Young adults defying secularism trend in Canadian Church

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A recent Cardus study says young Catholics are twice as likely as their senior counterparts to attend religious services at least once a month. | Credit: Elijah Bautista

A recent Cardus study says young Catholics are twice as likely as their senior counterparts to attend religious services at least once a month.

Reports of dwindling religious practice among Catholics in Canada may be more prevalent each year, but a different trend showing increased interest from young adults is giving hope for a possible resurgence of the Church in the near future.

A 2022 research report from Cardus titled “The Shifting Landscape of Faith in Canada,” revealed religious indicators among those who identify as Roman Catholic have overall declined since 2017. Those indicators included believing in God, reading Scripture regularly, having an experience of God in one’s life, praying regularly, and attending religious services (apart from weddings and funerals) regularly.

However, the report found an exception in younger Canadian Catholics.

“We are seeing what seems to be a bit of a revival within the Church and that goes against the old secularism thesis that as a society becomes more secularized, it becomes less religious,” said Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, director of the Faith Communities Program at Cardus.

“We live in probably one of the most secularist countries in the world and we see that a lot of young men and women are far from leaving the Church; they are actually entering into it instead.”


Bennett is adamant that the more Canada swells its secular society, the more Catholicism becomes an attractive option for young adults (roughly aged 18–34) as a form of rejection rather than an escape.

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