Catholics who left church won’t return

BY ABBY OHLHEISER

WASHINGTON – Most Americans who were raised Catholic but have since left the church could not envision themselves returning to it, according to a new Pew Research Center survey examining American Catholics and family life.

The survey’s findings were released Wednesday, weeks before Pope Francis makes his first visit to the United States, and as Catholic leadership contends with dramatic demographic shifts.

Seventy-seven percent of those who were raised Catholic but no longer identify with the religion said they could not envision themselves eventually returning to the church, according to the Pew survey. The survey also examined U.S. Catholics’ views on issues such as divorce, same-sex marriage and sinful behavior, finding an openness for non-traditional family structures.

Although Catholics have long made up about a quarter of the U.S. population, recent data has shown that percentage dropping. In 2007, 23.9 percent of Americans identified as Catholic. In 2014, 20.8 percent of Americans said the same, according to previous survey results from Pew.

But the new survey illustrates something else about Catholic life in the United States: While the percentage of Americans who may identify their religion as Catholicism is dropping, a much larger group of Americans identify as Catholic in some way.

In all, 45 percent of Americans say they are either Catholic, or are connected to Catholicism. That larger percentage includes “Cultural Catholics” (making up 9 percent of those surveyed) who are not practicing Catholics but who identify with the religion in some way; and “ex-Catholics” (also 9 percent) who were formerly Catholic but no longer identify with Catholicism at all. And another 8 percent said they had some other connection to Catholicism, for instance by having a Catholic partner or spouse. For the purposes of the survey, Pew kept each category mutually exclusive.

According to the survey, about half of those who were raised Catholic end up leaving at some point, while about 11 percent of those who left have since returned.

The breakdown provides an interesting look at the cultural reach of Catholicism, beyond those who would call themselves members of the religion. For instance, the survey also found that eight in 10 American Latinos have some direct connection to Catholicism, whether as a current practicing Catholic, as an ex-Catholic or otherwise.

Social attitudes

The study also sheds some light on how Catholic American attitudes on family, sex and marriage compare with church teaching.

When asked whether they believed the church should change its position on a variety of issues, a very large percentage of religiously identified Catholics – 76 percent – expressed a desire to see the church allow the use of birth control. Sixty-two percent felt that the church should allow priests to marry, and about the same percentage thought that the church should allow divorced and cohabitating couples to receive communion.

Fifty-nine percent of Catholics surveyed thought women should be allowed to become priests. Meanwhile, just 46 percent of Catholics believe the church should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples.

Among those Catholics who attend Mass weekly, support for these changes was lower overall. But Pew notes that even among this particular population, two-thirds of Mass-going Catholics think the church should relax its prohibition on contraceptives.

Overall, cultural Catholics were more supportive of the changes named by the survey, while ex-Catholics were more supportive of allowing priests to marry, and for women to become priests.

Disagreement on sins

Although an overwhelming majority of Catholics (nine in 10) believe in the concept of sin, they don’t seem to agree on what, precisely, constitutes one.

Fifty-seven percent of Catholics think it’s a sin to have an abortion, compared with 48 percent of the general U.S. population who say the same. Forty-four percent think homosexual behavior is sinful (about the same say this among the general public). And just 17 percent of Catholics believe it’s a sin to use contraceptives, while 21 percent say the same of getting a divorce.

And although those percentages are higher for those who attend Mass weekly – 73 percent of weekly churchgoers say that abortion is a sin, for instance – the numbers are still pretty low on the issue of contraception: just 31 percent of weekly Mass attendees say the use of artificial contraception is a sin.

While the percentage of Americans who identify as Catholics is dropping, a much larger group identifies as Catholic in some way. A new Pew Research Center survey examines attitudes among American Catholics.

Associated Press file photo