Catholic Mass attendance drops to mirror Protestant levels

(RNS) On Easter Sunday, Roman Catholics will be heading for church in droves — but far fewer attend Mass weekly than during the 1950s, according to an analysis by the Gallup Poll. Catholic weekly church turnout has suffered a steady six-decade decline before leveling off in recent years, according to the pollsters. In 1955, three […]

(RNS) On Easter Sunday, Roman Catholics will be heading for church in droves — but far fewer attend Mass weekly than during the 1950s, according to an analysis by the Gallup Poll.

Catholic weekly church turnout has suffered a steady six-decade decline before leveling off in recent years, according to the pollsters. In 1955, three in four Catholics said they had attended church in the last seven days; in 2008, only 42 percent said the same.

Over the same time period, Protestant church attendance has remained steady, with slight increases in the 1970s and 1980s, and now outstrips Catholic turnout, 47 to 42 percent.


“Whatever the causes, it is clear that U.S. Catholics’ once-nearly uniform obedience to their church’s requirement of weekly Mass attendance has faded,” said Gallup’s Lydia Saad, “and Catholics are now no different from Protestants in their likelihood to attend church.”

The deepest drop for Catholics came between 1967 and 1976, when 13 percent stopped going to Mass weekly, according to Gallup. The drop off has been most pronounced among Catholics under 60.

Despite a dip during the high-profile clergy sex abuse scandal that erupted in 2002, Catholic church attendance has hung around 44 percent since 2000, according to Gallup.

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