One defining trait for Catholicism in the United States is that it's just so remarkably, almost unimaginably big and diverse. There are roughly 70 million Catholics in America, in every nook and cranny of the country, represented in virtually every ethnic group, social class, and affinity community America has ever drawn or spawned.
As a result, it's often remarkably difficult to talk about the “Catholic” experience in a uniform way, since there are multiple takes and reactions for different kinds of Catholics.
Still, one thing that can be said with some certainty is that precisely because Catholics are such an important presence in American life, there's virtually nothing that ever happens in the country that doesn't have some sort of Catholic angle, and 2016 was no exception.
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