News and Publications

• As AI continues to reach further and further into our lives, have you ever wondered who would be Bishop of The Cloud? Well wonder no longer. Check out our blog exploring just that!

• Our summer intern, rising Georgetown senior Craig Bowman, analyzed global data from the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (ASE), the official statistical yearbook of the Catholic Church published by the Vatican. The below table is just one example of the longitudinal data CARA has now that the ASE has been digitized. In the coming year, CARA hopes to produce quarterly reports highlighting regional and global trends within the Catholic Church using this data.

Coming soon!

The CARA national poll examining US Catholic’s opinions on race and racism will be published soon. Below is a sneak peek of some of the data. Stay tuned for the full report which will be published next month!

Lastly, the 2025-26 Catholic Ministry Formation Directory will soon be available in PDF format for purchase. The Ministry Formation Directory is the most comprehensive directory of ministry formation programs, including priestly, diaconate, and lay ministries. It includes data such as programs/degrees offered, enrollment, funding availability, and more. The 2025-26 MFD will be available for purchase at our website. The current version on the website is the 2024-25 directory.

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News and Publications

• Last month the U.S. Church received a new Black bishop, Bishop Robert Boxie III. To learn about the history of Black Catholic bishops in the United States, check out CARA’s most recent blog post by Ali Mumbach!

• We recently took a look at the updated numbers of the global Catholic population. Check out the graph below, which is posted on CARA’s facebook page. Please follow us there for other snippets of Catholic data!

  

Happenings at CARA

CARA recently completed a comparative study of religious communities of sisters in four dioceses across the Eastern United States. This project was led by researcher Sister Thu Do, LHC. While CARA has completed similar surveys of religious sisters in the past, never before has it been on such a large scale. The project provides important information to the dioceses about the ages and ministries of their sisters, and, crucially, areas in which they would appreciate more support.

Finally, the most recent edition of The CARA Report was released at the end of June. This edition includes data on ordinations, Catholic youth and young adults, and Catholic school enrollment, along with so much more! If you would like to subscribe to the CARA report, you can do so here on CARA’s website, or upgrade your CARA substack subscription to paid.

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• Last year there were 570 (estimated) new permanent deacons ordained to the Church in the U.S.! Read the latest data on the permanent diaconate in CARA’s report, accessible here from the USCCB.

• There are two new CARA blog posts up, both written by researcher Mark Gray. Check out the 1964 blog for these bite-sized pieces on Catholic Dis/Affiliation over the last 50 years, and the Catholic implications of Spielberg’s latest film.

Happenings at CARA

CARA Researcher Jon Wiggins traveled to two international conferences this June— the first, the Catholic Sisters Initiative Gathering in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the second, the International Safeguarding Conference in Rome, Italy. Our researchers are lucky to have opportunities such as these to collaborate with international colleagues on important topics for the life of the Church.

CARA welcomes new intern Craig Bowman, a rising junior at Georgetown University, studying economics, theology, and Russian. He has already proved a big help at the office, and we’re happy to have him joining us for the summer semester!

If you haven’t already, please be sure to fill out our short five-question survey to let us know how we’re doing!

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Thank you for your interest and support of Catholic research! CARA is working to increase awareness of our research and better connect with those interested in our work. To help us, please take a few minutes to complete the five-question survey below. Thank you for your time and feedback!

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News and Publications

• Researcher Jon Wiggins presented the findings from a large, landmark survey of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which CARA and the Archdiocese have been working on for several months. Read here for a summary of the findings from The Orthodox Observer, and how they will be implemented.

• A new encyclical from Pope Leo, Magnifica Humanitas, expresses the imperative of maintaining human dignity in the face of AI. Researcher Mark Gray has explored the power of AI, and whether or not it knows who the current pope is, in a blog on 1964. This past week he added an update to the blog— read it here to find out which AI platform can correctly identify the pope!

• CARA director Fr. Tom Gaunt was interviewed on the Religion to Reality podcast. The episode touches on some common questions in Catholic data, and can be listened to entirely here, or on all common podcast platforms.

Happenings at CARA

Researcher Sister Thu Do continued her travels from Vietnam to Bangalore, India, to attend the “Pilgrimage of Hope: Consecrated Women, Living Flames of God’s Love” symposium hosted by CRWI. Sister Thu was not the only symposium participant who was associated with CARA— she also reunited with Sister Bibiana, Sister Lavina, and Sister Vijo, three of CARA’s visiting scholars!

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News and Publications

• The Ordination Class of 2026 report is now published on the USCCB website. This report details the background information of those seminarians to be ordained this year. The data from the report has been featured in articles at the National Catholic Register, OSV News, and CatholicVote.

• Dr. Eileen C. Jaramillo, DMin, JCL, canon lawyer, recently published “Discerning Charism: The Key to Founding Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life,” which explores the theological and canonical discernment process of establishing religious institutes. Dr. Jaramillo uses CARA data on emerging communities to help guide the discussion.

Happenings at CARA

Fr. Tom Gaunt presented the 2026 report of diocesan employee salary and benefits for the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators in New Orleans. The updated data was warmly received at the gathering, and will help ensure that employees of the Church are offered fair wages and benefits nationwide.

Sr. Thu Do is currently traveling with Sr. Jane Wakahiu and Sabrina Wong of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Their journeys take them to Vietnam for research projects that Sr. Thu is assisting in conducting. Sr. Thu is also representing CARA at the International Symposium “Pilgrimage of Hope: Consecrated Women, Living Flame of God’s Love.” This symposium will be held at Christ University campus in Bangalore, India.

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News and Publications

• A new blog post by researcher Mark Gray dives into the rates of retention and conversion among different generations of American Catholics, and investigates whether it’s true Catholics outnumber Protestants in Gen-Z.

• With catechumens around the world completing their Catholic formation this past weekend at the Easter Vigil, several news articles referenced CARA’s Catholic statistics to give more context to the trends in sacraments, including this article and this article.

Happenings at CARA

CARA Researchers Sister Thu Do and Fr. Tom Gaunt recently traveled to Rome to meet with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, and other colleagues in the Vatican. They had a lovely time both reuniting with old friends of CARA, and forming new connections!

At the end of March, CARA’s research partner CERRA-Africa hosted a webinar on ‘The Role of Applied Research in the Church and Contemporary Society,’ commemorating the launch of their Research Modules. CARA director Fr. Tom Gaunt provided a keynote speech on the link between research and Church ministries. You can read CERRA-Africa’s webinar recap, here.

