The Catholic Bishops locked down the Churches before they were ordered by the government. Most Catholic Churches still have crazy restrictions - masks - tickets - every other pew is blocked off.
Families who left will not be back.
Since the sex scandals came to light, Catholics have let lawyers determine policy for their churches.
Meanwhile, attendance at parishes that offer the pre-1970s Latin Mass went through the roof. They're not as persnickity about sheep masks.
From the pollsters:
continued decline seems inevitable, given the much lower levels of religiosity and church membership among younger versus older generations
At the same time, enthusiasm for the Latin Mass has been booming among college-age Catholics for years. Creating converts and reverts. All around the country, and in Western Europe. They've been marrying young, and having lots and lots of kids.
I would guess something parallel is happening among young Evangelicals.
Guess who will be the growing demographic bulge over the next generations--since wokester jokesters don't believe in normal reproduction.
On paper I’m still a member of my protestant church. A few years back the long time minister retired. He was a liberal, but it never got into his sermons. You cold even had a respectful conversation about politics.
They went thru a few temporary ministers before the new permanent one. All of a sudden the FB page is filled with BLM, StopAsianHate, etc. type posts, with links to Vox, The Atlantic, etc.
Like you said, I just left and don’t see myself going back.
Despite the state permitting in-person worship since Jun 2020 ish, they resumed for a while and stopped in mid-Dec and plan to resume mid-late April. However, no call and response or singing permitted. Also, no loitering or socialization outside after the service ends. Just go home and join the Zoom social hour.
They have been struggling for years. Back in the mid-late 2000s they had two services, approx 40 for the short and to the point early service and 100-125 for the longer family service, with ~30 kids for Sunday school. They had 10-25 new members from HS students joining and 3-8 new families join 3-4 times a year. In 2019 they had 4 new HS confirmaands and 5 new family’s join. Now the have once service with maybe 50-75 people on a good day.
They have to be struggling as they spent millions in renovations/expansion after a fire several years back and haven’t come close to utilizing that new space.