Why Do Catholic Young Adults Stay? Results Part 1: Demographics

Please see my Explanation about the survey. For these results, we had a total of 301 people who answered some or all of these questions. A big thanks to every single individual, majority of whom came from the Catholic Geeks Facebook page, who participated!

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!

Why I Suit Up for Mass

Today, I'd like to share with you why I put on a suit for Mass and why I think it's important to dress nice for Mass. I will go through my history of the clothing I chose for Mass, my steady growth towards putting the suit on, and then examining some reasoning behind what is going to cause people to be convinced to also dress up.

I'm mainly talking about Sunday versus the regular week. Sunday, Christians celebrate the Sabbath, so it's a special particular day of our week. If I go to Daily Mass during the week, I still try to look nice and wear some sort of collared shirt and nice pants. Generally, I stay away from shorts and the only time I don't wear a dressy shirt is when I'm dressed to go to work. At Daily Mass, some people are on their way to work like I am, and so our clothing choices are not too much of an issue.

Now, obviously I haven't dressed up my entire life of going to Mass. This is a development from over the past few years. In college, I would still sometimes go in shorts or jeans and every once in a while I would wear a long sleeved button down but for the most part I wore a polo. I got gussied up for a few special Masses but very rarely did I go full suit and tie combo

Even in grad school, I started feeling like I was wearing my work attire to Sunday Mass. Which was true, since at work I was dressing in a button down and nice pants and dress shoes, but at both work and Mass I had my sleeves rolled up and I didn't wear a suit jacket or a tie. I challenged myself to dress up for Sunday Mass for Lent a couple years ago and after that the habit continued so that every Sunday Mass I would take the time to tie a tie (sometimes in Creede I would wear my bowtie) and put on my suit jacket and do the full ensemble.

Why do I dress up for Mass? I mean, I understand some people argue that our Lord doesn't care what we dress like for Mass as long as we're there. Which in a sense, yeah sure. However, at the same time, we should care about how we dress up. Often times, we dress up for going to job interviews or attending weddings and funerals, or whenever there's just some special unique occasion, we get dressed up. However, the Mass IS a special occasion, even if it happens every week. It's in a special place too. I talked in my Hands for Prayer post how the Church isn't a store, the streets, or even your house that you walk around casually. This is a temple of the Lord! This is a place specially designed and reserved for prayer, for being closer to God, and for glorifying Him. And so, since the place we are in is special, our general attitude overall should be special and the minute details of how we dress should be special.

It shouldn't matter whether we're in a big city urban metropolis or if we're in a small rural country place. The problem is everywhere, just as the solution is applicable everywhere. Everywhere you go now, you'll basically see the same get-ups. The older guys will be in polos tucked into their jeans. The kids will be in t-shirts and gym shorts. All around, no matter where we are, there's still a need for dressing up for the Mass.

People that are fully cognizant of what they're choosing to wear, and having the presence of mind to know what their day's schedule will be, have the presence of mind to dress up for Mass. We're giving God a little extra special time and attention by making sure that we're wearing a nice shirt, that we tie our tie correctly, and we throw our suit jacket on whether it's 100 degrees outside or 10 degrees outside.

Some of my catalysts for changing the way I dress for Mass included reading the Catholic Gentleman's article on dressing up for Mass. Also, after moving out to St. Paul, I started going to Mass the same time as my aunt and uncle, who live near us, and I saw my uncle dress every week in a nice button down shirt, with sleeves rolled down and cuffed, and in a tie. Every week. That inspired me to at least start going in at that same level and continuing my habit and growth from there.

Being suited up tells the people who see me and are around me at Mass that I care enough about coming to Mass, and I care enough about our God, that I will get up and I will get myself dressed a little extra special compared to my normal look so that I can glorify Him. I can mark how special this place called church is. I'm of the mindset that we should care about how we look. If we're going to treat all of these other special events as being reason enough or worthy enough to dress up for, this should be THE event that we should get dressed up for.

Now comes the point where I start trying to guess what people's reactions or questions to this post would be. So, naturally, someone is going to point out that as a young single man, my thoughts cannot probably apply to parents with kids. True, I cannot fully speak for parents trying to dress their kids. I know sometimes it's a struggle to get kids to dress up or sometimes there's events like sports or family gatherings that are going on before or after Mass that people have to rush to or from on Sundays. I'm not necessarily speaking on that, though my only point to make is that ultimately parents have control over what their children wear so there you go.

Another objection I can hear from people is: What about the people who can't afford to buy a suit to wear to Mass? Hypothetically, if you're asking that question to me, you're asking a man who has purchased most of his button down shirts and dress pants from Goodwill, so you're not asking someone who has had the ability to buy multiple suits worth triple digits each. Shoot, Americans in the past couple hundred years were able to buy, make, and wear their 'Sunday best' clothes, and most everyone today is generally richer than those people were. So, my reasoning is that most Mass attendees have the means to buy nice clothes for Mass. It doesn't have to be fancy or made from the finest fabrics and cost you a fortune to be worth wearing. If it's a step up from your normal attire and it shows you took special time and effort and it looks like something you'd wear to other special, fancy occasions, then you're good.

So what's the next step? What's it gonna take to inspire more people to dress up? Some people have probably seen this sarcastic joke in their church bulletin: An ad saying the parish doesn't have a pool or a beach before explaining why casual wear like shorts and tank tops are not good clothes to wear to Mass. I've seen both positive and negative reactions to this, where some people appreciate the joke because they agree with the ultimate message but other people see how critical the message is and they respond to the sarcasm with cynicism. Ultimately, the ad is basically preaching to the choir, where the only people who appreciate it are the people who agree with the message.

I'm not here to preach to the choir, I'm here to inspire people who don't dress up at the moment. This problem here is correlated to the overall problem of how devoted people are to the Mass, the Eucharist, and the Sacraments. I'm willing to bet that the kind of people that appreciated the above mentioned bulletin ad are also the people who actually do dress up in part because they are also trying to increase their devotion to the Mass and the Church. I'm willing to bet a lot of people that you see dressed up in the pews on Sunday are also the people that are creating their weekday schedules not just on work and responsibilities but also how they fit their prayers and spiritual development into their work week. None of this is to say that the dude in flip flops and bro tank on Sunday is definitely slacking in his spiritual life. The point is that if we make the extra effort to emphasize the minute details such as how we dress for Sunday Mass, it will most likely reflect that we are making an extra effort in living out the minute details of the spiritual life outside of Sunday Mass. This is all just my opinion based on observation and experience, so take it or leave it as you will.

As I stated earlier, I didn't always dress nice when I went to Mass, but as I came to appreciate the importance and beauty of the Church and the Mass, I realized the way I dress can reflect that importance and beauty. It's all one part of the answer to the question: What can I do to give glory to God? I really do think that one way to inspire the people of the Church at large to become the strong faithful disciples we're all called to be is to take that extra few minutes each morning to pull out the nice shirt, tie that tie, and to put that suit jacket on!