Posted on 08/17/2025 12:13:10 PM PDT by ebb tide
The Catholic Church in the U.S. is hemorrhaging Catholics at an increasingly alarming rate, according to a new study. The University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal recently published an article entitled “Religious Transmission: A Solution to the Church’s Biggest Problem,” which determined that nearly 90 percent of “cradle Catholics” have left the Catholic Church. Most of those ex-Catholics become religiously unaffiliated.
When Catholicism has been under threat throughout the ages, it has often been the fervor of her most faithful … that has sustained the Church.
Between 1974 and 1990, the share of Americans raised in a Catholic household who continued to identify as Catholic as adults fluctuated between 80 percent and 85 percent. In 2006, that share fell below 75 percent for the first time and never recovered, plummeting to a mere 60 percent by 2021. “Those figures concern whether a person raised Catholic continues to check the ‘Catholic’ box on a survey. That is a pretty low bar as a measure of Catholic commitment,” the report observes. “Perhaps a more salient question is how many of those raised Catholic still participate in Mass every Sunday.”
Unfortunately, those numbers are even more dismal. In 1974, only about one third (34 percent) of those raised Catholic reported attending weekly Mass, as required by the Catholic Church. That share dropped by nearly 15 percent, down to only 20 percent by 2002 and has continued to decline since then, falling to 10 percent by 2021. In other words, nearly 90 percent of cradle Catholics no longer fulfill the most basic obligation required to practice their faith.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Ping
Grim, but incomplete as it fails to reference the noted increase in young Catholics in the last few years
Last time I was at mass they asked us to pray for “a path to citizenship” for illegals. I got up and walked out.
Execrable preaching.
Piety and teaching that is Pelagian in effect.
Abysmal ignorance of Pastoral psychology among the clergy.
Being a cradle Catholic is no guarantee that one has heard the Gospel. Preaching therefore must he evangelical.
How many sermons end with let us do THIS and avoid THAT but with no word on how a sinner like me is supposed to find the ability to obey these admonitions. It would be ludicrous if it weren't so outrageous.
Why? You might want to consider the effect that a homosexual, agnostic hierarchy is having on rational, decent people.
Vatican II, Pope Frankie.
Divorce. Also COVID, when they told us it was ok to just watch Mass via streaming.
Homos and liberals are taking over the Church. Some Sems have been shut down.
Why are you in hell?
Because pope francis.
All the saints since Jesus’ resurrection, and you are in hell because you finally followed one catholic, an idiot, into hell?
Why do you hate America?
Because they elected Bill Clinton, TWICE!
What about all the far greater Americans God bleed you with?
F them.
Why are you retarded?
Follow the Saints of your choice that God provided you. Follow what they did. Likely then went yo Latin mass but Mother Theresa likely didn’t. Follow their example. Don’t follow an idiot. God permits them as examples to NOT follow.
Follow the hood catholics, fon’t even see the bad ones: remSin thankful to God!
Go yo confession: start bring a good catholic. For the greater glory of God.
I am retarded for You.
For your soul.
For God.
My weakness is His strength.
My strength leads me to sin.
Every. Single. Time.
Our parish Sunday afternoon Mass is always full of 20 to 30-something men and women. They crave what, sadly, many of the wayward cradle Catholics either don’t appreciate or respect: tradition, ritual, and piety.
That said, some of the most devout Catholics I know are cradle-Catholics, many of whom strayed then came home later in life.
God provides.
8:30am Mass was packed today in Macon, GA.
Not gray-hair folks like me but an amazing amount of 20-30yr olds.
Suppression of the Tridentine Mass. I will never attend a Novus Ordo debacle because I believe it to be sacrilegious. And since the closest Latin Mass is 110 miles from home, I decided to participate in the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom at a nearby Greek Orthodox church. I’m confident the Greeks will NOT be playing games with that Liturgy any time soon!
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