Survey of U.S Catholics

Sponsored by the National Catholic Reporter

The National Catholic Reporter (NCR) has used the Gallup Organization to conduct four surveys on American Catholics over the past 18 years, in six-year intervals, always in the weeks immediately following Easter. This 18-year time period has enabled NCR to track trends of change as well as areas of relative stability in the beliefs, practices and attitudes of American Catholics. In the 2005 surveys, responses from the Millennial Generations (those 18-25) were examined in light of the overall responses. Here are a few highlights from some of the reports that appear.

On Catholic Identity

"These represent the attitudes of American Catholics, whether young or old, theologically trained or not. The findings here are similar to the findings of earlier studies except that in past studies the sacraments were usually in first place ahead of helping the poor (or charity toward the poor—depending partly on the wording of the questions). Here helping the poor and belief in the Resurrection came out ahead. Nevertheless, we consider it noteworthy that helping the poor is held in such central importance by American Catholics. It is also noteworthy, by contrast, that most American Catholics consider the teachings on a celibate priesthood, the death penalty, abortion and same-sex marriage as more optional than essential. From this overall series we conclude that Catholics distinguish basic creedal beliefs such as Jesus’ resurrection and the nature of the sacraments from specific moral teachings about sexuality or the death penalty—they see the latter as less than central to their Catholicity." Read more...

On Generational Differences

"On the core elements of the creed, there is broad agreement across the generations. Catholics of all ages are also in agreement on their perception of the proper role of the laity in a changing church. The growing shortage of priests and the new racial and ethnic groups replacing old have found the laity in broad and general agreement about what ought to be done to address the changing conditions of parish life. The differences across generations occur over the level of commitment to the church and on moral teachings, especially in the areas of sexuality and gender. The changing level of commitment may itself be a function of the ways church leaders have or have not responded to the events that have led to what Peter Steinfels has called “a people adrift.” " Read more...

On Assumptions About Young Catholics

"To see how widespread it is in today’s church, we asked American Catholics to agree or disagree with the following statement: “You often feel that you cannot explain your faith to others.” While this item is only one of many possible indicators of illiteracy, the responses are instructive.

College graduates (42 percent), married Catholics (45 percent), registered parishioners (46 percent), and Catholics who attend Mass two to three times a month (41 percent) are least likely to say they cannot explain their faith to others. There are no important differences between males and females, those who pray daily and those who seldom if ever pray, regions of the country, or Catholics with no Catholic schooling and those with at least some.

But are Millennial or post-Vatican II Catholics any more likely than Vatican II or pre-Vatican II to say they have difficulty explaining their faith to others? The answer is no. Religious illiteracy is highest among pre-Vatican II Catholics, 59 percent of whom say they cannot explain the faith to others. Forty-nine percent of the Vatican II generation, 44 percent of post-Vatican II Catholics, and 47 percent of Millennial's feel that way. The generational differences on this item are larger than the other demographic differences we have examined. They also do not support the assumption that religious illiteracy is higher among young Catholics than older Catholics. If anything, it is older, not younger, Catholics who have the hardest time explaining their faith to others." Read more...