The Catholic Church in the U.S. is hemorrhaging Catholics at an increasingly alarming rate, according to a new study. The University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal recently published an article entitled “Religious Transmission: A Solution to the Church’s Biggest Problem,” which determined that nearly 90 percent of “cradle Catholics” have left the Catholic Church. Most of those ex-Catholics become religiously unaffiliated.
When Catholicism has been under threat throughout the ages, it has often been the fervor of her most faithful ... that has sustained the Church.
Between 1974 and 1990, the share of Americans raised in a Catholic household who continued to identify as Catholic as adults fluctuated between 80 percent and 85 percent. In 2006, that share fell below 75 percent for the first time and never recovered, plummeting to a mere 60 percent by 2021. “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,” the report observes. “Perhaps a more salient question is how many of those raised Catholic still participate in Mass every Sunday.”
Unfortunately, those numbers are even more dismal. In 1974, only about one third (34 percent) of those raised Catholic reported attending weekly Mass, as required by the Catholic Church. That share dropped by nearly 15 percent, down to only 20 percent by 2002 and has continued to decline since then, falling to 10 percent by 2021. In other words, nearly 90 percent of cradle Catholics no longer fulfill the most basic obligation required to practice their faith. Citing a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey, the report notes, “For every one Catholic convert, about nine or ten Catholics leave. That translates to roughly 15 million Catholics gone from the Church.”
The report itself identifies consensus, certainty, and credibility as the three chief factors in preserving the faith passed on to a child by his pa...