CV NEWS FEED // Pew Research Center recently published an article about trends in Mass attendance, abortion support, and the politics of United States citizens who identify as Catholic.
Pew published the April 12 article, “9 facts about U.S. Catholics,” using surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023. According to the article, roughly 52 million Americans, or about 20% of the population, identify as Catholic. Approximately 58% of all U.S. Catholics are aged 50 years old or older.
The article also highlighted statistics about Mass attendance, daily prayer, and the importance of religion for U.S. Catholics.
Approximately 28% of all U.S. Catholics said they attend Mass at least once a week or more, Pew reported, adding: “Larger shares of Catholics say they pray on a daily basis (52%) and say religion is very important in their life (46%).”
When surveyed on political affiliations, 52% of U.S. Catholics identified as or leaned Republican, while 44% identified as or leaned Democrat. The article noted that in the 2020 presidential election, who Catholics voted for was almost an even split. Approximately 49% of the U.S. Catholics voted for Donald Trump, while 50% voted for Joe Biden.
These political affiliations tended to align with the Catholics’ stances on abortion, the article noted. The Pew article did not establish statistical connection between Mass-attending Catholics versus non-attending, and their political preferences.
“While the Catholic Church opposes abortion, about six-in-ten Catholics say abortion should be legal,” Pew reported:
This includes 39% who say it should be legal in most cases and 22% who say it should be legal in all cases. Roughly four in ten Catholics say abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all (11%) cases.
…Among Catholic Democrats, 78% say abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Among Catholic Republicans, 43% say this.
Catholic Democrats are a little less likely than non-Catholic Democrats to say abortion should be legal in most or all cases (78% vs. 86%).
Following the article’s publication, a Catholic priest on X (formerly known as Twitter) pointed out that the surveys include large numbers of self-identifying Catholics who do not regularly practice the Faith. Polling Catholics who regularly attend Mass may have yielded different results.
Fr. Matthew Schnieder highlighted the article on his X account, suggesting future polling focus more on Catholics who regularly go to Mass and practice the Catholic Faith. Fr. Schnieder is a professor of bioethics and theology at Belmont Abbey College.
“Given that Catholicism is a ‘sticky’ identity where people who have neither practiced nor believed for decades still identify, I think we should focus more on polls of active Catholics more than self-identifying Catholics,” wrote Fr. Schnieder on April 13.
