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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Catholicism fast becoming the dominant US religion new poll shows -- As Protestant numbers decline, Catholics now come center stage

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Catholicism fast becoming the dominant US religion new poll shows -- As Protestant numbers decline, Catholics now come center stage

Posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 08:15 AM

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Catholicism is now the biggest faith group in the United States

Catholics are now the single biggest faith group in America at 22 per cent, according to the latest Pew research poll.

The news will come as a positive boost to the American bishops who have endured massive negative publicity on child abuse cases these past few years.

The influx of Hispanics has certainly helped the Catholic numbers but the church seems in remarkable shape given its problems.

The emerging Catholic power is shown most clearly in the make-up of the Supreme Court where six of the nine justices share that faith.

Compared to Ireland where the drop-off in Catholic identification has been catastrophic, the American church has been far more solid.

But it surely points to the importance of issues such as immigration reform for the Catholic church to help increase its members.

It also shows that the old Irish dominance of the church in the U.S. will soon be a thing of the past. Cardinal Timothy Dolan in New York will likely be the last Irish prelate and end an unbroken line going back well over a century as Hispanics come to dominate.

The same poll showed that the various Protestant religions have dropped from 66 per cent of all religions forty years ago to under 40 percent.

Surprisingly, the fall-off is across the board from liberal churches to born-again southern churches.
It is an amazing drop-off especially given the media sense that the evangelicals are going from strength to strength especially in the political sphere.

America in fact is becoming more Godless, with twenty per cent saying they have no organized religion. One in five are either atheist, agnostic or of no organized religion.

I have to believe that much of that number is composed of people sick of the political interventions that religious groups continue to make.

I have always had the sense that most Americans I know consider their religion a private matter, not one to pump up in the public square.

Then again, perhaps the drift away is just an inevitable reaction to modern day life where community and church bonds have been weakened.

Either way, the Pew poll makes for extraordinary reading.

All changed it seems.

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BrianO | Oct 11, 2012, 01:00 PM EDT

The socialists and media try to convince people there is no God, a Godless population is easier to control, right out of communist marxism.

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Seanmor | Oct 11, 2012, 12:54 PM EDT

Are the 10 million plus ILLEGAl alies, the vast majority of whom are Catholics, included in the 22% statictic? In the early '60s when I joined the Marine Corps -as an Irish citizen - 42% of the marines east of the Missssippi were Catholic. I'm very saddened to learn of the 66% drop in U.S. Protestants within the past 4 decades. But I often accompany my wife to srvices in her Methodist Church, where I feel much more at home than in the R.C. church across th street.

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Nicomax | Oct 11, 2012, 12:45 PM EDT

That may explain why the Catholic Bishops are so adamant against those nefarious 'papers please' laws in Arizona, Alabama, and elsewhere. The Catholic Church will soon become mostly first and second generation families, in the US, and darker-skin people in Africa and Asia. It is part of a grand demographic shift, which happens all the time.

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WoundedKnee | Oct 11, 2012, 12:45 PM EDT

The Catholic haters and baiters, such as our Protestant fundamenalist poster eiriamach, must be tearing their hair out when they see these statistics!

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BarbaraB | Oct 11, 2012, 11:53 AM EDT

I find this hard to believe. Perhaps there should be a differentiation between practicing Catholics and non-practicing. With the sex abuse scandals, the hierarchy's argument with nuns' social justice programs and the outdated stance on women priests, birth control and remarriage of divorced Catholics, the church is digging itself into oblivion. After 12 years of Catholic education, I never imagined that I would find such displeasure with the church.

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eiriamach | Oct 11, 2012, 11:49 AM EDT

Another paradox, TomSwinford, is the alliance between politically aggressive evangelical Protestants and the Catholic bishops in their anti-gay-rights and anti-contraceptives campaigns. That's one I find worrisome because the alliance represents so many churchgoers that it threatens to, and perhaps already does, portray Christianity as hostile to LGBTs' and women's equality. That's not a mission that Christians like me (and, I think, JamieLM and Hardshoe) can identify with. And it seems to drive the exodus from the churches. There are many ex-Catholics in my Episcopal church also, so Niall is wrong about the Catholic population being "solid" if "solid" means "stable." The current generation of immigrants might stay, but their children, who will have the education to understand US church politics, will not support discriminatory politics under the banner of Christianity.

