{"id":13210,"date":"2015-09-15T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/half-of-u-s-adults-raised-catholic-have-left-the-church-at-some-point\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:19:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:19:15","slug":"half-of-u-s-adults-raised-catholic-have-left-the-church-at-some-point","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/09\/15\/half-of-u-s-adults-raised-catholic-have-left-the-church-at-some-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Half of U.S. adults raised Catholic have left the church at some point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some older American Catholics might remember a time when people thought of the Catholic Church like a family: hard to ignore and even harder to leave. But a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. Catholics<\/a> shows that at least some of these perceptions may no longer be entirely true.<\/p>\n\n

\"About<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Indeed, about half (52%) of all U.S. adults who were raised Catholic have left the church at some point in their lives.\u00a0A significant minority of them returned, but most (four-in-ten of all those raised Catholic) have not.<\/p>\n\n

Roughly two-thirds of those who have not returned (28% of all those raised Catholic) are now ex-Catholics. These are people raised in the church who no longer consider themselves Catholic in any way. We classified the remaining 13% as \u201ccultural Catholics<\/a>\u201d \u2013 those who now have no religion or are part of another religious tradition (other than Catholicism), but nevertheless still identify as Catholic in some way.<\/p>\n\n

Despite the temporary and lasting departures from the church, there still are deep reservoirs of loyalty to the institution. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of current Catholics say they have been part of the church their whole life. A similar share, seven-in-ten, also say they could never imagine leaving Catholicism, no matter what.<\/p>\n\n

Even among younger generations, there is significant loyalty to the church: About half of Catholic adults (56%) under age 30 say they can\u2019t imagine leaving the church.<\/p>\n\n

There has been speculation that the popularity of Pope Francis and the atmosphere of change around his 2-year-old papacy might inspire many former Catholics to return to the church.<\/p>\n\n

But when it comes to ex-Catholics, Francis has his work cut out for him. Only 8% say returning to the church is something they could imagine doing. More open to coming back are those raised in the church but who are now cultural Catholics: 43% say they can imagine returning to the Catholic Church someday.<\/p>\n\n

So American Catholics \u2013 both in and out of the church \u2013 are still like a family, just one where not everyone is living under the same roof.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some older American Catholics might remember a time when people thought of the Catholic Church like a family: hard to ignore and even harder to leave. But a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. Catholics shows that at least some of these perceptions may no longer be entirely true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[180,204],"bylines":[895],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13210","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-catholicism","category-comparison-of-generations","bylines-caryle-murphy","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":337,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/09\/15\/half-of-u-s-adults-raised-catholic-have-left-the-church-at-some-point\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":24364,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png?w=421&h=317&crop=1","width":421,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":24364,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":24364,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":24364,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":24364,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png?w=421&h=340&crop=1","width":421,"height":340,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":24364,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PF_15.09.02_CatholicSurvey_leftCatholicism420px.png?w=421&h=340&crop=1","width":421,"height":340,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Half of U.S. adults raised Catholic have left the church at some point","description":"Some older American Catholics might remember a time when people thought of the Catholic Church like a family: hard to ignore and even harder to leave. 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