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News and Publications

• We’ve got another new blog for you from this past month. This one is looking at data about Black Catholics, as Black History Month comes to a close. Be sure to check it out, along with our other previous posts!

• Sister Thu Do, CARA research associate, spoke on a panel at the Diocese of Harrisburg’s Catholic Social Teaching Symposium at the end of last month. The panel was on immigration and Sr. Thu shared about research on Vietnamese American Catholics, as well as a CARA national poll on immigration.

• Reminder that the Winter 2026 edition of The CARA Report was released last month. This edition features research on raising lifelong Catholics, assessments of priesthood candidates, and a wide variety of other topics. Please consider subscribing to The CARA Report below, or by becoming a paid Substack subscriber.

  Subscribe to the CARA Report

Happenings at CARA

Currently Father Tom Gaunt, executive director, and Sr. Thu are working with other religious researchers in Mexico, India, and Cameroon to examine relationships between priests and religious sisters within those countries. The goal of this research is to better understand the challenges of sister-priest relationships as they work together in pastoral ministries. The findings will be collected and presented in a book. Fr. Tom and Sr. Thu will join the other researchers in Rome next month for ongoing collaboration.

Jonathon Wiggins, CARA research associate, and Fr. Tom presented the findings from the report “Evaluating the Church’s Practices in Assessing the Suitability of Candidates for Holy Orders” to staff at Saint Luke Institute. This study examines the efficacy of seminaries and dioceses in assessing the suitability of seminarians for advancement to ordination. Saint Luke Institute provides integrated psychological and spiritual treatment, consultation, and education to priests, deacons, consecrated religious, laity. Staff had great questions about the research following the presentation.

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• There is a new post on CARA’s blog. The 1964 blog pulls out small, interesting data stories from CARA and other popular research. This post looks into claims of a recent increase in conversions to Catholicism, and where the data does, or does not, support those claims. As always, the blog is free to access.

• The Winter 2026 edition of The CARA Report has been released! This edition of CARA’s flagship publication features research on raising lifelong Catholics, assessments of priesthood candidates, and a wide variety of other topics. You can subscribe to The CARA Report below, or by becoming a paid Substack subscriber.

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Happenings at CARA

Here are two of our ongoing research projects to look out for!

First, CARA is proud to be assisting L’Arche USA with their Sacred Stories project. Sacred Stories is a five-year national project designed to center and elevate the lived faith experiences of people with and without IDD, and to widen both theological and everyday understandings of leadership, belonging, and spiritual depth. CARA’s role will be to assist in better understanding the spiritual lives of those in L’Arche communities through survey research. With our findings, L’Arche will be able to create programs and resources which better serve the faith needs of their members and that also demonstrate their spiritual gifts. To learn more about the project, go to their website here!

We are also working on a Parish Healthy Ministry project, alongside Dr. Debbie Barrington, a faculty member at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (USCOMG). Through this study, CARA is exploring the elements and benefits of health and wellness ministries at Catholic parishes. There is much research on the connection between spiritual and physical health. As the Catholic Church believes in the body and soul of human persons, it is important to learn about how some parishes are seeking to supplement that integration.

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On Raising Lifelong Catholics

How the Church Assesses Candidates for the Priesthood

CARA Honors Truth and Reconciliation Research by Past Slave-Holding Religious Congregations

Where the U.S. Catholic Population Has Grown the Most / Catholic Gains and Losses

CARA Briefs

The Archdiocese of Louisville and Desegregation, 1937-1967

Catholic Priests’ Approval of Pope Francis and Attitudes about Homosexuality

Environmental Justice and the Locations of Parish Closures

Priests Are Still Flourishing, but with Some Differences in Priorities

Support for Prayer in Public Schools Strongest in South and Midwest

Democrats May Have a Religion Problem

U.S. Permanent Deacons in 2024

Ongoing Research

On Raising Lifelong Catholics

Two social scientists have collaborated to produce an analysis of what they describe as “arguably the single biggest problem for the Catholic Church in the United States.” This they describe with the alarming statement that, “We are losing nine out of 10 cradle Catholics.”

The authors are Michael Rota, professor of philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and director of its Psychology and Theology of Faith Project, and Stephen Bullivant, professor of theology and sociology of religion at St. Mary’s University in England and professorial research fellow in theology and sociology at the University of Notre Dame in Australia.

Their work is based on data from the annual General Social Survey, which for more than 50 years has included questions about religion, and a 2023 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. From these sources, they report that, “In 1973, 84 percent of all those raised Catholic were still identified as Catholic when surveyed as adults. In 2002, that figure was 74 percent. By 2022, it had dropped to 62 percent.” The following discussion is summarized from the study.

The Causes of Catholic Disaffiliation. Children form religious beliefs primarily based on testimony and example, and also by participating in religious activities themselves. As they grow into adolescents and young adults, their religious commitments are strongly influenced by their close personal relationships, as well as by the wider culture. These influences may be categorized into three factors: consensus, certainty, and credibility. Each is important in the story of religious decline in America.

Consensus. Children are more likely to accept religious claims with a high level of confidence when both of their parents are united in making those claims, yet over the course of the last century interreligious marriages have become more common.

Certainty. Children pick up on subtle cues as they listen to adults talk, cues about the certainty with which adults hold the beliefs they are communicating. In a culture with less religious consensus, parents will tend to be less confident in their religious beliefs.

Credibility. It is one thing for parents to tell their children that God exists and that following Jesus is important. It is another thing for parents to live their lives in a way that only makes sense if the parents deeply believe what they are saying.

Predictors of Successful Religious Transmission. Some Catholic parents do hand on the faith to their children quite successfully. What makes the difference? If someone is raised Catholic, what factors make it more likely that he or she will continue to practice the faith as an adult? A large body of rigorous social scientific research has made a good deal of headway on these questions. Here is what helps:

• Both parents have the same religious identity.

• The parents’ marriage is intact.

• The parents live their religion, and their religion is important to them.

• Parents provide both warmth and structure, and children form secure attachments to their parents.

• As younger teenagers, they considered religious faith important in everyday life.

• They attended Catholic high school.

• They had many faith-supporting peer relationships, especially as they moved into adolescence and young adulthood.

• Lastly, one more factor stands out in the data: When children grow up with many supportive Catholic adults in their lives, that increases their likelihood of remaining Catholic.