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pilib04 | Oct 11, 2012, 11:49 AM EDT

Niall, the author of this "news story" and the PEW research group neglect to tell you that they massaged the statistics. In past polls, Protestant is the traditional definition: Christians who deny the universal authority of the Pope. This poll chose to separate out Protestants into two classes, denominational Protestants and non-denominational Christians. Hence, the massive drop in "Protestants." They did not disappear as Niall would suggest. The folks at PEW simply chose to re-idenntify a large segment. Non-denominational Christians are Protestants by definition. That is, Christians who do not recognize the Pope. Niall, I thought you might want to know. Slan go foill, mo chara.

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patrickesq | Oct 11, 2012, 11:27 AM EDT

The accuracy of these statistics does seem questionable. At my RC Church the number of people attending Mass has declined significantly to the point that fewer Masses are offered. Vocations to the priesthood have declined sharply over the past decades. Many older priest, if not most who are in relative good health, continue to serve because there is no one to take their place. The RC Church is losing its relevance in the real world when it refuses to let its members participate in any meaningful way in its governance or pastoral life. The stranglehold of the moribund Vatican that refuses to recognize and foster a Christianity that recognizes the full value and worth of all people, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, or marital status, is doomed for continued decline. The Church's refusal to sanction artificial birth control is emblematic of their failure to abandon outdated, unnecessary, unproductive policies and beliefs that create artificial barriers to full participation in the Life of Christ.

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jamieLM | Oct 11, 2012, 11:24 AM EDT

@jetsnoone, I'm a nurse and work with people from all churches and in several charities - Catholic ones and Catholic and non-Catholics working together under the title "Christian." Read carefully, I never said I was a member of a non-Catholic church. I'm sure your priest would be so proud of your post and the attitude you cop. You sound like the kind of person that gives Catholics/Christians a bad name.

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hardshoe83 | Oct 11, 2012, 11:23 AM EDT

This is going a bit off topic. I have a friend from Belfast who's Catholic and she says rotten things about Protestants right in front of me all the time. I don't know what to do about it. She knows me I'm Protestant and she still does it. And then she claims that we're friends.

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jetsnoone | Oct 11, 2012, 11:06 AM EDT

Jamie...don't let the door hit you in the butt.

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hardshoe83 | Oct 11, 2012, 11:00 AM EDT

Not sure how true this is. Anyway I'm a Presbyterian, and if this is true could you catholics not discriminate against us now? lol Just had to ask this. And Jamie I agree with you, I call myself a presbyterian,when people ask me what my faith is. I don't say protestant. So maybe that's why people think there's more catholics. And if the supreme court had more protestants I bet you catholics would be crying discrimination. I don't want to fight with anyone. I want to get along and just be friends. Could we do that?

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jamieLM | Oct 11, 2012, 10:38 AM EDT

Btw: One of the very large ELCA Lutheran churches in my suburb is 60% former Catholics who left over the child sex abuse scandal and disagreement with the RCC over social issues.

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CelticQueenUSA | Oct 11, 2012, 10:27 AM EDT

My Episcopal church is about 70% former catholics, so I think this is bunk.

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jamieLM | Oct 11, 2012, 10:22 AM EDT

Where I live in the Midwest, the fastest growing churches are the non-demoninational evangelical churches. They call themselves "Evangelical Christians," not Protestants. They have very large Bible study groups during the week. These churches attract former Catholics and mainstream Protestants. I don't believe, regardless of any poll, that the U.S. is becoming "more Catholic" among non-Hispanics. Many people consider labeling themselves as Protestants as out-dated, but that doesn't mean they're Catholics. Then there are all those people who attend a church, but aren't formal members whose names appear on the membership rolls. They have a more relaxed attitude about church attendance.

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