The Impact of COVID-19 on U.S. Catholics

A Vinea Research Report

THE GOAL

What Is the COVID-19 Report on Catholics?

 Vinea Research conducted a survey of 1,532 self-identified Catholics across the U.S. in order to explore the impact of COVID-19 on U.S. Catholics. The goal of the survey was to help pastors serve their people better by answering the following questions:

  • What impact has COVID-19 had on Catholics’ lives, not just from a faith perspective, but from an everyday perspective?

  • How has COVID-19 affected Catholics’ faith lives?

  • How many have grown in their faith lives?

  • How did parishes adapt? What basic changes did they implement? What were Mass streaming practices?

  • What has been the effect of streaming on in-person Mass attitudes?

  • How has charitable giving changed and what are future expectations?

The report is a summary and analysis of the findings.

KEY FINDINGS

How Did COVID-19 Affect Catholics?

The results of the survey were both positive and negative. A significant negative outcome is a phenomenon that many have witnessed: In-person Mass attendance has decreased and is not expected to be back to pre-pandemic levels by summer of 2022. Why? People selected both safety and health reasons, as well as many convenience reasons, such as ease of access.

Half of Catholics surveyed, however, said their faith in God is better than before COVID-19. They also indicated that their family relationships and prayer life is either the same or better.

As with the general population, 39% of Catholics say their lives overall are worse than they were prior to COVID-19. This includes personal finances, mental well-being, and diet.

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Of pre-COVID-19 weekly Mass-goers, only 61% are projected to be physically present at Mass again on a weekly basis by the summer of 2022. As of February, 40% reported that their parishes were still streaming Masses online, and 61% of parishioners stated that their parishes still required masks.

The report includes many more data points that provide insight into the impacts of COVID-19 on the Church. Topics include the impact of financial contributions, what parishioners thought of the way their parishes handled the pandemic, and more.

MEDIA COVERAGE

What Are People Saying about the COVID-19 Report?

NEXT STEPS

How Do We Help Catholics and Parishes Recover from COVID-19?

According to survey results, Catholics’ faith in God generally remained steady or even grew stronger, and yet, the report predicts lower in-person Mass attendance. Continued efforts are needed to bring people back to in-person Mass and shift attitudes around virtual Mass viewing. There are two clear next steps:

Step 1: Deep Dive

The first is on our part. Vinea Research plans to conduct a deep dive analysis into the data, including cluster analyses on questions with several lists and looking at subgroups such as men vs. women, age, and Hispanics.

Step 2: Keep Asking Questions

The other is for the broader Church and the apostolates who serve it. Seeing these results, what does this help answer, and what outstanding or additional questions do you have? The answer to these questions will help guide our analysis of these results and can inform future research projects.

We can study Catholics’ understanding of the Eucharist and the spiritual necessity of attending Mass regularly. We can study prayer habits more thoroughly. 

Let us know what would be most helpful to you, and reach out if you want to conduct a research project together.

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About Vinea Research

Vinea Research is a Catholic market research firm that conducts quantitative and qualitative research to provide real data and insights to help parishes, apostolates, and ministries better understand the people they serve.