I believe there was much fuss about JFK becoming President because he was Catholic and it was thought that he'd be taking orders from the Pope.
That was generations ago. Vatican II sort of half-killed Catholicism in the US: it upset the old (old old
old) school traditionalists by introducing too much modernity. It upset the moderns by sticking to too much tradition. American Catholicism has never recovered from that. The total number of church-participating Catholics falls, those who
do go are "cafeteria Catholics" and "cultural Catholics"* rather than truly devout, and those who actually truly deeply believe in the actual religious part of the religion either don't go to church at all or are recent converts still flush with the enthusiasm of the novelty -- which will dwindle over time, and likely not last into a second or third generation before burning out.
American Catholics are Catholic in the way that sherbet is ice cream: the vague shape and usage is the same, but it really isn't the same thing at all and if you thought it would be you will be disappointed.
*Like my mom's family, who if you ask will claim to be Catholics and believers but actually only go to church for the milestones of sacraments as coming-of-age cultural rituals rather than genuine theological beliefs. Best example: the sacrament of Confirmation is supposed to be when a Catholic reaches adulthood and as an adult chooses for themselves to "confirm" their religious beliefs in Catholicism and thence participate as an adult. In actuality, my family -- like millions of other "Catholics" in the US and elsewhere-- has reversed Confirmation into the opposite: it becomes a sort of graduation, and after it you're an adult and can decide not to go to church or be Catholic any more. All of my generation on that side of the family was made to go to church until Confirmation, as soon as we went through that it was just fine to stop being religious entirely. You've done it, you've finished religion, and now --in the vague and entirely nonsensical theology of these kinds of Catholics-- you're going to Heaven because you met the requirements and got your diploma, even if you never "use" the religion again! This is the muddled confusion of people going through the motions of following cultural constructs out of a feeling they're supposed to, not genuine religious belief in the religion.
American Catholics follow the actual official religion of Catholicism about as well and often as players follow the actual rules of Monopoly. Have you read those rules? Nobody plays that way. You're supposed to auction off unbought spaces!
