Is America now a Catholic country?

‘It’s like being in church’, said my teenage son. It was a bit — two bursts of prayer, a religious song, a long sermon, and a general air of community-reverence, inclusive piety. We were watching Biden’s inauguration last week, grateful for a mid-afternoon break from other screens. These are quasi-religious events — I knew that. But this time it seemed more pointedly religious than ever. Let’s get back to the true faith, after a spell of gold-plated idolatry.

And, if you knew how to spy the signs, this ceremony reflected the new man’s Roman Catholicism — a Jesuit leading the prayers, a quote from Saint Augustine, songs from an Italian-American and a Latina. Has Catholicism become a natural — or even the natural — form of American religion? Or is there still a fundamental mismatch between the two grand ideas? Does Biden represent a liberal Catholicism that has routed Protestant doubts and internalised the American idea? Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for some sweeping historical summaries.