Source link : https://bq3anews.com/even-with-pope-leo-xiv-in-place-us-catholics-stand-at-a-crossroads/
Shortly after 6 P.M. in Rome, the longed-for sight appeared above the Sistine Chapel: white smoke.
Over the course of a day and a half, the more than 130 members of the College of Cardinals had come to a decision on who should lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. On May 8, 2025, they elected Cardinal Robert Prevost, who chose the name Leo XIV – becoming the first pope from the United States.
The Conversation U.S. asked Maureen Day, a researcher at the University of Southern California who has written several books about the contemporary church, to explain what Catholicism looks like in the U.S. at this high-stakes moment.
How is Catholic identity and practice in the U.S. changing, compared with a generation ago?
In 1987, the year of the first American Catholic Laity survey, nearly half of American Catholics said that faith was “the most” or “among the most” important parts of their life. Now, only 37% say the same.
Others are leaving the Catholic Church completely. The General Social Survey, a national survey conducted every year or two since the 1970s, asks people about the faith they grew up with, as well as their present religious identity. According to our analysis of its data, in 1973 only 10% of Americans who grew up Catholic had changed religions, and another 7% had left religion altogether. By 2018, each of those percentages had increased to 18%.
A Pew Research Center study conducted in 2024 found that for every American who converts to Catholicism,…
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Author : bq3anews
Publish date : 2025-05-09 00:27:00
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