I’ve got good news and bad news (but mostly bad news) about the future of religion in the United States based on a recent Gallup poll on religious practice.
First the good news: 30% of all US adults and 33 % of all US Catholic adults say that they attend church on most Sundays. That’s actually better than I had thought. The bad news: This is a 12% decline from 2000. Even worse news: Of all major religions groups, Catholics have had the largest drop in attendance (12%). And really bad news: 35% of all young adults (18-29 years old) claim to have no religious preference. Only 22% of young adults attend religious services regularly, 8 points below the average for all US adults. The future will be worse than the present, if current trends continue.
It is hard for a priest to feel successful these days. During my 33 years as a priest, I have seen firsthand this decline, not only in my ministry, but in my own family, among my nieces and nephews.
Some console themselves with wishful thinking, “they’ll be back some day, perhaps when they have their own children”. A two year study of US Catholic young adults released in 2018 by Saint Mary’s Press was titled, “Going, Going, Gone”. The name says it all! In that study, pre Covid (Covid made it all worse!), of young adults raised as Catholics, 35% reported no religious affiliation and 9% left the Catholic Church for other Christian denominations. 44% of all young adults raised as Catholics no longer call themselves Catholic!
These sociological surveys confirm what we already know, that many Americans are turning away from religion, especially young adults, and that many people raised as Catholic no longer attend Mass.
I have been associated, directly and indirectly, with Saint John Church since my ordination in 1991. Saint John’s is not unique; we too have seen decline in daily and weekly Mass attendance. But I have noticed, and our attendance counts bear this out, that Mass attendance is increasing since the end of Covid restrictions.
And the really good news at Saint John’s is that 25% to 33% of our Sunday congregation are young adults, people in their 20s and 30s. When I tell this to other priests, they are amazed! Many Catholics choose not to marry in the Church, but our 75 or so Catholic weddings each year is a ministry of hope for the future of the Catholic Church.
Saint John’s is an attractive community for young adults. As we prepare for Pentecost when the Church was born, let’s remember that the Holy Spirit is still with the Church. The Church needs every one of us to be a missionary disciple. The world and the church of 50 years ago is never coming back. But in our increasingly secular and skeptical age, we are called by God to be hopeful and loving witnesses to God’s relevance.
