I have provided a quick summary of Part 1. Following that is a more detailed breakdown of the results under each category.
The TL;DR Version
Ages represented in the survey: 21 – 26 years old (33%), 27 – 32 (30%), and 33 – 39 (30%). The remaining 7% came from responses outside of the given age range. Women accounted for 72% of the responders, leaving 28% of responses from men. Cradle Catholics represented 73% of the total participants, while Converts represented 27%. The two most popular answers given for why people converted were the Church's history and personal relationships. Participants who received the Sacrament of Confirmation before high school accounted for 33% of responders, 43% came from those who were confirmed during high school, and 24% after high school. Finally, 84% of participants normally attend the Ordinary Form/ Novus Ordo Mass, 10% normally attend the Extraordinary Form/ Traditional Latin Mass, 3% said they normally attend two or more valid rites equally, and 3% normally attend an Eastern rite.
Age
(297 responses)
Reference: (Age: Number of Responses)
When posting this survey online, both on the actual Google Form itself and also on my post about the survey to Catholic Geeks Facebook page, I had requested an age range of 21-39 year old participants. While there was quite a lot of representation from all ages within this range, here's how the Top 4 shaped up:
26: 24 (Way to represent, my fellow 26 year olds!)
27: 19 (Way to represent, my soon-to-be fellow 27 year olds!)
28: 19
34: 19 (The only representation of 30-somethings at the top, but how appropriate that this is the middle of the 30-somethings).
21: 18
25: 18
24: 17
Majority of the remaining age groups were in the double digits.
22: 15
30: 15
39: 15
36: 14
29: 14
32: 11
37: 11
38: 11
31: 10
33: 10
35: 10
The only one that was in the single digits in this range was:
23: 6
Now, by the grace of God's free will and the ability to do whatever we want on the internet, some people outside the range responded to the survey. Sure, I expected a couple of 20 year olds, just on the brink of becoming 21, to respond, but not as many that did.
20: 13
Then we even had some teens who had the audacity to complete this survey as well (punk kids...gotta love 'em!)
19: 3
17: 1
14: 1
My biggest shock was finding people beyond the 39 year old limit who wanted to submit responses to the survey (punks...I guess we're all young at heart though.)
40: 2
42: 1
Sex
Not much to say on this category other than: Way to go, ladies! Men, let's step it up next time and really represent!
So, as you might've been able to guess before even seeing the results, more women answered the survey call than men did. There were nearly 3 women to every 1 man in this survey.
(300 responses)
Female: 217 participants or 72.3%
Male: 83 participants or 27.7%
Cradle or Convert?
Again, not much to say here since results kinda speak for themselves and the results aren't necessarily shocking. It was another near 3:1 split, where the Cradle Catholics, those born and raised in the Church, dominated the number of Convert Catholics.
(299 responses)
Cradle: 218 participants or 72.9%
Convert: 81 participants or 27.1%
If Convert, What Inspired Your Conversion?
Before diving into the reasons for people's conversions, it's worth noting that 7 people replied to this question explaining that they were a Revert, a cradle Catholic who had basically fallen away from their faith and over time chose to return to it, as if converted, with greater love for God and the Catholic Church. I know that I definitely feel the same way about my own faith journey, even calling my own return to faith a conversion experience for awhile before hearing the term "revert".There were two big reasons for why participants on this survey converted to Catholicism. The first one is the history and tradition of the Catholic Church, the authority and truth that upholds Catholicism. At least 20 people responded explaining that some variation of history, universality, and tradition of the Church was an inspiration, with 3 people specifically mentioning truth, 2 shout outs to the Church Fathers, and a couple mentions of authority or theology each. I loved this one response when they said they "recognized the roots of [their] faith were here, untainted".
The second biggest reason for participants' conversions to Catholicism was through personal relationships. At least 19 people talked about some person in their life being a huge influence. This is a moment where men began to shine, since 6 times a husband/boyfriend was mentioned as the main inspiration. After that, 5 other participants gave shout outs to women in their lives, from wives to girlfriends to moms and even a grandmother. Also, there were 5 mentions of raising a family or the family unit being inspirations for conversion. Finally, there were 3 participants who talked about the influence of ministers and chaplains in their faith lives.
2 people gave all the credit to God bringing them to the Catholic Church. 1 individual specifically stated the Holy Spirit was their conversion inspiration.
4 participants specifically used the word Sacrament and the inspiration the Sacraments had on them, including 1 specific mention of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Yet, perhaps the most influential Sacrament has been, of course, the Eucharist. 10 people discussed, in some form, the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, as a major inspiration for them. Within those 10 responses, 3 of them mentioned Eucharistic Adoration, praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament, with 1 participant saying "getting face-to-face with the Blessed Sacrament was the catalyst". Another individual specifically referenced John 6, the chapter of the Gospel of John where Our Lord Jesus Christ talks multiple times about receiving eternal life through consuming His body and blood.
