By Thomas J. Craughwell

The Church in America -- today and yesterday

Pope will encounter a complex landscape during this month's visit

No one will have to tell Pope Benedict XVI that the picture of the Catholic Church in America is complicated. On the one hand, Catholics in the United States are extremely generous to the Holy See: Year after year their contribution to the Peter's Pence collection is the largest in the world (followed by Germany and Italy).

On the other hand, weekly Mass attendance has fallen from 67 percent in 1965 to 36 percent in 2007. Nuns and Religious sisters, for generations the mainstay of Catholic schools and other institutions, reached their numerical high-water mark of 209,000 in 1965; today there are less than 68,000 nuns and sisters in America. But there is good news on that front: recently, some religious orders -- the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Tennessee, the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Michigan, the Sisters of Life in New York and Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity everywhere -- have seen a boom in vocations.

Another encouraging sign is the increasing number of unswervingly Catholic colleges, such as Thomas Aquinas College in California, Ave Maria University in Florida, Christendom College in Virginia and Wyoming Catholic College in Wyoming.

Snapshot of the American Church

The picture of the Catholic Church in America may be mixed, but it is nonetheless encouraging. Here are a few statistics:

• Catholics in the United States number more than 69.1 million, and represent 23 percent of the population.
• Approximately 26.4 million Catholics in the United States are Hispanic, 2.3 million are black and 493,615 are Native American.
• In 2006, infant baptisms totaled 953,688. There were 64,464 adult baptisms and 92,975 converts were received into the Catholic Church.
• American Catholics are served by 18,992 parishes. On average, an American parish has 3,254 members.
• There are 15 American cardinals, five of whom are not diocesan bishops, and four of whom are retired.
• Of the 431 American bishops, 268 are active.
• The Church in the United States is served by 42,271 diocesan and Religious order priests. In addition, 14,493 American men have been ordained permanent deacons and 5,180 men are enrolled as seminarians.

There are 67,773 nuns and sisters in America, and 5,252 brothers.

America's 6,511Catholic elementary schools and 1,354 Catholic high schools educate more than 2.5 million students.

More than 4.1 million public school students receive religious instruction, usually at their local parish.

The Church operates 82 schools for handicapped people, and 231 American colleges and universities are affiliated with the Catholic Church.

There are 573 Catholic hospitals and medical centers in the United States, plus 989 residences for the care of children, and 1,517 facilities for specialized care.

In addition to medical facilities,1,673 agencies and institutions affiliated with Catholic Charities assist more than 7.4 million people annually.

Source: Based on data collected by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2006.

Did you know . . .?

Technically, America's first bishop was Thorer, Archbishop of Drontheim. In 1206, Pope Innocent III gave Thorer spiritual authority over all Scandinavian territory, including Vinland, the Norse name for North America.

The first Catholic martyr in America wasFather Juan de Padilla, who tried to establish a mission among the Plains Indians. His flock killed him in 1542.

In 1789, when Pope Pius VI named John Carroll the first bishop in America, there were approximately 24,500 Catholics in the country served by 24 priests. There were no nuns, no Catholic schools, no seminaries, no Catholic charitable institutions. The only parish churches were in Philadelphia -- St. Joseph's and St. Mary's. Catholics elsewhere attended Mass in private or mission chapels, assuming they were lucky enough to live near one.

Bishop Carroll's diocese covered the entire country -- from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River, from Maine to the Florida border.

Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton and her Sisters of Charity opened the first parochial school in America on Feb. 22, 1810. On the first day of class, three children from Emmitsburg, Md., showed up.

Although they were eager to explore the new Louisiana Territory, on May 21, 1804, Lewis and Clark delayed their departure so about 20 of their men could go to Mass one last time in the mission church in St. Charles, Mo.

The first American cardinal was John McCloskey, archbishop of New York. He received the honor from Blessed Pius IX in 1875.

In 1904, Archbishop James Gibbons of Baltimore became the first American cardinal to vote in a papal conclave. In spite of the vast distance involved, his ship managed to get the cardinal to Rome just in time for the election. The conclave's choice was the Patriarch of Venice, Giuseppe Sarto, better known as St. Pius X.

Thomas J. Craughwell is the author of "Stealing Lincoln's Body" (Harvard University Press, $24.95).