U.S. CATHOLIC HISTORY

This course will introduce students to the history and development of the Catholic Church in the United States beginning with the Catholic presence in the "New World" prior to the thirteen colonies, up to and including the election of the first Catholic president in 1960. The course will examine the post Vatican II church in the U.S. and what those changes meant to Catholcs then and now. Contemporary trends will be examined, including the relationship of the U.S. Church to the universal Church and Vatican, the toll of the clergy sex abuse crisis, the rise of the "Nones," the rapidly changing demographic of the U.S. Church to that which is more ethnically diverse, and a future that may look decidedly different from the past as the number of clergy and religious continue to decline.