furthermore ... US doesn't really have a strong reputation as having highly religious catholic groupings, but that the most visibly religious people in US is some sort of Protestant (even if in total numbers US is the 4th largest country in terms of catholics, and Catholics are the single largest specific denomination at ~25%), and in compersion with Germany, US doesn't have the religious groupings seperated in distinct areas, on a demographic level, but you can find nearly all denominations nearly everywhere. Hence the American Catholics might well be seen as slightly suscept by the more conservative elements of the Collage
just guessing, from my limited knowledge really, so pinch of salt and all that