Catholic Church in the United States in the context of "Mark J. Seitz"

Rome, along with Vatican City, was bombed several times during 1943 and 1944, primarily by Allied and to a smaller degree by Axis aircraft, before the city was liberated by the Allies on June 4, 1944. Pope Pius XII was initially unsuccessful in attempting to have Rome declared an open city, through negotiations with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt via Archbishop (later Cardinal) Francis Spellman. Rome was eventually declared an open city on August 14, 1943 (a day after the last Allied bombing raid) by the defending Italian forces.

The first bombing raid was on July 19, 1943, when 690 aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) flew over Rome and dropped 9,125 bombs on the city. Though the raid targeted the freight yard and steel factory in the San Lorenzo district of Rome, Allied bombs also struck the district's apartment blocks, damaging the Papal Basilica and killing 1,500 people. Pius XII, who had previously requested Roosevelt not to bomb Rome due to "its value to the whole of humanity", paid a visit to the affected regions of the district; photographs of his visit later became a symbol of anti-war sentiments in Italy. The Allied bombing raids continued throughout 1943 and extended into 1944. In the United States, while the majority of the American media supported the bombing raids, many Catholic newspapers condemned them.

Donald William Wuerl (born November 12, 1940) is an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Washington from 2006 to 2018. He previously served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle (1986 to 1987) and Bishop of Pittsburgh (1988 to 2006). Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal in 2010.

Wuerl is widely viewed as a theological moderate, and is well known in the church for his ability to forge consensus between different factions. Questions arose in 2018 of whether Wuerl had adequately dealt with allegations of sexual abuse against clergy under his jurisdiction. A 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report criticized how he handled sexual abuse cases during his time as bishop in Pittsburgh. Wuerl has denied mishandling the cases.

Infant baptism, also known as christening or paedobaptism, is a Christian sacramental practice of baptizing infants and young children. Such practice is done in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, various Protestant denominations, and also in other denominations of Christianity. The practice involves baptizing infants born to believing parents as a means of initiating them into the Christian faith. Supporters of infant baptism cite biblical references to the baptism of entire households in the New Testament, as well as Jesus' teachings on welcoming children, as justification for this approach.

In contrast, believers' baptism (credobaptism) is based on the premise that baptism should be administered only to individuals who can personally profess their faith. Those who support this view argue that baptism is a conscious act of commitment to Christianity, requiring an understanding of its significance. As a result, they maintain that only those capable of articulating their belief should participate in the sacrament. This perspective is commonly held by Anabaptists, Baptists, Pentecostals, and other evangelical groups. Proponents of believers’ baptism argue that the absence of explicit references to infant baptism in the New Testament, along with the significance of baptism as a personal commitment.

The Christian right are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation of the teachings of Christianity.

In the United States, the Christian right (otherwise known as the New Christian Right or the Religious Right) is an informal coalition which was formed around a core of conservative Evangelical Protestants and conservative Roman Catholics. The Christian right draws additional support from politically conservative mainline Protestants, Orthodox Jews, and Mormons. The movement in American politics became a dominant feature of U.S. conservatism from the late 1970s onwards. The Christian right gained powerful influence within the Republican Party during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Its influence draws from grassroots activism as well as from focus on social issues and the ability to motivate the electorate around those issues.

The American Party, known as the Native American Party before 1855 and colloquially referred to as the Know Nothing or the Know Nothing Party, was an Old Stock nativist political movement in the United States from the 1840s through the 1850s. Members of the movement were required to say "I know nothing" whenever they were asked about its specifics by outsiders, providing the group with its colloquial name.

Supporters of the Know Nothing movement believed that an alleged "Romanist" conspiracy to subvert civil and religious liberty in the U.S. was being hatched by Catholics. Therefore, they sought to politically organize native-born Protestants in defense of their traditional religious and political values. The Know Nothing movement is remembered for this theme because Protestants feared that Catholic priests and bishops would control a large bloc of voters. In most places, the ideology and influence of the Know Nothing movement lasted only one or two years before it disintegrated due to weak and inexperienced local leaders, a lack of publicly proclaimed national leaders, and a deep split over the issue of slavery. In parts of the South, the party did not emphasize anti-Catholicism as frequently as it emphasized it in the North and it stressed a neutral position on slavery, but it became the main alternative to the dominant Democratic Party.

Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1939 until his death in 1967. From 1932 to 1939, Spellman served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston. He was created a cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946.

Blase Joseph Cupich (/ˈsuːpɪtʃ/ SOO-pitch; born March 19, 1949) is an American Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Chicago since 2014. He was made a cardinal in 2016.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Cupich was ordained a priest in 1975. He was named Bishop of Rapid City by Pope John Paul II in 1998. Cupich was then named Bishop of Spokane by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. After being chosen by Pope Francis as Archbishop of Chicago, Cupich was installed there in 2014. In 2016 he was made a member the Roman Curia's Congregation for Bishops. He was appointed to the Congregation for Catholic Education in 2017.

Christianity is the predominant religion in the United States, although estimates vary among sources. According to a 2024 Gallup survey, approximately 69% of the U.S. population—about 235 million out of 340 million people—identify as Christian. A plurality of Americans identify as Protestant (45%), followed by Roman Catholics (22%). Smaller Christian groups include members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1.5%), Eastern Orthodox Christians (0.5%), and other Christian denominations (0.4%). The United States currently has the largest Christian population in the world and, more specifically, the largest Protestant population globally, comprising nearly 235 million Christians and approximately 153 million adherents of Protestant denominations. However, while the U.S. leads in absolute numbers, several other nations have a greater proportion of their populations identifying as Christian.

The Public Religion Research Institute's "2020 Census of American Religion", carried out between 2014 and 2020, showed that 70% of Americans identified as Christian during this seven-year interval. In a 2020 survey by the Pew Research Center, 65% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians. They were 75% in 2015, 70.6% in 2014, 78% in 2012, 81.6% in 2001, and 85% in 1990. About 62% of those polled claim to be members of a church congregation. The 2023-2024 Pew Religious Landscape Survey in the United States found that 40% identitied as Protestant and 19% as Catholic.