Among U.S. Latinos, Catholicism Continues to Decline but Is Still the Largest Faith

Pew Research Center ^ | 4/13/23 | Jens Manuel Krogstad, Joshua Alvorado and Besheer Mohamed

[marshmallow]

Share of Latinos who are religiously unaffiliated continues to grow

Catholics remain the largest religious group among Latinos in the United States, even as their share among Latino adults has steadily declined over the past decade, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center surveys. By contrast, the share of Latinos who identify as Protestants – including evangelical Protestants – has been relatively stable, while the percentage who are religiously unaffiliated has grown substantially over the same period.

As of 2022, 43% of Hispanic adults identify as Catholic, down from 67% in 2010. Even so, Latinos remain about twice as likely as U.S. adults overall to identify as Catholic, and considerably less likely to be Protestant. Meanwhile, the share of Latinos who are religiously unaffiliated (describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”) now stands at 30%, up from 10% in 2010 and from 18% a decade ago in 2013. The share of Latinos who are religiously unaffiliated is on par with U.S. adults overall.

The demographic forces shaping the nation’s Latino population also have impacted religious affiliation trends. Young people born in the U.S. – not immigrants – have driven Latino population growth since the 2000s. Among U.S. Latinos ages 18 to 29, 79% were born in the United States.1 About half (49%) of Latinos in this age group now identify as religiously unaffiliated. By contrast, only about one-in-five Latinos ages 50 and older are unaffiliated; most of these older Latinos (56%) were born outside the U.S.2 Overall, 52% of Latino immigrants identify as Catholic and 21% are unaffiliated. U.S.-born Latinos are less likely to be Catholic (36%) and more likely to be unaffiliated (39%), according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of Latino adults.

Protestants are the second-largest faith group after Catholics, accounting........

[arthurus]

As Catholicism abandons principles and doctrine believers will feel there is no more Church and will look elsewhere. When the Catholic Church lurches to the left of the Church of England, why bother any more? It is just another (pseudo) Protestant church.

[Destroyer Sailor]

Greek Orthodox Churches offer an alternative. The Pope is just another archbishop to them.

[chopperk]

Vatican II initiated the decline and it will get worse.

[Bayard]

Sending kids to the woke public school system and getting Latinxed.

[fidelis]

As Catholicism abandons principles and doctrine believers will feel there is no more Church and will look elsewhere.

According to the article, they are not looking elsewhere, since Protestant numbers are remaining stable. Hispanics are simply becoming secular like the rest of society. Both the Catholic Church in the West and Protestantism are becoming less attractive to everyone as they compromise more and more and are becoming indistinguishable from society as a whole.

[cowboyusa]

What they won’t say is that the Pentecostal Latin American Church continues to grow.

[arthurus]

My daughter married into Greek Orthodox. Her family is very religious. If the Vatican continues to fall apart I may have to consider that option. I have never been close enough to attend a Traditional Mass but have several Eastern Rite Catholic churches including St Michael the Archangel in St Petersburg, for a Ukrainian High Mass 30 years ago. Much more satisfying than what the Latin rite has become. No altar girls. No dancing girls. Ad orientam. No foolishness. The homilies were more traditional, not unicorns and roses like the Catholic masses around here had become even then.

[arthurus]

Secular is pretty elsewhere.

[DLfromthedesert]

I agree. V2 took all of the heart and soul out of the church. The Mass became sterile and lost any sense of mysticism.

[fidelis]

Secular is pretty much nowhere in particular, just melting into the general godless population.

[edhawk]

Eat meat on Friday and go to hell, kill the unborn, fine.

[MurphsLaw]

Sorry don't remember the 1950s as be so glorious.
Though my Grandmother was the most Saintly person I have ever known...
My every-day Mass-attending, Pre-V2 devout Grandfather on the other hand,
was an SOB 'til the day he died.

Obviously that "Heart and Soul" of the Mass was just not that impacting on -
or for him. I'm sure he was no jus a one-off.

If it's "mysticism" you need- go see a magic show in vegas.
Heart & Soul?, listen to Billy V. or Aretha...
BUT If you want Christ-who is really present on every Altar- at every Mass- regardless
Go to the Eucharist, with humility.

Catholics need to .stop. making excuses -
why they can't the Very Best Christians - Christ wants us to be.
God told someone once, to "walk before me, and be Blameless..."
Not to look for blame, wherever one can...

[ebb tide]

My every-day Mass-attending, Pre-V2 devout Grandfather on the other hand, was an SOB 'til the day he died.

True to form, you'll find any excuse to trash the TLM.

A true Modernist, Murph.

[ebb tide]

Catholics need to .stop. making excuses

You're the one making excuses with your incessant promotion of your "Hell is Empty", "Christ is only the priveleged way" Bishop Boobie Barron.