Survey: Young adults are the most engaged and most at risk of leaving the church

(OSV News) -- A new survey shows young adult Catholics are the most engaged in the Latin Church in the U.S. – but the "strong" dynamic is also "fragile," and questions of leaving the church persist.

The data also indicate the nation's Roman Catholics, as Catholics in the Latin Church are commonly known, reflect a mix of both distrust and hope -- with the faithful having greater trust in parish pastors than their bishops, and with the church at a "crossroads" in the U.S.

The results were released Nov. 4 in a report titled "Trust, Practice, and Renewal in the Catholic Church After Two Decades" by Leadership Roundtable. Established in 2005 amid the clerical abuse crisis, the nonprofit works to ensure transparency and accountability in the business operations of the Catholic Church in the U.S.

For the survey, Leadership Roundtable partnered with the market research firm John Zogby Strategies to poll 3,033 Roman Catholics in the continental U.S. July 10-12, with participants drawn from a national panel of some 15 million U.S. adults. The report noted the data did not include U.S.-based members of the various Eastern Catholic churches, which together with the Latin Church, comprise the universal Catholic Church.

The sample was weighted, or statistically adjusted, based on education and race to ensure it "accurately reflected the broader Catholic population," said the report, which also noted the survey factored in diverse backgrounds and varying levels of participation in church and liturgical life.

Responses to the 72-question survey's queries on Mass attendance were categorized as "faithful," (1,541 participants who attend Mass at least monthly), "occasional" (472 who said they attend a few times a year), and "disengaged" (1,021 who attend seldom or never).

While stressing that "the data resist binary narratives of either decline or renewal" in the church -- offering instead "a more nuanced picture of an institution navigating profound transformation" -- the survey identified several insights regarding levels of trust in the Catholic Church in the U.S.

Although Mass attendance has continued to drop precipitously since a 2003 survey by Leadership Roundtable's founder, Geoffrey T. Boisi, and Zogby, the latest data showed a "counterintuitive" trend among 18-29 year-old Catholics polled.

Although the smallest demographic cohort among the data, "they are by far the most engaged in the Church," said the report. "They are more likely than any other age group to attend Mass daily, weekly, or monthly, are far more likely to engage in parish activities beyond Mass, and are more likely to go to Confession, to engage in Eucharistic Adoration, to attend social events, and more."

Among the young adult respondents, 50% reported attending Mass daily or weekly, 65% monthly and 84% at least a few times a year.

That trend marks a "reversal" from the 2003 survey, which showed Mass attendance levels increasing with age, said the survey.

At the same time, the report cautioned against making a causal connection in this regard, since it is unclear whether the switch is down to an actual resurgence among youth -- or to the possibility that the disengaged youth of the 2003 survey have become the disengaged older adults of the present survey.

"But one fact is clear: Church leaders should be taking time to consider how best to cultivate engagement where and how it is present so that they can maintain it in the short-term, and build on it over time," the report said.

The pattern found by the Leadership Roundtable report aligns with other recent research, such as a Barna Group study showing that Gen Z and Millennials -- whose birth years are considered respectively to span 1997-2012 and 1981-1996 -- have now become more regular churchgoers than their older counterparts.

Yet younger Catholics are also the "most likely to think about leaving the Church," said the report, with most (36%) saying "the Church's position on certain issues does not align with my values." Another 17% said they lack "a place in the Church or my local parish," and 15% were concerned that "the Church is in too much crisis or scandal."

"These findings suggest that, while young adults are drawn to, and engaged in, parish life, the support among these highly-engaged young Catholics is fragile," said the report.

The survey also asked disengaged Catholics what could be done to bring them back to Mass, with a significant number of respondents (43%) admitting they were unsure, and 20% stating that "nothing can be done."

But 43% of younger disaffiliated respondents were open to possible reengagement, with 21% pointing to feeling welcomed and 22% to "ministries that connect to me and/or my family" as potential factors in drawing them back.

Some two thirds (66%) of responders who attend Mass at least occasionally said their children are baptized and on schedule for their full sacramental preparation, with 6% reporting their children are unbaptized and 28% saying their children are baptized but not receiving further sacramental preparation.

At the same time, "76% of Catholic families who attend Mass at least a few times per year have their children engaged in some parish activity, be it Catholic schools, youth sports, religious education, or youth groups," said the report.

It described this gap as representing "substantial unrealized potential: families already present, already invested, already building relationships, who may be poised to engage more deeply in parish and sacramental life."

The report also found that among two-thirds of Catholics who attend Mass at least a few times a year, some 25% are "at risk of disengagement, indicating that they 'often think about leaving the Church.'"

The survey also looked closely at respondents' levels of trust in the Catholic Church in the U.S., finding that "trust, when present, often exists at a deeply personal and local level, while institutional confidence remains more tentative."

A majority of the Catholics who attend Mass at least a few times per year (77%) expressed trust in their pastors and clergy to safeguard children and vulnerable persons, with trust in parish staff and volunteers slightly higher (79%).

Pastors received high marks from respondents for being open to feedback (82%) and active in seeking volunteers for parish and finance councils (73%), as well as valuing and increasing lay involvement overall.

However, said the report, "this confidence wanes as the lens widens."

Survey respondents were less likely to express the same levels of confidence in their diocese, with 60% believing their diocese communicates transparently about abuse allegations, "meaning four-in-ten respondents are either unsure or actively disagree," said the report.

Less than half (47%) agreed the nation's Catholic bishops "lead with financial transparency," and about the same number (45%) expressed concern that donations to the church would be used for abuse settlements and legal fees.

Another 61% said they would give more if the church were more financially transparent, with 75% of young people 18-44 saying they would give more under those conditions.

But less than half (49%) of the faithful gave the U.S. bishops high marks for "involving the laity in solving pressing issues facing the Church," said the report.

The survey -- which identified a "consistent pattern where the institutional Church scores lower than local parishes across" -- pointed to the dynamic as a "troubling bifurcation in Catholic experience," with "one view of the Church at home, another at the diocesan and national level."

That "trust deficit" -- a "local-institutional divide" that is also found regarding individual public schools and public education as a whole -- has implications regarding safe environment, said the survey.

Over half of the Catholics surveyed (53%) "believe abusers remain active and protected within the clergy, and nearly one-in-four (24%) do not believe that abuse allegations have declined since 2002," despite two decades of reform that have seen 77% of U.S. dioceses and eparchies down to zero credible abuse allegations, said the report.

Across several demographics, Catholics polled in the survey strongly endorsed "building a transparent and accountable leadership culture" (77%) as a top priority for the future church, with 45% rating it as "extremely important."

"No other issue commanded such consensus across all questions," the report said. It noted this response surpassed "serving the poor" (75%), "raising younger generations in the faith" (74%) and "parish engagement" (73%).

On balance, "the data reveals an institution at a critical juncture," said Leadership Roundtable's Geoffrey Boisi in a Nov. 4 news release announcing the report.

"Our church has made meaningful progress these last 20 years, elevating lay leaders and building the transparent, accountable structures that Catholics demand. Those have drawn young people back to the faith," Boisi said.

However, he added, with "our most engaged Catholics" also "most at risk of walking away," the task of restoring trust in church leaders and "strengthening our governance and management structures ... must continue."