Implications: What the Church Can Do

When American churchgoers are asked about their reasons for religious attendance, the most popular answer is, “Feel closer to God,” about which Catholic and Protestant responses are similar. But another answer is “Experience Religion as a Community,” and here Catholics are less likely to agree.

According to the PRRI Religious Change Survey, 2023, the percentages who say they “Experience Religion as a Community” are: White evangelical Protestant (91 percent), White mainline Protestant (79 percent), Hispanic Protestant (78 percent), White Catholic (75 percent), and Hispanic Catholic (74 percent).

The authors conclude, “That Catholics do not do community well is disheartening, but it is also very useful information—there is low-hanging fruit here.” They go on to observe that,
“Across the country, many parishes are already bringing new attention to the goal of building community,” and they identify several movements and organizations working toward this end.

“Religious Transmission: A Solution to the Church’s Biggest Problem,” by Michael Rota and Stephen Bullivant, August 12, 2025, appeared in Church Life Journal, published by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame (churchlifejournal.nd.edu).

How the Church Assesses Candidates for the Priesthood

CARA has completed a comprehensive study examining the efficacy of seminaries and dioceses in assessing the suitability of seminarians for advancement to ordination. The research, commissioned by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, had a particular focus on discerning the appropriate role of psychological services in assisting candidates in their needed growth, and what role those services should play in future seminary formation.

Using a mixed-methods approach, CARA surveyed and interviewed five constituencies: the ordinaries of dioceses, diocesan vocation directors, seminary rectors, seminary formators and spiritual directors, and mental health professionals who work with seminaries. The entire 196-page report is available on the CARA website. Some of its findings are summarized in the following paragraphs.

More than four in five bishops (90 percent) and vocation directors (84 percent) “agree” or “strongly agree” that they are satisfied overall with the formation at seminaries used by their dioceses.

When all five survey groups were asked how much confidence they have in specific areas of their seminaries’ formation programs, the two most likely to be rated highly across all five groups were: 1) seminarians’ openness to growing spiritually (48 percent to 62 percent are “very confident” in that area) and 2) seminarians’ regular engagement in self-reflection (22 percent to 55 percent are “very confident”).

The one area least likely to be selected across all five survey groups is seminarians’ healthy management of one’s neuroses or minor pathologies (11 percent to 23 percent are “very confident” in this area).

There is some variation in opinions about what role psychological services should play in determining the suitability of a candidate for advancement to Holy Orders. A significant proportion of bishops (15 percent) and vocation directors (27 percent) say they “do not agree” or “agree a little” that it should play a significant role.

Concerning how well seminaries develop effective, measurable, and personalized benchmarks for each seminarian in all dimensions of formation, rectors (37 percent) and formators/spiritual directors (37 percent) are more than twice as likely as mental health professionals (18 percent) to “strongly agree” that such benchmarks are used well.

Sixty-eight percent of bishops and 81 percent of vocation directors view the initial evaluation as one of the most effective tools to identify issues related to suitability of a candidate for formation. All rectors and 94 percent of formators/spiritual directors view the initial psychological evaluation as necessary for identifying areas of needed growth.

Ninety-two percent of bishops and 90 percent of vocation directors are satisfied that the seminaries adequately assess the suitability of men for formation or Holy Orders. Fewer—65 percent of bishops and 68 percent of vocation directors—agree that the intermediate and final recommendations from seminaries adequately predict how well a man will later function as a priest.

Sixty-five percent of mental health professionals, 48 percent of rectors, and 44 percent of formators/spiritual directors “agree” or “strongly agree” that, when assessing suitability for Holy Orders, some dioceses prioritize the quantity of candidates over the quality of candidates.

Evaluating the Church’s Practices in Assessing the Suitability of Candidates for Holy Orders, a CARA study for the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, by Jonathon L. Wiggins, Barnabe Hounguevou, SJ, and Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ, June 2025, appears on the CARA website (CARA.georgetown.edu).

CARA Honors Truth and Reconciliation Research by Past Slave-Holding Religious Congregations

At CARA’s annual fall reception on November 13, Archbishop W. Shawn McKnight, chairman of the CARA Board of Directors, presented the 2025 Rev. Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Award for Exemplary Church Research, which is named for CARA’s first executive director and awarded for a significant contribution to research on the Catholic Church.

This year’s award honored three religious congregations of women for their distinguished and fruitful efforts over more than a quarter-century to document and report their institutions’ experiences of slave-holding in the nineteenth century. The three congregations are The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, represented by Sister Theresa Knabel; The Dominican Sisters of Peace, represented by Sister Rosemary Rule; and The Loretto Community, represented by Sister Eleanor Craig.

In 2000, each of the congregations held a prayer service at which they asked the African American community for forgiveness for their past participation in the institution of slavery. In the years that followed—with the dedicated efforts of archivists, historians, and individual sister members—the three congregations have sought to memorialize the women, men, and children who were held in slavery, and to meet with their descendants. Many sisters and lay colleagues have spent countless hours carefully researching the archives of each congregation in order to bring this painful history to light, which was often a difficult and lonely task.

In her remarks in accepting the award, Sister Theresa noted that her institutional archives on the slave-holding period disclosed what seemed to be a set of four directives to be practiced among Catholics within the diocese:

• The enslaved should not be mistreated.

• They should be taught the faith and prepared for reception of the sacraments.

• Husbands and wives should not be separated by more than two days apart.

• If it becomes necessary to sell enslaved persons, they should be sold to another Catholic family so they could practice their faith and not be mistreated.

She added that, “After emancipation, the sisters responded to requests from the African American people to open schools and hospitals for them. We served in these for the next 100 years until integration became the law of the land.”

The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, the Loretto Community, and the Dominican Sisters of Peace were honored by CARA with its Fr. Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Award for Exemplary Church Research. From left to right: Fr. Tom Gaunt, SJ, Archbishop Shawn McKnight, Sr. Eleanor Craig, SL, Sr. Theresa Knable, SCN, and Sr. Rosemary Rule, OP.

Where the U.S. Catholic Population Has Grown the Most

What part of the country has become more Catholic in the past 25 years? By region, the South has experienced a net gain of more than 7.4 million Catholics from 2000 to 2025. The West has seen minimal net growth, adding 1 million Catholics. At the same time, the Northeast lost 4.4 million Catholics and the Midwest lost 2.3 million. This is all part of a broader long-term shift of the U.S. population from the “Rust Belt” of the Northeast and Midwest to the “Sun Belt” of the South and to a lesser extent the West.

