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CV NEWS FEED // Weekly Mass attendance has finally returned to pre-pandemic levels across the US, according to a February report from Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
The report found that roughly 24% of Catholics were attending weekly Mass in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. From March 2020 until the pandemic’s declared end in 2023, Mass attendance registered first at around 10% and then rose to 15%.
The most recent data is from January 2025, when CARA found that Mass attendance is once again at 24%.
Aleteia reported, “This is up 1% from 2024, according to a Gallup survey, which noted a decline in the weekly worship attendance of all faith groups.”
Aleteia additionally reported that Easter and Ash Wednesday Masses had generally returned to pre-pandemic attendance levels by 2023, but Christmas Mass attendance had remained low until Christmas 2024.
While the upward trend in Mass attendance is encouraging, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, said that the trends, which mirror those he’s seeing in his own diocese, also show that about 70% of Catholics “are not actively engaged on a consistent basis.”
“It doesn’t mean they don’t go to church once in a while, or that they’re not trying to live their vocation or do great things,” he said, according to Aleteia. “But the reality is we have to, in the words of Pope Francis, become missionary disciples. We have to go out and welcome and invite and evangelize.”
