Majority of American Catholics Have Left the Church, Pew Survey Reveals

Over 50 percent of Americans raised in the Catholic Church say they've left the faith at some point in their lives, according to a Pew Research survey on religion and public life.

The data further revealed that among the 52 percent who left the Church, about six out of 10 have returned at some point.

Two-thirds of the group that left the Church now consider themselves ex-Catholics and no-longer identify with the faith.

Around 13 percent, however, still identify as Catholic, but no longer practice the religion.

For those who are still practicing, around 73 percent said they've been in the Church their entire life, and seven out of 10 said they could never imagine leaving it.

Aside from membership, Pew Research also uncovered surprising beliefs held by Catholics pertaining to families.

The survey found that a "strong majority" of Catholics said children being raised in unconventional families with unmarried parents living together, same-sex couples or single parents, is acceptable. Around 90 percent, though, preferred that children be raised with a married mother and father. Forty-three percent said it's acceptable for a gay couple to raise a child.

"Nine-in-10 U.S. Catholics say a household headed by a married mother and father is an ideal situation for bringing up children. But the survey shows that large majorities think other kinds of families — those headed by parents who are single, divorced, unmarried or gay — are OK for raising children, too," noted Pew in the analysis released just days before Pope Francis' first U.S. visit in which he'll encounter a national Catholic population largely supportive of family units not advanced or encouraged by Church teaching.

The survey also found that: "A sizable majority (85 percent) think it's acceptable for a man and a woman to live together as a couple outside of marriage, including more than half (55 percent) who say cohabitation is as good as any other living arrangement for adults. And [seven]-in-10 Catholics say married couples who opt not to have children have chosen a lifestyle that is as good as any other."

And while many Catholics hold progressive beliefs when it comes to issues involving families, the Church seems to be maintaining its traditional views, despite the change in tone from Pope Francis when it comes to divorce and homosexuality.

The Pope did, however, make changes to the Church's annulment process, loosening restrictions on Catholics who wish to remarry. The Vatican is also expected to host a meeting in October with Catholic leaders worldwide where they will analyze recommendations on family issues, including divorce and marriage.

I also cited examples of what would be considered HISTORICAL proof.

You cited two sources, neither of which would be considered historical sources. One, the New World Encyclodpedia is a different version of Wikipedia. A lot of it gives the appearance of having been written by catholics. Nothing in the article noted Peter was the founder of the church in Rome.

The Encyclopedia Britannica is not a historical document. It's an encyclopedia.

I searched the following: did Peter start the church in Rome and read the articles, Saint Peter the Apostle.

From the article, Saint Peter the Apostle

The claims that the church of Rome was founded by Peter or that he served as its first bishop are in dispute and rest on evidence that is not earlier than the middle or late 2nd century.

I cited scholarly work.

As previously noted, there is no historical proof Peter started the church in Rome.

I think those pigeons are getting the best of you again.

And I can go to my copy on the shelf to verify the accuracy of your quote. /SARC.

Or you can order a copy yourself.

Introducing the New Testament, Drane

I believe that the Christians will stick with the truth, that Peter did indeed found the Church in Rome.

Yet again the sources you cited do not affirm this. You would be more accurate if you said, "...catholics will stick with....".

BTW you are aware that he is buried in the Catacombs in Rome the same he was crucified upside down.

I am aware catholics claim he is buried in the catacombs on Rome. Though there is no conclusive proof either way as attested to by the catholic encyclopedia online...see the link below.

In the 1960s, some previously discarded debris from the excavations beneath St Peter's Basilica were re-examined, and the bones of a male person were identified. A forensic examination found them to be a male of about 61 years of age from the 1st century. This caused Pope Paul VI in 1968 to announce them most likely to be the relics of Apostle Peter.

That's a pretty big most likely by the pope.

Was Peter martyred for Christ? Yes he was.

Was he crucified upside down? Some say yes, some no. The Acts of Peter(Source: catholicencyclopediaonline)...a writing of dubious reliability (comments mine) give an account of this.

The article, Acts of Peter in Wikipedia, notes this is the first record of the tradition that Peter was crucified upside down.

But in reality, it doesn't matter where or how Peter was martyred.

What matters is that Christ was crucified for all of our sins and that He arose on the third day.

Or who sit like kids on a sandbox, saying "We're going to Heaven, and you're not"?

No church I attend states that those not members of it go to hell, as Catholicism does.

Catholics are in NO position to point fingers in that area.

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

From your very own catechism.

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336

And from your very own popes....

Pius 9, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore: “Also well known is the Catholic teaching that no one can be saved outside the Catholic Church. Eternal salvation cannot be obtained by those who oppose the authority and statements of the same Church and are stubbornly separated from the unity of the Church and also from the successor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff..”
-http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9quanto.htm

Fourth Lateran Council (1215): "There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved."

Fifth Lateran Council: Moreover, since subjection to the Roman pontiff is necessary for salvation for all Christ's faithful, as we are taught by the testimony of both sacred scripture and the holy fathers, and as is declared by the constitution of pope Boniface VIII of happy memory, also our predecessor, which begins Unam sanctam, we therefore...renew and give our approval to that constitution... Fifth Lateran CouncilSession 11, 19 December 1516,
http://www.piar.hu/councils/ecum18.htm

Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV: "One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved, in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself received from ours." — Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215) [considered infallible by some]

Therefore, if anyone says that it is not by the institution of Christ the lord himself (that is to say, by divine law) that blessed Peter should have perpetual successors in the primacy over the whole Church; or that the Roman Pontiff is not the successor of blessed Peter in this primacy: let him be anathema. — Vatican 1, Ses. 4, Cp. 1

St. Thomas Aquinas: It is also shown that to be subject to the Roman Pontiff is necessary for salvation. For Cyril says in his Thesaurus: “Therefore, brethren, if we imitate Christ so as to hear his voice remaining in the Church of Peter and so as not be puffed up by the wind of pride, lest perhaps because of our quarrelling the wily serpent drive us from paradise as once he did Eve.” And Maximus in the letter addressed to the Orientals [Greeks] says: “The Church united and established upon the rock of Peter’s confession we call according to the decree of the Savior the universal Church, wherein we must remain for the salvation of our souls and wherein loyal to his faith and confession we must obey him.” — St. Thomas Aquinas, Against the Errors of the Greeks, Pt. 2, ch. 36
http://dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraErrGraecorum.htm#b38

Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam: (Promulgated November 18, 1302) “We declare, say, define, and pronounce [ex cathedra] that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”

"If, therefore, the Greeks or others say that they are not committed to Peter and to his successors, they necessarily say that they are not of the sheep of Christ, since the Lord says that there is only one fold and one shepherd (Jn.10:16). Whoever, therefore, resists this authority, resists the command of God Himself. " — Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam (Promulgated November 18, 1302)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/b8-unam.html

Perhaps you could point me to other denominations who have it in their official statements of faith that one must be a member of their church to be saved, as Catholicism does.

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While the church in Rome was already flourishing when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans about AD 57, he greets some fifty people in Rome by name, but not Peter whom he knew. There is also no mention of Peter in Rome later during Paul's two-year stay there in Acts 28, about AD 60-62.