These estimates are based on the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies’ decennial Religion Census, three Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Studies, and the Comparative Study of Electoral System surveys. Each of these collections has varying methods and limitations. Reviewing what we can, the situations of the following states stand out:

• In the 2000s, Alaska’s Catholic population was just over 50,000. Currently, Catholics number more than 110,000, for a 111 percent increase at a time when the state saw just 1 percent overall population growth.

• The Catholic population of South Carolina grew by more than 250 percent while the state overall experienced 37 percent population growth. In 2000, Catholics numbered about 136,000; in 2025, more than 450,000.

• There are other Southern states where the Catholic population growth rate is outpacing total population growth. These include Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

• Oklahoma has seen its Catholic population rise from just under 170,000 to more than 250,000 in 2024—growing by 80 percent compared to 23 percent for the total population.

• Nevada’s Catholic population rose from over 330,000 in 2000 to approximately 695,000 in 2024, growing by 107 percent compared to 64 percent for the total population.

It’s important to note that states with rapid Catholic growth are not the most Catholic in absolute numbers. According to the Official Catholic Directory for 2025, California remains the state with the largest number of Catholics (12.2 million) followed by Texas (9.1 million), and New York (5.9 million).

“Where the Catholic Population Has Changed the Most,” by Mark M. Gray, August 27, 2025, appears in 1964, The CARA Blog (nineteensixty-four.blogspot.com).

CARA Briefs…

Pope Leo’s Favorable Rating Highest among International Newsmakers

Gallup’s annual newsmaker favorability poll, conducted during July 7 to 21, finds that, “Among 14 prominent U.S. and global figures, Pope Leo XIV has the most positive image by far, with many more Americans viewing him favorably than unfavorably.” Following are the favorable/unfavorable ratings for all members of the group, listed in order of the highest favorable ratings and excluding “no opinion” responses.

Pope Leo XIV (57 percent/11 percent), Volodymyr Zelenskyy (52 percent/34 percent), Bernie Sanders (49 percent/38 percent), Joe Biden (43 percent/54 percent), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (42 percent/47 percent), Donald Trump (41 percent/57 percent), JD Vance (38 percent/49 percent).

Also, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (34 percent/38 percent), Elon Musk (33 percent/61 percent), Marco Rubio (31 percent/47 percent), Emmanuel Macron (30 percent/31 percent), Gavin Newsom (30 percent/41 percent), Benjamin Netanyahu (29 percent/52 percent), and Pete Hegseth (26 percent/38 percent).

“Pope Leo Most Favorably Viewed of 14 Newsmakers,” by Lydia Saad, August 5, 2025, appears on the website of Gallup, Inc. (gallup.com).

While Catholic Population Holds Steady, Catholic Funerals Show Decline

Father Tom Gaunt, SJ, executive director of CARA, citing statistics from The Official Catholic Directory, notes that while the total number of U.S. Catholics has increased by just over 9 percent since 2021, the corresponding number of Catholic funerals has decreased by about 30 percent. Baptisms and First Communions have also dropped during the same period. According to Father Gaunt, “There are various theories proposed to explain this decline but no hard data. CARA has been interested in researching this for a number of years.”

“Why Are Fewer Catholics Having Church Funerals?” by Joseph Pronechen, November 5, 2025, appears on the website of National Catholic Register (ncregister.com).

Few Americans Favor Churches Endorsing Political Candidates

Although the 1954 Johnson Amendment to the tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations from political campaigning, in July 2025 the Internal Revenue Service announced that churches and other houses of worship could do so without violating the law. A Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) analysis has examined Americans’ views on this issue.

According to the report based on a 2023 PRRI survey, only 20 percent of all Americans favor allowing churches to endorse political candidates while retaining their tax-exempt status. By political and religious orientation, those in favor are:

• Political: Republican (31 percent), Independent (19 percent), and Democrat (13 percent); Christian nationalism adherent (45 percent), and Christian nationalism sympathizer (35 percent).

• Religious: White evangelical Protestant (36 percent), Black Protestant (32 percent), Hispanic Protestant (19 percent), White mainline/non-evangelical Protestant (19 percent), White Catholic (19 percent), Hispanic Catholic (16 percent), Non-Christian religion (14 percent), and Unaffiliated (8 percent).

The report ends by observing that, “These results suggest a general national consensus favoring the separation of religion and the state.”

“Most Americans Oppose Churches Endorsing Political Candidates,” July 8, 2025, appears on the website of the Public Religion Research Institute (prri.org).

Weekly Religious Attendees Oppose Same-Sex Relations and Marriage

Ten years after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling made same-sex marriage a U.S. national right, a May 2025 Gallup poll measured the degree of acceptance of this decision among various American groups. Some of the findings follow.

In 1997, Gallup’s first year to ask, only 27 percent of Americans supported same-sex marriage. By 2004, 42 percent were in favor, in 2017 it was 61 percent, 71 percent in 2022 and 2023, and 68 percent in 2025. However, support for same-sex relations and marriage varies by frequency of attendance at religious services.

Eighty-one percent of those who attend religious services seldom/never consider gay/lesbian relations morally acceptable, as do 56 percent who attend nearly weekly/monthly, but only 24 percent of weekly service attenders.

Similarly, same-sex sex marriage should be valid, say 81 percent of those who attend seldom/never, 67 percent of those who attend nearly weekly/monthly, but only 33 percent of those who attend weekly.

“Record Party Divide 10 Years after Same-Sex Marriage Ruling: Republican Support Has Dropped 13 Points Since 2022,” by Megan Brenan, May 29, 2025, appears on the website of Gallup, Inc. (gallup.com).

Special Section on Scholarly Research About Catholics

The Archdiocese of Louisville and Desegregation, 1937–1967

In August 1963, Archbishop John A. Floersh of Louisville, Kentucky, issued a pastoral letter supporting civil rights legislation and equal opportunities. A few days later, Monsignor Felix N. Pitt, secretary of the archdiocese’s Catholic School Board, wrote that “our Catholic churches here in Louisville have never been segregated in any way, at least during the last 30 or 40 years,” and “Our schools have been integrated since before 1954,” when the United States Supreme Court declared segregated public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.

