{"id":225220,"date":"2025-04-30T13:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T17:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=225220"},"modified":"2026-05-01T11:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:45:20","slug":"most-us-catholics-say-they-want-the-church-to-be-more-inclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2025\/04\/30\/most-us-catholics-say-they-want-the-church-to-be-more-inclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Most U.S. Catholics Say They Want the Church To Be \u2018More Inclusive\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

But there are large divides between Catholics who attend Mass weekly, and those who don\u2019t, in what they want from the church<\/h2>\n\n\n
\"Catholic
Catholic worshippers attend a New Year’s Eve Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City in 2016. (Artem Vorobiev\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
How we did this<\/summary>\n

Pew Research Center conducted this survey to better understand how U.S. Catholics view the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this report, we surveyed 1,787 Catholic respondents from Feb. 3 to 9, 2025. All of the respondents were members of the American Trends Panel, a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Surveys are conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, and other factors. Read more about the ATP\u2019s Methodology<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the questions used for this report<\/a> , along with responses<\/a>, and the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

With the death of Pope Francis, the College of Cardinals is expected to gather May 7 to choose the next head of the Catholic Church. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in early February \u2013 before the pope\u2019s hospitalization on Feb. 14 \u2013 finds that majorities of U.S. Catholics express views that differ from church teachings on issues such as birth control, marriage and the priesthood. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n