<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome . With 70.4 million members, it is the largest religious denomination in the United States, comprising 22% of the population as of 2017 . The United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world after Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, the largest Catholic minority population, and the largest English - speaking Catholic population . The central leadership body of the Catholic Church in the United States is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops . </P> <P> The history of the Catholic Church in what is now the United States has its background in the European colonization of the Americas . The first Catholics were Spanish missionaries who came with Christopher Columbus to the New World on his second voyage in 1493 . In the 16th and 17th centuries, they established missions in what are now Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas, and later in California . French colonization in the early 18th century saw missions established in Louisiana, St. Louis, New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, the Alabamas, Natchez, Yazoo, Natchitoches, Arkansas, Illinois, and Michigan . St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565, has the oldest continuous parish in the US . In 1789 the Archdiocese of Baltimore was the first diocese established in the newly formed United States . John Carroll, whose brother Daniel was one of five men to sign both the Articles of Confederation (1778) and the United States Constitution (1787), became the first American bishop . John McCloskey became the first American cardinal in 1875 . </P>

What percent of the us population is catholic