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Nov 6, 1789. Rome. Pope Pius VI names John Carroll of Maryland the first Catholic bishop in the United States. Fourteen years earlier, Washington had been ordering his soldiers to stop burning the pope in effigy. The Revolution had changed a lot. Before the war, Catholics in the colonies were a small, often distrusted minority. Most colonies barred them from voting or holding office. Even in Maryland, founded as a haven for English Catholics, they'd lost most of their political rights. Every Nov 5, New Englanders celebrated Pope's Day by parading and burning effigies of the pope. John Carroll was born in Maryland in 1735 to a wealthy Catholic family. Since Catholic schools weren't allowed in the colonies, he was sent to Europe as a boy and trained there. He became a Jesuit priest and taught in Europe for years. When the Jesuit order was suppressed by the pope in 1773, he came home to Maryland and worked as a priest without a parish. Then the Revolution pulled him in. In 1776 Congress sent a delegation to Canada to try to win over the French-speaking Catholics there. It included Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and John's cousin, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. They asked John to come too, hoping a Catholic priest could help convince the Canadian clergy. It didn't work. The Canadian bishop had already ordered his priests to stay loyal to Britain. The mission failed. But on the way home, Franklin, who was 70 and sick, was looked after by John Carroll. They became friends. Years later, when the Vatican asked Franklin, then America's minister in Paris, for advice about who should lead the Catholic Church in the new country, he recommended Carroll. Meanwhile, the Revolution had opened doors for Catholics. They fought in the Continental Army. Catholic France was America's crucial ally. Charles Carroll signed the Declaration of Independence. And the new Constitution banned religious tests for federal office. In 1789 the American priests were allowed to elect their own bishop. They chose John Carroll almost unanimously. On Nov 6 the pope approved it. Carroll became bishop of Baltimore, the first Catholic diocese in the United States. That same year he founded the school that became Georgetown University. He later oversaw the building of the Baltimore Basilica, the first Catholic cathedral in the country. The Church he led started with a few dozen priests. Today about one in five Americans is Catholic.