In the previous post we showed that Catholic affiliation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic. Now, there is also evidence that Mass attendance may have returned to pre-pandemic levels among U.S. Catholic adults. Weekly attendance dipped to 17% in late 2020 and early 2021 according to the General Social Survey (GSS). Yet, at this year’s end, it appears just fewer than a quarter are attending Mass weekly—or at least that is what they are reporting in CARA’s polls. This is similar to results in CARA and GSS surveys in years prior to the pandemic.
The changes shown above generally track with what CARA estimates using Google Trends data. What do you see in your parish? Are the numbers of people in the pews back to what you remember before the pandemic?