The Catholic Church and American Government
Today certain countries are very dangerous places for people to live because of religious differences that separate them from their neighbors and even themselves. Acts of terrorism are committed almost everyday by people, strictly because of differences in religion. In 1776, the framers of the United States constitution made sure that the young country would have no predominate or official faith. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from establishing an official state religion and from preventing Americans from the free exercise of their religion. The United States may have no official religion; however that does not mean that it is not influenced by it. With so many different religious views in the world, Catholicism is interesting to learn about for many reasons including its history, hierarchy, social programs, and the experience of attending mass.
The history of Catholicism in North America started in the 1500s, with the Spanish conquest of South and Central America. During this conquest, Spain colonized areas north of Mexico, and Spanish missionaries established settlements in what are now the states of Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and California. The first Catholic settlement in New World was the colony founded at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. Catholicism became the first European religion to arrive in America, but it remained a very small percentage of the overall population for hundreds of years. "When the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, Catholics made up only one percent of the total population of the thirteen colonies, which were predominately ...