And where do you mainly find the Sacrament of the Eucharist? Why in the Mass, of course! 4 responders mentioned the Mass as part of their conversion, including 1 Latin Mass and 1 Easter Vigil Mass.
7 people talked about some sort of media being an influence in their conversion. Things like EWTN and Mother Angelica, local Catholic radio and Sirius XM's Catholic Channel, author/speaker Scott Hahn, and St. Augustine's Confessions book were referenced. 1 person went so far as to say that they had "a spiritual experience seeing Gibson's Passion" [The Passion of the Christ movie directed by Mel Gibson].
There were about 6 people that, while sharing a variety of different experiences, talked about what I would call an intellectual pursuit of Catholicism. These 6 people were the kind that did a bunch of research on the Catholic faith, reading about the saints or examining different denominations of Christianity until they settled upon Catholicism. Whether the Catholic Church was something that was forbidden to them earlier in life or they just chose to seek it out through free will, these people talked about using logic and intellectualism as part of their faith journey.
3 participants give credit to spiritual experiences that they had. They had stories where they talked about a "miraculous encounter", a "supernatural moment", and an "intercession from the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints". 3 people mentioned a spiritual retreat or conference experience, including a Catholic charismatic conference. 3 other people emphasized the importance of Scripture in their faith journey, including 1 individual saying "I'm Jewish, so Isaiah 53 [a chapter the Catholic Church believes to be prophesying Christ's Passion and Crucifixion] inspired me". 1 other person simply said "Long story short: St. Paul".
Travel played a part in 2 people's conversions, 1 while in Rome, the other 1 spending a semester in France. 2 other people actually credited Catholic school as a positive influence in their faith journey here. 1 person chimed in with the Rosary.
There were other individual responses that just really stood out on their own. 1 person talked about infertility and the Catholic stance on ethical treatments being an influence. Another person referred to the Church's social teaching. A very honest person straight up said "Fear of Hell". Another person simply exclaimed "Holy Thursday!", which I didn't know whether that referred to the Mass, a spiritual experience, or something different entirely, so I just let it be its own solo, enthusiastic thing.
Finally, there are two remaining responses that are really awesome quotes and bring a smile to my face. I'll just share them separately, like inspirational soundbits:
- Pope Francis telling me to "get off my spiritual couch".
- It was my teenage rebellion
Confirmed Before, During, or After High School?
Kind of a basic random question. However, I think it helps the participant especially to look back on their faith journey, comparing life before and after receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. It's just interesting because I would think the results reveal two big things: The age you receive Confirmation often depends on which diocese you live in (different diocese have different ages confirmandi, the people receiving the Sacrament, receive it). Also, the after high school number largely reflects the number of converts in this survey, coming to the Church after the teenage craziness of high school.
(298 responses)
During: 128 participants or 42.9%
Before: 98 participants or 32.9% (My people! I received the Sacrament in 8th grade).
After: 72 participants or 24.2%
What Mass Rite (Novus Ordo, TLM, Byzantine, etc.) Do You Normally Attend?
I was not very surprised and simultaneously a little surprised by the responses to this question. Perhaps the best way to look at the results is through an understanding of which Rites of the Mass are, currently, most readily available for Catholics, especially here in the United States.
I wasn't surprised by how an overwhelming number of the responders normally attend the Novus Ordo/the Ordinary Form of the Mass (the rite most people, even non-Catholics, are familiar with today), and I wasn't too surprised when some people were confused by what I meant by saying Novus Ordo (which is Latin for New Order).
I was somewhat surprised by how few responders said they normally attend the Traditional Latin/ Extraordinary Form of the Mass, which is seeing a resurgence now due in part to interest from young adults. Though maybe the number was smaller than expected because of the people in the Blend category. These are people who may go to a Latin Mass as well as a Novus Ordo Mass, participating in two or more different valid rites almost equally, depending on circumstances.
I anticipated/ hoped I would get some responders representing the Byzantine Rite, though I was genuinely surprised to see 1 person say East Syrian and then 1 other person say Syro-Malabar, both different yet valid rites representing the Eastern side of Catholicism. Again, I think these results speak to the availability of the different rites and forms of Mass. At this point in time, almost every single parish does the Ordinary Form, a decent number also offer Extraordinary Form, and then a very small percentage celebrate the Eastern rites.
(289 responses)
- Novus Ordo/ Regular Mass/ Ordinary Form: 242 participants or 83.7%
- Traditional Latin Mass/ Extraordinary Form: 30 participants or 10.4%
- Blend: 10 participants or 3.4%
- Byzantine: 5 participants or 1.7%
- East Syrian: 1 participant or 0.34%
- Syro-Malabar: 1 participant or 0.34%
Check out Part 2 of the Results in the next blog post!
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