The Decline of Catholicism in the US

Sad news to me as an admirer of Catholicism. (Not to mention someone born & bred in Boston. What would Boston be without kids going to CCD after school?)


Religion News: Catholics Lose More Faithful Than Any Other Group

In the marketplace of American faith, Catholicism is the big loser.

Catholics have lost more members to other faiths, or to no faith at all, than any other U.S. religion, according to the new survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The survey, based on interviews with 35,000 U.S. adults, found that 31 percent of Americans were raised Catholic, but only 24 percent still identify as Catholic.

Perhaps more worrisome for church leaders, while 2.6 percent of Americans converted to Catholicism, four times as many — 10.1 percent — of cradle Catholics have left for another faith or no faith at all. Roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics, the study reported.

Speaking of Boston’s Catholic roots, it’s interesting to see that an important new book on this trend–The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture by Philip F. Lawler–focuses on good old Beantown.