Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
April 05, 2010

A new analysis of religious identification finds that contrary to popular and scholarly belief, U.S. Latinos are not leaving the Catholic Church for Protestant churches but are becoming more secularized, affiliating with no faith at all. A study released March 16 by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., reported that Latinos who have left the church since 1990 have shifted toward secularism as they become more Americanized. The study noted that as in the general U.S. population, Latinos became less identified with Christianity between 1990 and 2008, down from 91 percent to 82 percent. Those who said they identified with no faith grew to 12 percent in 2008 from 6 percent in 1990. The American Religious Identification Survey of 2008 reports that Latino immigrants continue to be the largest factor in maintaining the size of the U.S. Catholic population. Latinos comprised 32 percent of all U.S. Catholics in 2008 compared with 20 percent in 1990. Among Latinos, 60 percent in 2008 said they were Catholic, compared with 66 percent in 1990.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Much of the story of the Second Vatican Council was first told to Americans by Xavier Rynne in The New Yorker. But who was Rynne?
James T. KeaneJune 06, 2023
In a June 1 audience with Pope Francis, Sister Laura, a leader of the church in the Amazon, spoke about “the need to advance in recognizing the diaconal service that [women] provide to the church.”
Casey StantonJune 06, 2023
cardinal matteo zuppi gestures during a meeting sitting at a table with dmytro lubinets
Pope Francis’ peace envoy to Ukraine met President Volodymyr Zelensky amid breaking news of the destruction of a critical dam that Zelensky blamed on “Russian terrorists.”
Scripture in Matthew Jesus and Caesar Coin stock photo
A Reflection for Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, by Joe Hoover, S.J.
Joe Hoover, S.J.June 06, 2023