A census of religious adherence in the U.S. that reported a 5% decline in the U.S. Catholic population associated with a specific parish suggests that some dioceses need to “catch up” with Catholics new to their areas.
“Our data indicate there are fewer than 60 million Americans associated with a specific Catholic church,” said Clifford Grammich, a research associate with the "Religious Congregation & Membership Study 2010."
The study also found that there are “more than 75 million Americans who identify themselves as Catholic. In other words, there may be more than 15 million Americans who identify themselves as Catholic but who are not associated with a specific church,” Grammich told CNA May 3.
The study aims to provide the most complete data on U.S. religious affiliation and attendance. The data for 236 religious groups were published by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. The census study was released May 1 at a press conference during the annual meeting of the Associated Church Press in Chicago.
The Cincinnati-based Glenmary Research Center is responsible for the collection of the Catholic data for Latin and Eastern-rite parishes throughout the U.S.
In 2010, the census found 58.9 million Catholics affiliated with 20,589 congregations. Since 2000, the Catholic Church showed a loss of 1,202 congregations and 3.1 million adherents, a decrease of 5%. About 19.1% of the U.S. population is affiliated with a specific Catholic parish.
The religious census asked each Catholic diocese to provide the number of registered households, registered individuals, infant baptisms, deaths and weekly Mass attendance.
While the census’ numbers come close to official Catholic figures in most dioceses, many dioceses report that a number of Catholics live in the diocese but are not affiliated with a specific parish or mission.
Grammich said some dioceses, especially those with rapid population growth, may need to “catch up” with new Catholics.
There may be 15 million self-identified Catholic Americans not affiliated with a specific church, he said. If these Catholics were a denomination, their numbers would comprise the third-largest religious body in the U.S. after the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptists, who have 20 million adherents.
“Why those persons may identify as Catholic but not with a specific church could be an important question for the Catholic Church in the United States,” he told CNA.
Some of the changes in the Catholic population surveyed since 2000 may be a result of what Grammich called “accounting changes” and differences in methodology. The new Catholic data is focused more on the church-level than in the past. This makes the Catholic religious census data more comparable to that from other religious bodies, but less comparable to Catholic data reported in the past.
These questions aside, the results show a clear decline in some regions.
More than 30 U.S. dioceses, especially those of the Northeast, are witnessing more funerals than infant baptisms. This is causing a natural decrease in the Catholic population.
The Northeast, long a Catholic bastion, still has the highest Catholic population, with 18.3 million adherents. However, the U.S. Catholic population has shifted to urban areas of the West and South.
The Catholic Church showed gains in 11 states, including Georgia, Nevada and Oregon.
“As in decades past, the total population has grown more in the South and West than in the Northeast and Midwest. So total population growth alone means there will be more Catholics (and persons of other faiths) in the South and West,” Grammich said. “Also, to the extent there has been migration from the Northeast and Midwest to other regions, particularly to the South, there has been movement from more Catholic regions to less Catholic ones, which would boost the Catholic population there.”
Los Angeles County, with 3.5 million Catholic adherents, is the United States’ most populous Catholic county. Massachusetts has passed Rhode Island as the most Catholic state, with 44.9% of the population being Catholic.
Grammich found it striking that the Catholic numbers have shifted but the number of Catholic churches has not. This means the average number of Catholics per church has increased to more than 4,000 throughout the West, with nearly 8,000 Catholics per church in California.
About 25% of U.S. adults, more than 75 million people, identify as Catholic. However, only about two-thirds of these say they attend religious services more than once a year.
Matthew Warner: What Your Parish Annual Report Should Look Like
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I am one of those Catholics who is not registered with a parish. Would I like to ‘belong’? Yes, as I am a single mother whose children have moved on, and belonging would help fill the lonliness. However, as a convert I want ‘THE REAL THING’ not a liberal church where anything goes. As a So Baptist who wanted to be Catholic, I studied and in many ways lived as a Catholic. After a two (2) hour interview, I was told ‘You are a better Catholic than most Catholics’ and was not required to go through the RCIA program. I did attend RCIA meeting in order to meet people; however the teacings were so erroneous, my spiritual insisted I report it. After a year in that church, I had to leave because it was ‘anything goes at mass.
In nearby church I found ‘no penance at confession’ and raffles after mass with the ‘ticket cage’ sitting on the altar. As a TRUE CATHOLIC, I cannot accept this slothful worship.
With donations down due to the economy, the Bishops, in addition to closing parishes, should use this current situation to follow the words of Agustin to solve the priest problem, “Get rid of the bad ones and educate the good one.” 2000 years and they still don’t have it right!!!!
All Catholics belong to a parish. They may not be registered, they may not attend, they may attend 5 other parishes in the area because they like the priest better or the music better. But, according to Canon Law, you belong to the parish defined by the boundaries in which you live, irrespective of all those other issues. And no, that is not the “old law” - it is current.
I am part of the percentage that not only goes to parish at least once a week but sometimes even adoration when I get a chance.
Due to the heterodox liturgy at my local parish I don’t really belong there so I travel about a half hour usually to another parish which is better. My personal commitment to a specific parish stopped some years ago when we were basically invited to find a new parish by our then pastor because we found altar girls uncomfortable (before the indult) - which was a problem, but the bigger reason was a nun giving homilies. . I decided then that no parish was worth the emotional attachment. Many times in the nearest parish I have avoided communion due to strangeness of it all. I don’t think many of the people at mass are actually Catholic in a believing and practicing sense because they seem to find trivialization of the liturgy and rotary club homilies just fine. Anyway, the only way I have found to survive is by not committing to these kinds of organizations. I just want to hear authentic Catholic doctrine mentioned once in a while and some hymns that are Catholic, I don’t want a band or piano or some odd cantor who does all the praying and I don’t want to applaud at the end of mass -like it is a show. I just want authentic worship with people who know to genuflect and why, I don’t want a lunchroom atmosphere, I want quiet to pray befor mass and a sense of the sacred.
