By Gina Christian
OSV News
A new survey shows young adult Catholics are the most engaged in the Latin Church in the U.S. — but the “strong” dynamic is also “fragile,” and questions of leaving the church persist.
The data also indicate the nation’s Roman Catholics, as Catholics in the Latin Church are commonly known, reflect a mix of both distrust and hope — with the faithful having greater trust in parish pastors than their bishops, and with the church at a “crossroads” in the U.S.
The results were released Nov. 4 in a report titled “Trust, Practice, and Renewal in the Catholic Church After Two Decades” by Leadership Roundtable. Established in 2005 amid the clerical abuse crisis, the nonprofit works to ensure transparency and accountability in the business operations of the Catholic Church in the U.S.
For the survey, Leadership Roundtable partnered with the market research firm John Zogby Strategies to poll 3,033 Roman Catholics in the continental United States July 10-12, with participants drawn from a national panel of some 15 million U.S. adults.
The report noted the data did not include U.S.-based members of the various Eastern Catholic churches, which together with the Latin Church comprise the universal Catholic Church.
The sample was weighted, or statistically adjusted, based on education and race to ensure it “accurately reflected the broader Catholic population,” said the report, which also noted that the survey factored in diverse backgrounds and varying levels of participation in church and liturgical life.
Responses to the 72-question survey’s queries on Mass attendance were categorized as “faithful,” (1,541 participants who attend Mass at least monthly), “occasional” (472 who said they attend a few times a year), and “disengaged” (1,021 who attend seldom or never).
‘Counterintuitive’ trend
While stressing that “the data resist binary narratives of either decline or renewal” in the church — offering instead “a more nuanced picture of an institution navigating profound transformation” — the survey identified several insights regarding levels of trust in the Catholic Church in the U.S.
Although Mass attendance has continued to drop precipitously since a 2003 survey by Leadership Roundtable’s founder, Geoffrey T. Boisi, and Zogby, the latest data showed a “counterintuitive” trend among 18- to 29-year-old Catholics polled.
Although the smallest demographic cohort among the data, “they are by far the most engaged in the Church,” said the report. “They are more likely than any other age group to attend Mass daily, weekly, or monthly, are far more likely to engage in parish activities beyond Mass, and are more likely to go to Confession, to engage in Eucharistic Adoration, to attend social events, and more.”
Among the young adult respondents, 50% reported attending Mass daily or weekly, 65% monthly and 84% at least a few times a year.
That trend marks a “reversal” from the 2003 survey, which showed Mass attendance levels increasing with age, said the survey.
At the same time, the report cautioned against making a causal connection in this regard, since it is unclear whether the switch is down to an actual resurgence among youth — or to the possibility that the disengaged youth of the 2003 survey have become the disengaged older adults of the present survey.
“But one fact is clear: Church leaders should be taking time to consider how best to cultivate engagement where and how it is present so that they can maintain it in the short-term, and build on it over time,” the report said.
The pattern found by the Leadership Roundtable report aligns with other recent research, such as a Barna Group study showing that Gen Z and Millennials — whose birth years are considered respectively to span 1997-2012 and 1981-1996 — have now become more regular churchgoers than their older counterparts.
Yet younger Catholics are also the “most likely to think about leaving the Church,” according to the report, with most (36%) saying “the Church’s position on certain issues does not align with my values.”
Another 17% said they lack “a place in the Church or my local parish,” and 15% were concerned that “the Church is in too much crisis or scandal.”
“These findings suggest that, while young adults are drawn to, and engaged in, parish life, the support among these highly-engaged young Catholics is fragile,” said the report.