With more than 61 million Catholics in the US, could the next pope be an American?
Father John Wauck breaks down the secretive process to select the next pope and what the days look like for the cardinals involved.
Father John Wauck breaks down the secretive process to select the next pope and what the days look like for the cardinals involved.
Father John Wauck breaks down the secretive process to select the next pope and what the days look like for the cardinals involved.
Father John Wauck breaks down the secretive process to select the next pope and what the days look like for the cardinals involved.
With more than 61 million Catholics and the second-highest number of cardinals after Italy, the United States is primed for the question of whether an American pontiff is possible in the wake of Pope Francis’ death on Monday.
Francis, a Jesuit from Argentina who died in the early hours of Monday at age 88, after 12 years as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, was the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years.
The United States has 17 cardinals, 10 of whom are eligible to vote in the election of the next pope, according to the Vatican. The country with the most cardinals is Italy, which has 51, including 17 eligible to vote for the next pontiff, according to the Vatican.
The United States has 61.9 million Catholics, representing about 19% of the total population, according to the most recent U.S. Religion Census conducted in 2020 by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.
MORE | What happens next after death of Pope Francis?
What happens next after death of Pope Francis?
Even though the U.S. has one of the largest Catholic populations in the world, some experts told ABC News that the likelihood of the next pontiff coming from America is a long shot.
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group that tracks clergy child abuse cases in the Catholic Church worldwide, told ABC News that if an American were selected as pope, it could be perceived as
With more than 61 million Catholics in the US, could the next pope be an American?
