Even as U.S. Hispanics Lift Catholicism, Many Are Leaving the Church Behind

By all accounts, Hispanics are the future of Catholicism in America. Already, most young Roman Catholics in the United States are Hispanic, and soon that will be true of the overall Catholic population. But the Hispanicization of American Catholicism faces a big challenge: Hispanics are leaving Catholicism at a striking rate.

It has been clear for years that Catholicism, both in the United States and Latin America, has been losing adherents to evangelical Protestantism, and, in particular, to Pentecostal and other charismatic churches. But as an increasing percentage of the American Hispanic population is made up of people born in this country, a simultaneous, competing form of faith-switching is also underway: More American Hispanics are leaving Catholicism and becoming religiously unaffiliated.

The seemingly mind-bending result: Even as a rising percentage of American Catholics is Hispanic, a falling percentage of American Hispanics is Catholic.

Nearly one-quarter of Hispanics in the United States are former Catholics, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. By comparison, about 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics, according to a Pew survey released in 2008; the difference is partly explained by the fact that a much higher fraction of Hispanics started as Catholics.

The religious affiliation of Hispanics is of enormous significance to those interested in the future of religion in the United States, because Hispanics make up such a large and growing fraction of the nation’s population. Almost all Hispanic immigrants arrive from countries that are predominantly Catholic, so the religious choices made by Hispanics are particularly significant for the Catholic Church.

Earlier this week, Boston College released a survey of parishes showing that American Hispanic Catholics have higher participation rates in sacramental activities — Mass, baptisms, first communions — but lower participation rates in other aspects of parish life than do other American Catholics. Now comes the Pew poll, which finds faith-switching common and multidirectional, with no simple explanation.

Over all, Pew finds that 55 percent of Hispanics in the United States identified themselves as Catholic in 2013, down from 67 percent in 2010.

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