American Catholics in Transition reports on five surveys carried out at six year intervals over a period of 25 years, from 1987 to 2011. The surveys are national probability samples of American Catholics, age 18 and older, now including four generations of Catholics. Over these twenty five years, the authors have found significant changes in Catholics’ attitudes and behavior as well as many enduring trends in the explanation of Catholic identity. Generational change helps explain many of the differences. Many millennial Catholics continue to remain committed to and active in the Church, but there are some interesting patterns of difference within this generation. Hispanic Catholics are more likely than their non-Hispanic peers to emphasize social justice issues such as immigration reform and concern for the poor; and while Hispanic millennial women are the most committed to the Church, non-Hispanic millennial women are the least committed to Catholicism.
In this fifth book in the series, the authors expand on the topics that were introduced in the first four editions. The authors are able to point to dramatic changes in and across generations and gender, especially regarding Catholic identity, commitment, parish life, and church authority. William V. D’Antonio, Michele Dillon, and Mary L. Gautier provide timely information pertaining to Catholics’ views regarding current pressing issues in the Church, such as the priest shortage and alternative liturgical arrangements and same-sex marriage. The authors, also, provides the first full portrayal of how the growing numbers of Hispanic Catholics in the U.S. are changing the Church.
William V. D’Antonio is research professor of sociology at The Catholic University of America and a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies. He is the co-author or co-editor of fifteen books, includingAmerican Catholics Today.
Michele Dillon is professor and chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, and President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. She is the author of a number of books including Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith, and Power, and In the Course of a Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, and Change (co-author Paul Wink). In 2012, she was the JE and Lillian Byrne Tipton Distinguished Visiting Professor in Catholic Studies, at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Mary L. Gautier is senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. She is coauthor of a number of books, most recently Same Call, Different Men: The Evolution of the Priesthood Since Vatican II.
ForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: 25 Years of Observing Catholic LifeChapter 1: The legacy of Pre-Vatican II Catholics Chapter 2: Catholics in the United States: A Quarter Century of ChangeChapter 3: Catholic Identity and Commitment Chapter 4: American Catholics and Church AuthorityChapter 5: Catholic Women: Commitment and ChangeChapter 6: Generational Changes in Catholic PracticeChapter 7: Religion and Party PoliticsChapter 8: Millennial CatholicsChapter 9: Conclusions: Continuities and changes in American CatholicismAppendix:2011 SurveyReferencesIndexAbout the Authors
What People are Saying About This
Chester Gillis
In American Catholics survey and analysis confirms that Catholics remain consistently committed to core doctrinal teachings but increasingly distance themselves from moral teachings and institutional structures. The two most disturbing trends are women’s decreasing identification with the Church and the millennial generation’s independence from Catholicism in particular and organized religion in general.
Zeni Fox
Vatican II, in method and message, called us to pay attention to the particular – the local church, the worshipping community, the griefs and joys of our time. American Catholics helps pastoral leaders to more fully understand those to whom they minister in their concrete particularity. The differences of commitment and belief based on gender, generation and ethnicity which the authors describe call for diverse pastoral responses. Ministry with young adults and Hispanics, two groups with whom creative initiatives are especially needed, would be enriched by the understanding provided here.
Timothy Matovina
D'Antonio and various collaborators have conducted the only regular series of national surveys that collectively illuminate changes and continuities among American Catholics over the past quarter century. I was especially pleased to see that this fifth volume in the series appropriately presents the most extensive treatment of Hispanic Catholics to date.
Lisa Cahill
Assumptions and assertions about "Catholics" or "the Church" or "the Catholic vote" need to be but often are not backed by the facts. Facts are what American Catholics supplies in abundance, with sometimes surprising results. The authors' clearly stated and provocative interpretations of data yield an invaluable window onto U.S. Catholicism, past, present, and to come. This is an engrossing as well as important book for scholars, people working in or on Catholic institutions and culture, and for anyone who wants to follow the role of Roman Catholicism in U.S. society and politics.
Hosffman Ospino
Catholics in the United States welcomed the twenty-first century amidst major cultural and demographic transitions that are profoundly redefining the American Catholic Experience. For three decades the surveys of American Catholics have offered the Church in this country a tremendous service in helping her to understand these important transitions. The New Evangelization demands that we understand the context in which we live and share our faith. American Catholics: Persisting and Change is an excellent resource for scholars of U.S. Catholicism and pastoral leaders to do precisely that.
Jerome P. Baggett
The topography of American Catholicism is variegated, ever-winding and rife with often unexpected vistas of both persistence and change. For those wanting to explore it, American Catholics – marked by impressive detail, analytical nuance and plain good sense – is without doubt the indispensable guide.