American Catholics in Transition

June 15, 2013

D'Antonio (sociology, Catholic Univ. of America), Michele Dillon (sociology, Univ. of New Hampshire), and Mary Gautier (Ctr. for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown Univ.) report on 25 years of surveys (1987-2011) of American Catholics that the authors undertook at six-year intervals. D'Antonio and colleagues have reported cumulatively on these surveys previously (e.g., American Catholics Today in 2007). They begin here with a description of the surveys over the years. Since the first one, Catholics have remained at about 25 percent of the country's population, but this is because of the influx of Hispanic immigrants. At the same time, 16 million to 20 million people born Catholic no longer identify as such. Faith in the fundamentals has remained strong, but the view of the church's moral authority has changed, and women are less committed to the church. VERDICT A well-written study that makes no judgments but does interpret the data to give a telling portrait of the state of the Catholic Church in America, this volume will appeal to those who like to be given the facts and come to their own conclusions. Peter McDonough's The Catholic Labyrinth, reviewed below, offers a more detailed (and opinionated) study of both conservative and liberal U.S. Catholic organizations seeking change in the church.--Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.