Traditional, orthodox Roman Catholic believers ought to be extremely grateful that American Catholics do not vote on Catholic doctrine, moral teaching, and ecclesiology. Because if they did, and if they got their way, much of the historic Roman Catholic Church would be swept away into the dustbin of history. This conclusion screams from the pages of a recent Pew Research Center survey report, “Most U.S. Catholics Say They Want the Church To Be ‘More Inclusive.’” Pew conducted the survey from February 3 through 9 with “1,787 Catholic respondents.”
Few of us would be surprised by one of the report’s major findings, namely that “there are large divides between Catholics who attend Mass weekly and those who don’t.” That is, the latter are astronomically more liberal. Nor would we be surprised that Catholic Democrats are far more liberal than Republican ones (Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi versus J.D. Vance, anyone?).
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Some might not have expected that Catholic women are more liberal than Catholic men, though this sex difference is something we see in national politics as well. Here, women were more progressive in the following areas: whether the Church should be more “inclusive,” the use of birth control, blessings for same-sex couples (66 percent, versus 54 percent for men), marriage for same-sex couples (55 percent, versus 45 percent for men), and allowing women to be deacons.
Unfortunately, Pew did not explore the impact of marital status on women’s stances. My guess is that this would show that marital status, along with having or not having children, would matter a lot—with married women, especially those with children, being more conservative, as they are politically. We can infer this by the above-mentioned finding regarding the doctrinal differences between Catholic Democrats and Republicans, since single women are far more likely to vote Democrat.
Age mattered, but in surprising ways. Respondents who were 18 to 34 were often more conservative, in some cases by very hefty margins, than those ages 65 and older. This was true on the ordination of women as priests and deacons, whether priests should be allowed to marry, Communion for cohabiting Catholics, the use of IVF, and wanting the Church to be more “inclusive.” (I ignored findings where differences were only a few or less percentage points.)
I could only find one area where younger respondents were more liberal to any significant degree, but it was an important one. Those 18 to 34 were more likely than those 65 and older to support marriage for same-sex couples (55 versus 49 percent).
Hispanics were more conservative than white non-Hispanics in some areas. These included whether the Church should be more inclusive, the use of IVF, Communion of the cohabiting, allowing women to be deacons or priests, and allowing priests to marry.
As for trends over time, some Pew findings showed only slight changes between 2013, 2014 or 2015, and now. One exception was support for using birth control, which rose from 76 to 84 percent between 2013 and 2025, a shift of eight percent. Even this is not an astronomical change, though the percentage here is hitting close to a ceiling. Another was support for giving Communion to cohabiting Catholics, which rose from 61 percent to a whopping 76 percent between 2015 and 2025, a 15-point shift.
But by far the biggest demographic finding of this report had to do with the differences between Catholics who attend Mass weekly or more and those who do not. This would be better news for observant Catholics if not for other facts. First, as Pew also reported in 2024, only 29 percent of U.S. Catholics attend Mass at least weekly. This is less than a third. Second, Catholics who do go to church as least weekly are still pretty darn progressive about many major Church teachings. Allow me to detail just how liberal weekly church attending Catholics really are, again noting that they are clearly much more conservative than Catholics who attend church less often.
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Over 70 percent of weekly church attenders support Catholics using birth control or IVF. Fifty-nine percent are OK with cohabiting people receiving Communion. Another 54 percent want female deacons. Forty-nine percent believe that the Catholic Church should allow priests to get married, versus 48 percent opposing this. This is a fifty-fifty split.
Even where the majority of weekly church attenders do not take more progressive positions vis-à-vis Church teaching, the percentages in favor of the latter are still pretty hefty. Forty-six percent want priests to bless same-sex unions (almost half of weekly church attenders want the Church to bless sin?), while 31 percent want full Church recognition of the same. Forty-one percent want female priests (priestesses?).
One interesting survey item mentioned above asked if the Church should “be more inclusive, even if that means changing some of its teachings,” versus saying that it should “stick to its traditional teachings, even if that means the church gets smaller.” Forty-two percent of weekly church attenders chose the former option (compared to 58 percent who attend only once or twice a month and 69 percent of those who attend church even less often).
