Black Catholics are a minority in the United States in numerous ways. They comprise a small share of Black adults, and an even smaller share of Catholic adults. Still, there are approximately 3 million Black Catholics in the U.S. And the group received media attention after Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., became the first Black American cardinal in 2020.

A recent Pew Research Center study designed to capture the diversity of Black American religious life offers new insights into Black Catholics’ religious habits, finding that their experiences at parishes and at Mass are often distinctive from those of other U.S. Catholics. It also shows that their religious beliefs and practices differ from those of Black Protestants.