Despite Pitt’s claims, segregation had long characterized and continued to characterize many Catholic churches. Desegregation of Catholics schools, which had begun in 1954, was piecemeal and incomplete, and many white Catholics participated in white flight to the suburbs. Floersh had begun ordering desegregation of Catholic institutions in the 1950s, but he had not established enforcement mechanisms and monitored compliance, or ordained any African American priests. His 1963 pastoral letter was his only public pronouncement on race relations during his 42-year episcopacy. During Floersh’s prelacy, desegregation sometimes entailed the closure of black Catholic institutions. Catholic religious in the archdiocese were exclusively white until Patricia Haley made her vows in the mid-1960s, and some priests and many more white laity accepted or supported segregation and racial exclusion.

The archdiocese had opened the first of several churches specifically for African Americans in 1870. Into the 1960s, in some cases, African Americans who attended territorial Catholic churches elsewhere in the diocese were routinely segregated from whites. Religious orders of white sisters administered several Catholic schools for African Americans, often founded in the 1860s and 1870s. Until the 1950s, the state’s Day Law, enacted in 1904, mandated segregated private and public schools and higher education.

When Floersh retired in February 1967, desegregation of Catholic institutions in the archdiocese remained incomplete. African American and white Catholics mostly lived in different areas and attended different churches and often schools. The archdiocese had five African American churches and elementary schools in areas with significant black populations, and no black clergy. St. Charles Church in St. Mary, Marion County, didn’t end segregated seating until 1967. Even if the archbishop had consistently advocated and enforced integration, many white Catholics might still have joined white flight to the suburbs. Usually unwilling to take a public stand, Floersh did not provide Catholics with outspoken leadership to accept, welcome, and work for Catholic and secular desegregation.

For further information about this presentation at the joint meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) and the Religious Research Association (RRA) in Minneapolis, October 31–November 2, 2025, contact Dr. Mark Newman at the University of Edinburgh (m.newman@ed.ac.uk).

Catholic Priests’ Approval of Pope Francis and Attitudes about Homosexuality

In a new study released in the journal Sociology of Religion, researcher Lucas Sharma finds that priests who hold a favorable attitude toward Pope Francis’ papacy are more likely to adopt a pastoral approach to homosexuality and gay priests, even among priests who are politically conservative, heterosexual, or recently ordained.

Sharma used the 2020 Survey of American Catholic Priests, a dataset of just over 1,000 U.S. Catholic priests collected by the Austin Institute at the University of Texas, to examine priests’ attitudes about the morality of homosexuality and their attitudes about whether gay men should be admitted to the priesthood. Sharma found that, as expected, “priests’ attitudes about homosexuality can be predicted by date of ordination, political ideology, religious traditionalism, and sexual orientation.” He similarly found a positive association between recently ordained priests and attitudes against homosexuality and gay priests.

More interestingly, however, he found that priests’ “attitudes towards Pope Francis are statistically significant and negatively associated with attitudes about homosexuality.” He suggests that “priests’ approval or disapproval of Pope Francis reflects their approval or disapproval of a pastoral ethos regarding LGBTQ people. This pastoral approach may be following Pope Francis’ call to ask, ‘who am I to judge?’ which may mean priests are more accommodating of homosexual behavior and the admission of gay men to the priesthood. Thus, while in the aggregate it appears that priests are getting more conservative concerning homosexuality, this finding suggests that within the American priesthood itself, there is more diversity on these attitudes, partially shaped by if one acts pastorally regarding moral beliefs.”

Sharma admits that there are other possibilities that might explain this relationship between approval of Pope Francis and attitudes about homosexuality, and he tests a variety of other models to see if approval of Pope Francis affects attitudes about other sensitive topics, such as masturbation, premarital sex, or contraception. He finds, though, that there is a “distinctive pastoral ethos at play regarding attitudes on homosexuality, distinct from contraception, premarital sex, and masturbation.”

“Taking Francis’ Pastoral Approach: Catholic Priests’ Approval of Pope Francis and Attitudes on Lay Same-Sex Behavior and Homosexual Clergy,” by Lucas S. Sharma, SJ, was published in Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review, August 2025.

Environmental Justice and the Locations of Parish Closures

In examining the locations of closed parishes in the Archdioceses of Baltimore and St. Louis, and the Diocese of Cleveland, CARA researchers Mark M. Gray and Emma Mitchell found that closed parishes were in neighborhoods with higher levels of pollution.

This builds upon previous research from CARA that looked at the locations of parish closures and openings in 11 dioceses nationwide. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, that original study examined racial and socioeconomic characteristics of the neighborhoods in which parishes opened or closed. The current report is built upon the previous research and adds data on local polluting agents taken from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The recent study found that parish closures were correlated with polluted neighborhoods, specifically those with proximity to underground storage tanks or hazardous waste facilities.

Crucially, analysis of the data was unable to disentangle proximity to polluting agents from race and socioeconomic data. This aligns with what is already widely accepted—that many years of environmental racism have led to communities of color and the poor experiencing more exposure to pollution. In terms of the parish closure data, this leads to a chicken-and-egg situation, in that while we can see that these factors are correlated, it is not possible to draw any conclusion about whether one factor in particular contributed to parish closures.

This study demonstrates the importance of examining environmental factors when looking at trends in parish closures. As the Church is called not only to serve the poor, but also those affected by environmental degradation, this is a serious issue for diocesan consideration that touches upon both.

For further information about this presentation at the joint meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) and the Religious Research Association (RRA), in Minneapolis, October 31 to November 2, 2025, contact the authors at CARA (CARA@georgetown.edu).

Priests Are Still Flourishing, but with Some Differences in Priorities

A new study released by Brandon Vaidyanathan and his colleagues at The Catholic University of America compares the attitudes and opinions of U.S. Catholic priests to those expressed by this same group three years ago. In May 2025, the project surveyed 3,063 priests, both diocesan and religious, who had provided an email address in the 2022 study, and achieved a response rate of 38 percent. Repeating many of the questions from the previous study, the researchers found many similarities and a few interesting differences. The following paragraphs summarize some findings from the current study.

Priests scored an average of 82 out of 100 on a “flourishing scale” measuring well-being, identical to the score reported in 2022 and the same for both diocesan and religious priests. Simultaneously, 44 percent of diocesan priests and 31 percent of religious priests reported at least one symptom of burnout and more than four in ten priests ordained since 2000 (43 percent) reported that they are expected to do too many things “that go beyond [their] calling as priests.”

Four in ten diocesan priests, and 28 percent of religious priests, serve in more than one parish. The study found, however, that the number of parishes in which a priest serves is not statistically related to his level of burnout. And when asked, only 3 percent of priests reported that they are thinking of leaving the priesthood.

