Topic - U.S. Catholic Church

In the United States, the Catholic Church is the largest single Christian denomination and the second-largest religious tradition after Protestantism. The United States has the fourth-largest Catholic population in the world, following Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines. Catholicism has had a significant cultural, social, and institutional presence in the United States, reflected in its parishes, schools, universities, hospitals, charitable organizations, and participation in public life. - Source: Wikipedia

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In this Nov. 13, 2013, photo, a photo of Rev. Robert Brennan, right, is displayed during a news conference in Philadelphia. Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia charged Brennan, a former Roman Catholic priest with lying to the FBI about whether he knew the accuser and his family. Pennsylvania's high court on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, dealt a blow to victims of child sexual abuse, throwing out a lawsuit by a woman whose lower court legal victory had given hope to others with similarly outdated claims who'd sued in the wake of a landmark report that documented decades of child molestation within the Catholic church in Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) **FILE**

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In this April 24, 2002, file photo, Cardinal James Francis Stafford, left, Pontifical Council for the Laity at the Vatican, Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick of Washington, D.C., center, and United States Catholic Bishops' Conference President Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., attend a news conference at the Vatican concluding a two-day meeting between Pope John Paul II and U.S. cardinals at the Vatican. After an extraordinary meeting sparked by a sex abuse scandal, American Roman Catholic leaders agreed to make it easier to remove priests guilty of sexually abusing minors — but they stopped short of a zero-tolerance policy to dismiss all abusive priests. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, File)

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Bishops discussed gun control at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops annual general assembly in Baltimore. They were divided over specific congressional actions. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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Associated Press

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Robert Hoatson, of West Orange, N.J., holds protest signs outside of a hotel hosting the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

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Pope Francis holds his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

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