By Abby Ohlheiser
Most Americans who were raised catholic but have since left the
cult could not envision themselves returning to it, according to a new
Pew Research Center survey examining American catholics and family
life. The survey’s findings were released Wednesday, weeks before Pope
Francis makes his first visit to the United States, and as catholic
leadership contends with dramatic demographic shifts.
Seventy-seven percent of those who were raised catholic but no longer
identify with the delusion said they could not envision themselves
eventually returning to the cult, according to the Pew survey. The
survey also examined U.S. catholics’ views on issues such as divorce,
same-sex marriage and sinful behavior, finding an openness for
non-traditional family structures.
Although catholics have long made up about a quarter of the U.S.
population, recent data has shown that percentage dropping. In 2007,
23.9 percent of Americans identified as catholic. In 2014, 20.8 percent
of Americans said the same, according to previous survey results from
Pew.
But the new survey illustrates something else about catholic life in
the United States: while the percentage of Americans who may identify
their delusion as catholicism is dropping, a much larger group of
Americans identify as catholic in some way.
In all, 45 percent of
Americans say they are either catholic, or are
connected to catholicism. That larger percentage includes “cultural
catholics” (making up nine percent of those surveyed) who are not
practicing catholics but who identify with the religion in some way; and
“ex-catholics” (also nine percent) who were formerly catholic but no
longer identify with catholicism at all. And another eight percent said
they had some other connection to catholicism, for instance by having a
catholic partner or spouse. For the purposes of the survey, Pew kept
each category mutually exclusive.
According to the survey, about half of those who were raised catholic
end up leaving at some point, while about 11 percent of those who left
have since returned.
The breakdown provides an interesting look at
the cultural reach of catholicism, beyond those who would call
themselves members of the
religion. For instance, the survey also found that 8 in 10 American
Latinos have some direct connection to catholicism, whether as a current
practicing catholic, as an ex-catholic, or otherwise.
The study also sheds some light on how catholic American attitudes on
family, sex, and marriage compare with church teaching. When asked
whether they believed the church should change its position on a variety
of issues, a very large percentage of religiously identified catholics —
76 percent — expressed a desire to see the cult allow the use of
birth control. Sixty-two percent felt that the cult should allow
priests to marry, and about the same percentage thought that the church
should allow divorced and cohabitation couples to receive communion.
Fifty-nine percent of catholics surveyed thought women should be
allowed to become priests. Meanwhile, just 46 percent of catholics
believe the cult should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian
couples.
Among those catholics who attend mass weekly, support for these
changes was lower overall. But Pew notes that even among this particular
population, two-thirds of mass-going catholics think the cult should
relax its prohibition on contraceptives.
Overall, cultural catholics were more supportive of the changes named
by the survey, while ex-catholics were more supportive of allowing
priests to marry, and for women to become priests.
Although an overwhelming majority of catholics (9 in 10) believe in
the concept of sin, they don’t seem to agree on what, precisely,
constitutes one. Fifty-seven percent of catholics think it’s a sin to
have an abortion, compared to 48 percent of the general U.S. population
who say the same. Forty-four percent think homosexual behavior is sinful
(about the same say this among the general public). And just 17 percent
of catholics believe its a sin to use contraceptives, while 21 percent
say the same of getting a divorce.
And although those percentages are higher for those who attend mass
weekly — 73 percent of weekly cult-goers say that abortion is a sin,
for instance — the numbers are still pretty low on the issue of
contraception: just 31 percent of weekly mass attendees say the use of
artificial contraception is a sin.
Despite those disagreements between U.S. catholics and cult
'teaching', the poll does not indicate that a change in that 'teaching'
would lead more catholics to “revert” to their delusion than do already.
Cultural
and ex- catholics gave a variety of answers when asked why
they decided to leave catholicism, and no consensus emerges from those
reasons that could point to any one factor driving away those who were
raised catholic from the delusion. A 2008 Pew study asked a similar
question, and found that fewer than one in four catholics said that the
rule banning priests from marrying was an important reason for leaving
catholicism. About 3 in 10 said that the cult’s 'teachings' on abortion
and remarriage were important.
Far more common, in that 2008 survey, were those who said they simply
stopped believing the cult’s overall 'teachings', or gradually drifted
away from catholicism, or said that their spiritual needs weren’t being
met.
The latest survey finds clearer answers for why “cultural
catholics”
identify with the religion in some non-religious way — 59 percent of
those who were raised catholic or have a catholic parent cite this
familial connection as the reason they are tied to the cult. Cultural
catholics without a parental connection cite a variety of reasons,
including having a catholic spouse (15 percent), a general affiliation
with christian delusions or practices (nine percent) or the idea that
their delusion is rooted in catholicism (15 percent).
The 2015 Pew survey was conducted between May 5 and June 7 among a
national sample of 5,122 adults reached on conventional cellular phones,
including 1,016 catholics. The margin of sampling error for results
among catholics is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; the error margin
is 5.5 points among the sample of 425 “cultural catholics” and among
the sample of 413 “ex-catholics.”
