CATHOLIC NEWS. With the death of the Pope and the convocation to elect a new one, I thought you might be interested in a few religious facts. What are the largest Christian denominations in America? Far and away the biggest is the Roman Catholic Church with 67 million members.

A distance second is the Southern Baptist Convention, which has 16.4 million members. A distant third is the United Methodist Church at 8.2 million. The Mormons and the Church of God In Christ tie for third with 5.4 million. In fourth place, we have the National Baptist Church with 5 million members. Fifth is the Evangelical Lutheran Church with 4.9 million members. The "Separated Brethren" are running behind. It was nice of the Pope to remember us in this Last Will and Testament and even refer to us as Christians. Thanks, Vatican II.

The Roman Catholic Church is also really Roman, or at least Italian. Italy has 20 cardinals, whereas the whole continent of Africa only has 11, as does all of Asia, and the United States. All of South America, and that is a lot of Catholics, has only 21.

In case you were interested, France has 5. You have to be careful about giving them too many, as they tried (and succeeded for a time) to remove the Chair of Peter to France. They eventually surrendered, of course, and Rome recaptured the papacy.