Majority of American Catholics Have Left the Church, Pew Survey Reveals

Over 50 percent of Americans raised in the Catholic Church say they've left the faith at some point in their lives, according to a Pew Research survey on religion and public life.

The data further revealed that among the 52 percent who left the Church, about six out of 10 have returned at some point.

Two-thirds of the group that left the Church now consider themselves ex-Catholics and no-longer identify with the faith.

Around 13 percent, however, still identify as Catholic, but no longer practice the religion.

For those who are still practicing, around 73 percent said they've been in the Church their entire life, and seven out of 10 said they could never imagine leaving it.

Aside from membership, Pew Research also uncovered surprising beliefs held by Catholics pertaining to families.

The survey found that a "strong majority" of Catholics said children being raised in unconventional families with unmarried parents living together, same-sex couples or single parents, is acceptable. Around 90 percent, though, preferred that children be raised with a married mother and father. Forty-three percent said it's acceptable for a gay couple to raise a child.

"Nine-in-10 U.S. Catholics say a household headed by a married mother and father is an ideal situation for bringing up children. But the survey shows that large majorities think other kinds of families — those headed by parents who are single, divorced, unmarried or gay — are OK for raising children, too," noted Pew in the analysis released just days before Pope Francis' first U.S. visit in which he'll encounter a national Catholic population largely supportive of family units not advanced or encouraged by Church teaching.

The survey also found that: "A sizable majority (85 percent) think it's acceptable for a man and a woman to live together as a couple outside of marriage, including more than half (55 percent) who say cohabitation is as good as any other living arrangement for adults. And [seven]-in-10 Catholics say married couples who opt not to have children have chosen a lifestyle that is as good as any other."

And while many Catholics hold progressive beliefs when it comes to issues involving families, the Church seems to be maintaining its traditional views, despite the change in tone from Pope Francis when it comes to divorce and homosexuality.

The Pope did, however, make changes to the Church's annulment process, loosening restrictions on Catholics who wish to remarry. The Vatican is also expected to host a meeting in October with Catholic leaders worldwide where they will analyze recommendations on family issues, including divorce and marriage.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said, "Wide is the road to destruction and narrow is the way to salvation!" I will stay on the narrow path and this article affirms what Christ said. I am happy and thank God I was raised Catholic and have attended weekly mass since the day I was born thanks to my mother and family.

The article fails to mention that the Catholic Church on marriage and divorce, homosexuality, and faith in general follow Christ teachings 100% and do not waiver from the truth and proclaiming the Gospel. People will always fall short, but Christ told Peter that upon you I build my Church and it will prevail against the gates of hell. People and even Popes need salvation and all sin and require the sacraments and precious blood of Christ for redemption and there are no exceptions. The author of the article appears to be proud that people fall from their faith and adopt sinful choices for their lives. I would expect such as this based upon the source and would expect others to revel in attacking Christ's Church and make other statements that their church is superior to the Catholic faith. Those same other denominations that allow divorce and homosexuality in some cases in direct opposition to the Gospel.

I am proud to defend the faith and thank God for the graces given to me and pray for those that fall from grace and to the worldly views that temp many into a life destructive to families and children and harmful to their souls.

Something interesting written almost 50 years ago:

How does all of this affect the problem we are examining? It means that the big talk of those who prophesy a Church without God and without faith is all empty chatter. We have no need of a Church that celebrates the cult of action in political prayers. It is utterly superfluous. Therefore, it will destroy itself. What will remain is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church that believes in the God who has become man and promises us life beyond death. The kind of priest who is no more than a social worker can be replaced by the psychotherapist and other specialists; but the priest who is no specialist, who does not stand on the sidelines, watching the game, giving official advice, but in the name of God places himself at the disposal men, who is beside them in their sorrows, in their joys, in their hope and in their fear, such a priest will certainly be needed in the future.
Let us go a step farther. From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge—a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so will she lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, she will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, she will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members. Undoubtedly she will discover new forms of ministry and will ordain to the priesthood approved Christians who pursue some profession. In many smaller congregations or in self-contained social groups, pastoral care will normally be provided in this fashion. Alongside this, the full-time ministry of the priesthood will be indispensable as formerly. But in all of the changes at which one might guess, the Church will find her essence afresh and with full conviction in that which was always at her center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world. In faith and prayer she will again recognize her true center and experience the sacraments again as the worship of God and not as a subject for liturgical scholarship.
The Church will be a more spiritual Church, not presuming upon a political mandate, flirting as little with the Left as with the Right. It will be hard going for the Church, for the process of crystalization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek. The process will be all the more arduous, for sectarian narrow-mindedness as well as pompous self-will will have to be shed. One may predict that all of this will take time. The process will be long and wearisome as was the road from the false progressivism of the eveof the French Revolution—when a bishop might be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even insinuated that the existence of God was by no means certain9—to the renewal of the nineteenth century. But when the trial this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.
And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already with Gobel, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.
From Ratzinger, Faith and the Future, 1970

It seems like we are right on schedule...

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