Religious Transmission: A Solution to the Church's Biggest Problem

For over fifty years, the General Social Survey has asked a large, representative sample of Americans a battery of questions, including questions about religion. These data reveal a major problem—indeed, arguably the single biggest problem—for the Catholic Church in the United States. In 1973, 84% of all those raised Catholic still identified as Catholic when surveyed as adults. In 2002, that figure was 74%. By 2022, it had dropped to 62%. More and more of those raised Catholic are leaving.

Those figures concern whether a person raised Catholic continues to check the “Catholic” box on a survey. That is a pretty low bar as a measure of Catholic commitment. Perhaps a more salient question is how many of those raised Catholic still participate in Mass every Sunday. In 1973, about 34% of all those raised Catholic were attending Mass weekly (or more often) when they were surveyed as adults. By 2002, the number had fallen to 20%. By 2022, it had plummeted to 11%. We are losing nine out of ten cradle Catholics.

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