Sadly we have far too many so-called Catholics ‘in hiding’ in our country who don’t want to become involved in a particular parish, etc.
For them the Church has simply become a matter of convenience. If they want something or need something, they’ll show up. Otherwise, they can’t be bothered. And of even greater concern is that too many of their children are not attending parish faith formation classes and are total strangers when it comes to the Church. Other faith traditons in the U.S. are growing by leaps and bounds. Our Church is delcining and it is so sad! Excuses, excuses, excuses are all we ever hear from these folks, if even that! We must keep them in our prayers!
I was very active in my parish until we got a new liberal priest who most recently said that he will not preach about morals as that is a political issue. Huh! He has chosen music written by an ex-priest, now living a gay lifestyle. I will no longer drive 8 miles to listen to him read his homily written by someone else. Now I drive 28 miles to listen to a priest whose homilies are in his own words, coming from his heart.
The key is to belong to the Body of Christ. Where we worship on Sunday is important, and it’s ideal to have a group of people to keep us “on track.” But I am not officially registered at either of the two parishes I attend locally, even though for the past 10 years, I’ve participated in a Wednesday night Bible study class with fellow parishioners.
As for slothful worship and liturgical ‘abuses’, I’d mention it to your pastor, first, to be sure he is aware of it; if you get nowhere, a short and respectful note to your bishop, describing what is happening is in order.
Surely there are other people in that parish that think as you do. There is power in numbers. I find that most Catholics just do not talk.
Really- I’ve teased that a pastor could take off all his clothes and streak the altar at a jam-packed Mass, and most lay people will look down and mumble to each other, “Father must need a vacation.”
It will never be brought up again. No wonder we have liturgical abuses and slothful worship. Please, speak up!!
With much sadness and some shame, I am a loyal catholic who views the management of God’s Holy Church with little faith in the clerical leadership. This view I act out each week by rarely attending Mass at my local parish. Instead, I drive thirty or one -hundred miles to worship at other parishes, which I don’t think are better managed, but have more accessible schedules.
My thirty mile each way commute entails that I endure Mass entirely in Spanish, a language I am not fluent in. I am usually the only Anglo present. This is at a parish where there were no Latinos twenty years ago and I was seen as a parish leader for many years. My longer commute is to my diosesan cathedral, for the lone afternoon Mass in English within my 100 mile travel radius. I have witnessed the disintegration of most if not all of Anglo participation in my diocese over these twenty years. The parishes have gone from 100% Anglo to 75% Latino by census, but in reality, they are rwo separate parishes operating out of each. Latino predominance has led alienation and resentment in these parishes, as clergy is seen actively involved in aiding this transformation. The result is fewer English-speaking parishioners and a shrinking Anglo attendance. Thank you, bishops!
The article misses the real point: Why do Catholics who are registered with a parish choose not to attend Mass or participate on a regular basis? One issue may be getting them to register, but a bigger issue is achieving something even remotely to regular attendance for those who are registered.
There is not sufficient glue to bind. Secularism, weak and inconsistent leadership, all contribute to lack of participation.
In this morning’s newspaper, I read our Catholic Vice President, Joe Biden, is fine with same sex marriage. So where is the outcry from Catholics that are “members” of a church? Where is the outcry from his parish priest, his bishop, and from the people of God, Catholic Americans across the country?
It is no wonder that Muslims are increasing in number, first, by birth, and secondly, you HAVE to be Muslim if you’re in a Muslim country, or face death: like Pastor Yucef Nodokani, in Iran right now, facing hanging, just for refusing to renounce Jesus and his Christian faith.
Mormons are increasing in numbers too - because most of their bishops speak out, even if *some* of their lay people disagree privately. In California it was the Mormons and the Knights of Columbus that were active in publicizing Proposition 8, the measure to keep marriage between one man and one woman. There were Catholic priests and whole Catholic parishes that worked AGAINST Prop 8, wanting same sex marriage, like Joe Biden. Where is the outcry?
It is written in the Old Testament and in the New: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” So no matter how we worship, or where, our hearts must be filled with love for Him. How can we know Him, unless we are taught?
For anyone belonging to a parish where Joe Biden would be welcomed, it’s better for them to stay at home, open their Bibles, and get to know God, for themselves. We do not need “Eucharist” and we do not need to be left at the mercy of a priest, who may or may not be a faithful shepherd- we need Jesus.
It is of the wolves in sheeps clothing (unfaithful clergy) that Jesus said, ‘On that day you will say to me: But Lord! I preached in your name…’ and I will say to you, “Depart from me, you doers of iniquity, I never knew you.”
Catholics would be wise not to follow any unfaithful clergy, and show a NO TRUST vote, by not supporting them with your money. Joe Biden has plenty, to make up for the rest of us, like Ted Kennedy, thinking he can buy his way into Heaven.
I am one of those Catholics, too. We have moved to a area that I am very disappointed in. Just about all our parishes are liberal. I cannot support the goop that I see going on here. It makes me sick.
I am new to my area and don’t like the Church I should belong to. The Mass is far to casual. The choir is a group of teenage girls that laugh at their mistakes. The priest says Mass as if it were a barbecue get together. There is NO reverence! I am looking for a parish where the sacredness of the Mass is respected!
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