More than half of diocesan priests (52 percent) say they have confidence in their bishop, up from 49 percent in 2022. Likewise, more than one-quarter of all priests (27 percent) express confidence in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, compared to 22 percent in 2022.

Although priests were largely united in ranking youth/young adult ministry, family faith formation (including marriage preparation), and evangelization as the top pastoral priorities for the Church in the United States, there were substantial differences among ordination cohorts in the priority they placed on some other items. For example, 92 percent of priests ordained before 1980 say that racism is a pastoral priority, compared to 49 percent of priests ordained in 2000 or later. Similarly, 77 percent of priests ordained before 1980 agree that synodality should be a pastoral priority for the Church, compared to just 29 percent of those ordained in 2000 or later.

Nevertheless, the report finds that priests at the parish level appear to be quite adept at practicing synodality. Eighty-five percent reported they have a pastoral council or similar body that plays an important role in decision-making, 75 percent involve parishioners in prayer and reflection ahead of significant parish decisions, and 65 percent say they have changed a parish practice or made a decision based on lay input, with 64 percent intentionally seeking out the perspectives of those less involved in parish life.

“Morale, Leadership, and Pastoral Priorities: Highlights from the 2025 National Study of Catholic Priests,” by Brandon Vaidyanathan, Stephen Cranney, Stephen P. White, and Sara Perla, October 2025, is available on the website of The Catholic University of America (catholicproject.catholic.edu).

Support for Prayer in Public Schools Strongest in South and Midwest

A report from the Pew Research Center observes that, “Today, Americans are deeply split on the question of whether to allow Christian prayer in school.” The extent of these differences can be seen in Pew’s 2023–2024 Religious Landscape Study, which included sufficient results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia to offer the following conclusions:

• Just over half of U.S. adults (53 percent) say they favor allowing public school teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus: 27 percent say they strongly favor this, and 26 percent say they favor it.

• Forty-six percent oppose allowing public school teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus: 22 percent say they strongly oppose this, and 24 percent say they oppose it.

In 22 states, more adults say they favor allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers than say they oppose it.

• Support for Christian prayer in schools is particularly high in parts of the South, including Mississippi (81 percent), Alabama (75 percent), Arkansas (75 percent ), Louisiana (74 percent), and South Carolina (71 percent).

• Other Southern states, such as Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, are also among the states with the most support (67 percent in each state).

• In eight Midwestern states, there is more support than opposition: South Dakota (65 percent), North Dakota (61 percent), Indiana (58 percent), Kansas (58 percent), Missouri (57 percent), Nebraska (56 percent), Ohio (53 percent), and Michigan (53 percent).

In 12 states and the District of Columbia, more adults say they oppose allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus than say they favor it.

• Three of these states are on the West Coast: Oregon (65 percent), Washington (61 percent), and California (56 percent). Six are in New England and the Northeast: Vermont (64 percent), Connecticut (60 percent), New Hampshire (60 percent), Massachusetts (58 percent), New York (53 percent), and New Jersey (53 percent).

• There is also more opposition than support in Minnesota (59 percent), Colorado (58 percent), and Illinois (54 percent). The District of Columbia (69 percent) had the country’s highest level of opposition.

The remaining 16 states are divided, with no statistically significant differences in the shares who favor or oppose allowing teachers to lead their students in prayers that mention Jesus.

“Support for Christian Prayer in U.S. Public Schools Varies Widely by State,” by Chris Rotolo, June 23, 2025, appears on the website of the Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org).

Democrats May Have a Religion Problem

Researcher Ryan Burge, of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, suggests that the fact that “Most Americans [60 percent] are still Christian” is something that “Democrats seem to have forgotten.” In support of this assertion, he offers the following breakdown of the broad religious affiliation of voters in the 2024 presidential election:

• Eighty percent of the people who voted for Donald Trump identified as some type of Christian versus 48 percent for Kamala Harris.

• Just 17 percent of Trump voters identified as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular, versus 45 percent of Harris voters who were non-religious.

Another demonstration of this phenomenon is the religious attendance rates among Democratic voters in 2024:

• White voter attendance: Never (52 percent), seldom (21percent), yearly (10 percent), monthly (5 percent), weekly (9 percent), weekly+ (0 percent), unknown (3 percent).

• Non-White voter attendance: Never (32 percent), seldom (22 percent), yearly (15 percent), monthly (8 percent), weekly (17 percent), weekly+ (7 percent).

Accordingly, Dr. Burge suggests that it’s much easier for a Republican than a Democratic candidate to deliver a coherent religious message. “If you’re working for the GOP, something along the lines of ‘God, Country, and Traditional Family Values’ resonates with nearly all your voters. For Democrats, it’s not that simple. A message of faith and values will probably turn off as many voters as it attracts.”

“The Democrats Have a Religion Problem,” by Ryan Burge, October 27, 2025, appears on Graphs about Religion (graphsaboutreligion.com).

U.S. Permanent Deacons in 2024

Since 2005, CARA has completed annual national surveys of offices of the permanent diaconate in U.S. dioceses and eparchies for the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The latest research occurred during February to May 2025, with responses from 140 of the 185 (76 percent) USCCB member dioceses and eparchies. The response rate is higher among dioceses (78 percent) than among eparchies (22 percent). Major findings follow.

Estimated Number of Permanent Deacons in the United States

• The 140 responding dioceses and eparchies reported a total of 16,769 permanent deacons, both active and not active. Extrapolating to include those who did not respond, there were an estimated 20,212 permanent deacons in the United States in 2024.

• The responding dioceses and eparchies reported a total of 11,503 permanent deacons active in ministry. Extrapolating to include those who did not respond, there are an estimated 13,864 deacons active in ministry in the United States. Thus, about 69 percent of all permanent deacons were active in 2024.

• Dioceses with the greatest number of permanent deacons included the Archdiocese of Chicago (848), Archdiocese of Atlanta (385), Archdiocese of New York (369), Archdiocese of San Antonio (361), and Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston (316).

• Dioceses with the most favorable deacon-to-parishioner ratio were the Diocese of Rapid City (487 Catholics per permanent deacon), Diocese of Lexington (502), Diocese of Tulsa (575), Diocese of Bismarck (649), and Diocese of Duluth (664).

