Catholicism at a Crossroads: The Present and Future of America’s Largest Church
Maureen K. Day · James C. Cavendish · Paul M. Perl · Michele Dillon · Mary L. Gautier · William V. D'Antonio
Feb 2025 · NYU Press
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About this ebook
Offers a big picture analysis of American Catholicism
The Catholic Church is at a crossroads. In the United States alone there are many challenges facing the church that are both internal and external to the institution. With the rise of the growing Gen Z population and the diminishing of the pre-Vatican II generation, gone are the days of a patriarchal, “father knows best” religious obedience. Indeed, as issues of gender, race, reproductive rights, and non-nuclear families have risen in prominence, the Catholic Church has had to adapt to keep pace with the times.
The latest in a series of important sociological overviews drawing on nation-wide surveys administered every six years, Catholicism at a Crossroads charts this new era of Catholic worship, belonging, and identity in America today. Augmenting the survey data for the first time with over fifty interviews with lay and ordained US Catholic leaders, the book illustrates how the church has adapted to Pope Francis’s modern papacy, the rise of religious non-affiliation, and various demographic changes including an increasing Hispanic population. Addressing how the church is responding to recent cultural challenges presented by political polarization, racial unrest, and threats to democracy, Catholicism at a Crossroads offers an up-to-date, nuanced, and definitive portrait of American Catholicism in the twenty-first century while also providing discussions of how the findings may be relevant for the study of American religion more broadly.
The Catholic Church is at a crossroads. In the United States alone there are many challenges facing the church that are both internal and external to the institution. With the rise of the growing Gen Z population and the diminishing of the pre-Vatican II generation, gone are the days of a patriarchal, “father knows best” religious obedience. Indeed, as issues of gender, race, reproductive rights, and non-nuclear families have risen in prominence, the Catholic Church has had to adapt to keep pace with the times.
The latest in a series of important sociological overviews drawing on nation-wide surveys administered every six years, Catholicism at a Crossroads charts this new era of Catholic worship, belonging, and identity in America today. Augmenting the survey data for the first time with over fifty interviews with lay and ordained US Catholic leaders, the book illustrates how the church has adapted to Pope Francis’s modern papacy, the rise of religious non-affiliation, and various demographic changes including an increasing Hispanic population. Addressing how the church is responding to recent cultural challenges presented by political polarization, racial unrest, and threats to democracy, Catholicism at a Crossroads offers an up-to-date, nuanced, and definitive portrait of American Catholicism in the twenty-first century while also providing discussions of how the findings may be relevant for the study of American religion more broadly.
About the author
Maureen K. Day (Author)
Maureen K. Day is a Research Affiliate at the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture and Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies and author of Catholic Activism Today: Individual Transformation and the Struggle for Social Justice.
James C. Cavendish (Author)
James C. Cavendish is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida and past President and past Executive Officer of the Association for the Sociology of Religion.
Paul M. Perl (Author)
Paul M. Perl is Sociologist at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University and coauthor of Same Call, Different Men.
Michele Dillon (Author)
Michele Dillon is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the Class of 1944 Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire and the author of Postsecular Catholicism: Relevance and Renewal.
Mary L. Gautier (Author)
Mary L. Gautier is Senior Research Associate Emerita at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University and coauthor of God’s Call is Everywhere: A Global Analysis of Contemporary Religious Vocations for Women.
William V. D'Antonio (Author)
William V. D’Antonio is Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of America and coauthor of American Catholics in Transition.
Maureen K. Day is a Research Affiliate at the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture and Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies and author of Catholic Activism Today: Individual Transformation and the Struggle for Social Justice.
James C. Cavendish (Author)
James C. Cavendish is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida and past President and past Executive Officer of the Association for the Sociology of Religion.
Paul M. Perl (Author)
Paul M. Perl is Sociologist at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University and coauthor of Same Call, Different Men.
Michele Dillon (Author)
Michele Dillon is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the Class of 1944 Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire and the author of Postsecular Catholicism: Relevance and Renewal.
Mary L. Gautier (Author)
Mary L. Gautier is Senior Research Associate Emerita at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University and coauthor of God’s Call is Everywhere: A Global Analysis of Contemporary Religious Vocations for Women.
William V. D'Antonio (Author)
William V. D’Antonio is Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of America and coauthor of American Catholics in Transition.
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