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In America\u2019s celebrity-obsessed culture, the pope has become another headliner in a nation that is only 24 percent Catholic (and declining). Who is he? Is he an Italian? Is he young? Is he old? Is he female?<\/p>\n
But\u00a0behind the tabloid coverage are interesting numbers for America\u2019s famously rebel flock.<\/p>\n
U.S. Catholics have seen the fastest decline among any major religion in the last generation with 24 percent of Americans calling themselves Catholic (down from 31 percent despite a growing, largely Catholic, Hispanic population). So while American Catholics rooted for one of their own \u2013 O\u2019Malley! Dolan! \u2013 the logical choice (if not Italian) would be a Latin American or African pope where Catholic populations are booming.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be electric if the next pope were an African,\u201d wrote Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, also a practicing Catholic. \u201cOr a South American.\u201d<\/p>\n
Electric. Meet Pope Francis, aka Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina.<\/p>\n
But the modern celebrity status of the papacy (the hats, the smoky suspense \u2013 man, these guys know marketing!) belies its very conservative politics. And the new pope is a reminder of how liberal American Catholics remain.<\/p>\n