 1844 and what became of each of the candidates in the years that followed.

A Brief History of the Sociology of Parishes in the United States

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Tricia C. Bruce
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Sociological Literature ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Good For ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
The Church

Exploring sociological literature across almost three-quarters of a century, this chapter maps the origins and trajectory of sociologists’ exploration of the parish from the 1950s to today. From its contentious start to its largely applied orientation today, the chapter highlights several eras of parish research and argues that our current lack of sociological research on Catholic parishes can be traced to the tenuous relationship between the academy and the institutional Catholic Church. The chapter concludes by asserting that parish studies can be simultaneously good for the academy and good for the church. The future of sociological studies of the parish rest upon the willingness of both the academy and the church to accept this proposition.

An Introduction to the Sixth Edition of the ERDs

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sixth Edition ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Catholic Health Care ◽  
The Church ◽  
Catholic Bishops

In July 2018, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published the sixth edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. While only part 6 of the ERDs was revised, the revisions were substantial. These revisions strengthen the role of the local bishop, provide new guidance for assessing collaborative arrangements, and introduce a new consideration for assessment beyond the principles of cooperation and theological scandal—the witness of the Church. This article provides an initial overview of the revisions and some brief commentary on their significance.

A Realignment of the Catholic Church in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-275
Author(s):  
Jonathon L. Wiggins ◽  
Mary L. Gautier ◽  
Thomas P. Gaunt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Us Census ◽  
The Catholic Church

The official, parish-identified, Catholic population in the United States over the past forty years (1980 to 2019) has grown 40 percent, from about 48 million to over 67 million. Such a hearty rate of growth might lead one to assume that the Catholic population is increasing across all parts of the country. This growth, however, has been anything but uniform. From 1980 to the present, the Catholic population in some US Census regions—mostly in the South and in the West of the country—has experienced a boom, while in others—mostly in the Northeast and Midwest—it has experienced a bust. In this article, the growth or decline in the number of Catholics in each of the four US Census regions is explored, using data from the 2020 Faith Communities Today survey as well as data submitted by Catholic dioceses. These analyses give a more nuanced portrait of the Catholic Church in the United States, shedding light on both the challenges and opportunities the US Catholic Church is experiencing in 2021.

A Little Reverse Missions: In Search of a Global Perspective in Worship

2009 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-220
Author(s):  
C. Michael Hawn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current Century ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Church

Throughout history the church has often been slow to recognize developments in the sciences and reorder its thinking about God's creation accordingly. The church in the northern world is now facing the reality that Christians in the southern hemisphere outnumber them two to one. The seeds of the gospel planted during the great mission movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have taken hold and Christianity is flourishing in many places in the south. Are Christians in the northern hemisphere ready to receive the gifts of worshiping communities through song and prayer from their southern sisters and brothers? Given the patterns of immigration to the United States, this is not an academic proposal but a reality of the twenty-first century. Congregations in the current century will need a global perspective in local communities. We dare not be as slow to respond to this reality as the church has been to scientific discoveries in the past. This article offers strategies for reciprocal mission mindedness in our worship.

Comments on “The Crisis in Church-state Relationships in the U.S.A.”

1999 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-714
Author(s):  
Francis J. Connell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The author seems to have no regard for the supernatural life and vigor of the Catholic Church. He proposes as the most necessary means of protecting the Church from grave harm in the United States something natural—the “adaptation” of a traditional Catholic doctrine to a naturalistic concept of the State. The truth is that the most effective means toward preserving the Church from harm and promoting its apostolic activity will be found in a more ardent zeal on the part of bishops and priests and in a more faithful observance of God's law by Catholics. It should not be forgotten that Christ has promised to abide with His Church and to sustain it, so that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. The author does not take this promise into consideration.

scholarly journals Experiencing Uncommon Faithfulness:

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-28
Author(s):  
Stephen Nicholson, SJ
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Black Catholics ◽  
God's People ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Church

The challenges confronting the church in the 21st century, especially that of persistent systemic racism, call for a methodological shift in ecclesiology.  This paper explores the meaning and benefits of Natalia’s Imperatori-Lee’s narrative ecclesiology within the context of race in the United States Catholic Church.  By turning to the story of God’s people, especially the silenced and oppressed, ecclesiology is empowered to challenge false histories and overturn theologies which justify oppression.  Furthermore, the work of the Holy Spirit and the responses of the faithful are made evident in lives of “uncommon faithfulness,” such as those of Black Catholics in the US.  To be guided by narrative ecclesiology today, members of the church must engage in an embodied struggle for liberation and so hear the story of God’s people anew.

The African American Denominational Tradition: The Rise of Black Denominations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Dickerson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Black People ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
African American Leadership ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Church

From the formation of the first independent African American Protestant denomination in the 1810s and 1820s to the opening decades of the 21st century, independent African American denominations have stood at the center of black religious life in the United States. Their longevity and influence have made them central to the preservation of black beliefs, practices, and rituals; have provided venues to promote movements for black freedom; and have incubated African American leadership in both the church and civic spheres. They have intertwined with every aspect of American and African American life, whether cultural, political, or economic, and they engaged the international involvement of American society and the diasporic interests of black people. Parallel assemblies composed of black ministers pastoring black congregations that remained within white denominations also emerged within the traditional white denominations, including the white Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational Protestant groups, plus the Catholic Church. Although they eschewed withdrawing from the white denominations, their extramural bodies functioned as a virtual black ecclesia, or institutional bodies, even though they remained smaller than the growing independent black denominations. Together, the black preachers and parishioners in independent black denominations and inside traditional white denominations maintained churches characterized by proud histories and long records of frontline involvements in black freedom pursuits.

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