• During calendar year 2024, 393 new permanent deacons were ordained, while 545 deacons retired from active ministry, and another 361 died. As is the case with U.S. priests, there are too few new permanent deacons being ordained to make up for the numbers who are retiring or dying each year.

Characteristics of Permanent Deacons

• Ninety-three percent of active permanent deacons are married, 4 percent are widowers, and 2 percent have never been married. Ninety-seven percent are at least 50 years old: 18 percent are in their 50s, 41 percent are in their 60s, and 38 percent are 70 or older.

• Seventy-four percent of active permanent deacons are White, 20 percent are Hispanic, 3 percent are Asian, and 2 percent are Black. Sixty-six percent have at least a college degree. Fifteen percent have a graduate degree in a field related to religion or ministry.

• Among permanent deacons who are financially compensated for ministry, 10 percent are entrusted with the pastoral care of one or more parishes, 24 percent work in other parish ministerial positions (e.g., director of religious education or youth minister), and 18 percent work in parish non-ministerial positions (e.g., administration, business, finance).

Active Academic Formation Programs

• Ninety-two percent of dioceses/eparchies have an active ministry formation program for the permanent diaconate. Among those with no such program in place, 30 percent plan to begin a program in the next two years.

• Sixty-six percent of those with active diaconate formation have an in-house diaconate formation program, 43 percent operate through a theological institution, and some have both. Forty percent offer courses online.

• Among those with active diaconate ministry formation, 27 percent offer the program in Spanish.

Post-Ordination Formation

• Ninety percent of responding dioceses/eparchies require post-ordination formation of permanent deacons, a median of 20 hours annually.

• Ninety-nine percent require an annual retreat of deacons, and 90 percent provide other annual gatherings.

A Portrait of the Permanent Diaconate in 2024: A Report to the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, by Thu T. Do, LHC, and Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ, May 2025, is available on the USCCB website (usccb.org).

Ongoing Research…

L’Arche USA Survey …

As part of a Lilly Endowment grant for its Sacred Stories Initiative, L’Arche USA has asked CARA to survey those living at, working at, and associated with their 24 communities in the United States. The study will address their spiritual practices and needs, as well as how their faith helps them to live meaningful lives. The survey will assist L’Arche in later creating a video series, audio series of prayers, and clergy retreats. For more information, contact Dr. Jon Wiggins, jlw8@georgetown.edu.

Parish Survey for Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America …

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has commissioned CARA to survey its parish clergy and ministry leaders about how the archdiocese can better help equip and prepare ministry teachers and workers as they build up the Body of Christ in their parishes. The archdiocese will create resources and training in the areas identified as priorities in the study. For more information, contact Dr. Jon Wiggins, jlw8@georgetown.edu.

Catholics and Racial Justice Poll …

National research is being conducted with partners to study what Catholics believe about racial justice. It seeks to understand if Catholics know Church teachings about racial justice, prejudice, and discrimination; the extent to which they rely on these teachings in their own lives; and if they have heard about issues of race, prejudice, discrimination, and immigration from the pulpit. Catholicism is the most racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse faith in the country, so we want to understand how Catholics navigate these identities in their relationships with parishioners and parish staff. The survey will also seek an understanding of the extent to which Catholics have faced racial, ethnic, and/or linguistic prejudice outside of their parishes. The study report will be released in early 2026. For more information, contact Dr. Mark Gray, mmg34@georgetown.edu.

Ministries of International Priests and Sisters …

CARA is collaborating with research teams in Cameroon, India, and Mexico to explore how sisters and priests understand one another’s vocation and charism, and how this influences their collaboration in ministry. Research methods are being thoughtfully adapted to the context of each country, with an emphasis on capturing lived experiences rather than taking a uniform approach. Data collection is ongoing in all three countries, with findings to be published as a book in 2026. For more information, contact Fr. Thomas Gaunt, SJ, tpg9@georgetown.edu.

The CARA Report

Editor Julie Bourbon

Contributing Editor Gerald H. Early

The CARA Report is published quarterly by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. Subscriptions are $55 for one year, $100 for two years, and $140 for three years. Bulk orders of reprints are available.

ISSN: 1089-5183

CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH

IN THE APOSTOLATE

Rev. Thomas P. Gaunt, SJ, Ph.D. - Executive Director

Board of Directors

Jane G. Belford, J.D. - Washington, DC

Kathleen Dorsey Bellow, D.Min. - Xavier University, New Orleans, LA

Sister Maria Cimperman, RSCJ, Ph.D. - Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, IL

Rev. Ricardo da Silva, SJ - America Media, New York, NY

Benjamin Durheim, Ph.D. - College of St. Benedict/Saint John’s University, Collegeville, MN

Jenny Kraska, J.D. - Maryland Catholic Conference, Annapolis, MD

Christina Lamas - National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry, Washington, DC

Patricia Lloyd - Gregorian University Foundation, Washington, DC

Archbishop W. Shawn McKnight, S.T.D. - Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas City, KS

Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala - Archdiocese of Washington, Washington, DC

Rev. Juan Molina Flores, Ph.D. - President, Mexican American Catholic College, San Antonio, TX

Cynthia Morris - Washington, DC

Hosffman Ospino, Ph.D. - Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA

Rev. Anthony J. Pogorelc, PSS, M.Div., S.T.L., Ph.D. - Society of St. Sulpice, U.S. Province, Baltimore, MD

Tia Noelle Pratt, Ph.D. - Villanova University, Villanova, PA

Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate

Georgetown University

Washington, DC 20057-1203

Telephone: 202-687-8080 • Fax: 202-687-8083

CARA@georgetown.edu • CARA.georgetown.edu

“Serving the Church’s Research Needs Since 1964”

News and Publications

• Fr. Tom, executive director of CARA, was featured in a podcast, Religion to Reality. The goal of this podcast is to help Catholics integrate their faith into the entirety of their lives. In this particular episode, Season Finale – Living the Integrated Life, Fr. Tom shares about how CARA’s research demonstrates the value of being a listening Church. Listen to the episode at their website here, or on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

• Our quarterly publication, The CARA Report, comes out next month! The CARA Report provides our readers with important and up-to-date research on American Catholics and the Catholic Church in the United States. You can upgrade your Substack subscription to PAID to receive The CARA Report directly through Substack, or purchase a subscription on our website to receive a physical mailing.

