With nearly 65 million baptized members, Roman Catholics are the largest single denomination in the United States, and there are 1.1 billion Catholics around the globe. That makes the Catholic Church one of the most prominent and influential religious traditions in the country and the world. The pope is also a statesman, and he will meet with President Bush and address the General Assembly of the United Nations during his U.S. visit. Benedict is expected to highlight critical issues of the church’s relations with other denominations, with the Jewish community, and with Muslims and other faiths.
Benedict – who marks three years as pope on April 19 and his 81st birthday April 16, both during his American tour – is making his mark on the papacy through a number of issues and efforts.
Benedict has visited the United States five times, all while he was a cardinal, according to a Catholic News Service story about his contacts in America. He lectured in Dallas in 1984, in New York in 1988 and in Washington, D.C., in 1990. In 1991 he spoke to bishops in Dallas and in 1999 he visited San Francisco for a meeting of Vatican doctrinal officials and doctrinal officials from bishops’ conferences in North America and Oceania.
The Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released in February 2008, provides a broad new snapshot of Catholicism in America.
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