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Happenings at CARA

This month, CARA hosted our annual awards ceremony. We honored the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, the Dominican Sisters of Peace, and the Loretto Community with the the Rev. Louis V. Luzbetak, SVD, Award for Exemplary Church Research for their contributions to and support of Church research. More than 25 years ago, each of these communities began archival research to document and report their congregation’s slaveholding during the 19th century. Since then, these three congregations have sought to memorialize the women, men and children who were held in bondage, and to meet with their descendants.

At the CARA Awards, the three congregations were recognized for their profound commitment to truth and reconciliation. Through memorial monuments, public apologies, archival research, and outreach to descendants, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, the Dominican Sisters of Peace, and the Loretto Community are preserving these stories and fostering racial healing.

CARA researchers also traveled to two conferences in the past month. At the first, in Mexico City, researchers Father Tom Gaunt and Sister Thu Do presented on CARA’s various research on religious sisters, and how research can assist these communities. At the second, SSSR-RRA in Minneapolis, Sister Thu Do presented on Catholics’ opinions on sacred music, Emma Mitchell presented on church closures and pollution, and Jon Wiggins led a panel on the new book, Catholicism at a Crossroads, an exploration of some of the latest Catholic sociological data.

Finally, November was bittersweet as we said goodbye to our dear visiting scholar, Sister Vijo Arul Selvi M, CFMSS. The six months that she spent in our office were an absolute delight. Now, Sister Vijo returns to India to continue the research on Indian sisters which she began at CARA, while working at the Centre for Research on Religious Life India (CRRI) and completing her PhD in Mathematics. We are so grateful to have hosted Sister Vijo as our visiting scholar!

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News and Publications

Did you know CARA has a blog? Check out Nineteen Sixty-Four for bite-sized summaries and highlights that CARA researchers pull from our research. The most recent blog covers where the Catholic population has changed the most in the United States, and more posts are coming soon!

Upcoming Work

Our researchers are currently developing a poll of U.S. Catholics on their feelings about racial justice. The report will be available in 2026— until then please check out our website for our recent published polls, including topics such as climate justice and migration and refugees.

Happenings at CARA

Our executive director, Fr. Thomas Gaunt, recently traveled to Orlando to present data on parish closures to the Canon Law Society of America. The presentation was met with excellent discussion— thank you to the Canon Law Society of America for their hosting!

Researchers from CARA will be participating in a gathering of Catholic researchers in Mexico City. Sister Thu Do and Fr. Gaunt will present some of CARA’s recent research on religious sisters internationally, and the different needs that communities face, including elderly care and mental health. This article from last spring describes some of the other amazing research from our colleagues in Mexico.

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News and Publications

• Studies commissioned by the McGrath Institute of Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and the National Association of Catholic Theological Schools (NACTS) have been published on our website. The three studies examine the important topics of psychological assessments at seminaries, new priest satisfaction, and sexual misconduct in seminaries. To read these reports, please visit our website.

• Thank you to the news outlets who published articles about our recent research on priestly formation. One article, from OSV News, can be read at this link.

Happenings at CARA

The Roundtable on the Vietnamese Catholic Migrant Experience featuring CARA’s Sister Thu Do, LHC went well. The roundtable organizers proposed a book project on the theme, and invited speakers to contribute.

Our new Instagram is up and running! The purpose of creating this platform is to help broaden the reach of CARA’s mission: increasing the Church’s self understanding; serving the applied research needs of Church decision-makers; and advancing scholarly research on religion, particularly Catholicism. Please consider following us at @cara_georgetown to stay up to date on Catholic statistics!

At the end of the month, some members of the CARA staff attended the Archdiocese of Washington’s Reflection Procession and Mass for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Below is a photo of Fr. Tom, our executive director, and Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, one of the CARA boardmembers, at the procession.

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New Study on Catholic Life in the United States

U.S. Priesthood Formation Programs

CARA Researchers on the Road, at Home and Abroad

The Marginalization of Philosophy in Women Religious’ Initial Formation: Advocating for Its Relevance and Integration

Religious Switching Is Common in Christian Countries

CARA Briefs

Churches Show Resilience Five…

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News and Publications

- Our annual survey of Men and Women Entering Religious Life is now available on our website. Learn more about the Entrance Class of 2024 here.

- CARA was cited in a Washington Post article about Bishop Michael Pham of San Diego, who arrived in the U.S. as a child refugee. The Post referenced CARA’s survey on immigration from March last year. The full report, led by researcher Mark Gray, can be read in full here.

Happenings at CARA

Researcher Sr. Thu Do, LHC, will be participating in a Roundtable on the Vietnamese Catholic Migrant Experience on September 4th at 8pm EST. The Roundtable will be streamed to the public (accessible using the link below), and while it will focus on the Vietnamese experience, it will also aim to address broader themes relevant to the Church as a whole. Please join to learn more about the research CARA has done on Vietnamese Catholics.

Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89202435594 (Password: 000629)

We now have an Instagram to help bring our research to even more people. Our work at CARA is important for contextualizing the Catholic experience to better inform the Church faithful. Please follow @cara_georgetown to stay up to date on Catholic statistics!

Finally, a warm welcome to the newest member of CARA’s staff, Ali Mumbach! Ali holds an M.A. in Sociology from Howard University, and is also a earning a master’s in theology from the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana. For the past several years she has served as the campus minister of the Howard University Bison Catholic community. Her research interests are in the Black Church, Black Catholics, and young adults. She is very excited to join the CARA team.

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The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian Families

The Ordination Class of 2025

CARA Board Chairman Is New Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas

Most U.S. Catholics Want a More Inclusive Church

The Religious Entrance Class of 2024

CARA Briefs

Religious Leaders Compared in New National Study

A New Social Portrait of Catholics in …

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News and Publications

- CARA’s recent report on the impact of Marian Devotion on Vocations has been covered by several news outlets. The report, led by researcher Sister Thu Do, LHC, can be read in full here, on CARA’s website.

- There is a new post on the CARA blog from researcher Mark Gray— this one about Pope Leo and the shortcomings of AI.

- The 2025 Catholic Ministry Formation Directory is finally released! Those who pre-ordered a copy should be receiving their orders soon, and those who wish to order a copy, (with the option of pdf or hardcopy) can do so through CARA’s bookstore.

Happenings at CARA

We have now been doing these monthly updates on substack for over one year! We are forever grateful for the many people who follow our work in this way!

In order for us to learn a little more about what you enjoy on our substack, and what we could improve upon, we are asking our substack followers to fill out this feedback form, which should take less than three minutes. Thank you for taking the time to help us improve!

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