The survey asked Catholics about various aspects of their parish and experiences at their church.
About seven-in-ten Catholics (71%) express favorable views of their parish priests, including 32% who express a very favorable opinion of their priests and 39% who express a mostly favorable view. Just 4% of U.S. Catholics say they have an unfavorable impression of their parish priests.
When asked to describe the atmosphere at their parish, half of U.S. Catholics say their church is formal and traditional, while 35% say it is casual and contemporary.
Roughly half of U.S. Catholics (54%) say that when they go to Mass, they are surrounded by people who mostly share their race or ethnicity. The vast majority of White Catholics say they typically go to a Mass conducted in English, while most Hispanic Catholics say they go to a Mass in Spanish at least some of the time.
Overall, about one-fifth of U.S. Catholics say they are involved in their parish in some way in addition to attending Mass. This includes 14% who say they volunteer at their parish, and 16% who say they participate at least yearly in parish activities outside of Mass.
Read on for more information about:
- Views of local parish priests
- Race, language and where Catholics go to Mass
- Involvement in Catholic parishes
- Parish atmosphere and growth
- Awareness of National Eucharistic Congress, Synod on Synodality
Catholics’ views of their parish priests
Overall, 71% of all U.S. Catholics (including 82% who ever attend Mass) say they have a positive view of their parish’s priest or priests. This figure rises to 95% among Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week. Just 3% of weekly Mass-attending Catholics say they have an unfavorable view of their parish priests.
To put these numbers in some perspective, the survey also found that 80% of weekly Mass-attending Catholics had a favorable view of Pope Francis, while 18% viewed him unfavorably. (The survey was conducted Feb. 3-9, 2025, prior to Francis’ most recent hospitalization and death.)
Race, language and where Catholics go to Mass
Most Catholics who ever attend Mass say they typically go to their local parish (68%), while 10% say they mostly go somewhere other than their local parish. Two-in-ten say they do some of both.
Racial, ethnic composition of Catholic parishes
When asked to describe the racial and ethnic composition of the parish they attend, 58% of White Catholics say most other people at the Masses they attend are also White. And 55% of Hispanic Catholics say that when they attend Mass, most of the other people in the pews are also Hispanic.
The racial and ethnic composition of Catholic parishes also varies a lot by region. Nearly two-thirds of Catholics in the Midwest (64%) and 52% of Catholics in the Northeast say most of their fellow parishioners at Mass are White. By comparison, just 33% of Catholics in the South and 14% of those in the West say, when they go to Mass, most of the people there are White.
Languages spoken at Mass
The survey also finds that most Hispanic Catholics usually (38%) or sometimes (23%) go to Mass in Spanish. Attending Spanish Masses is more common in the West and South than among Catholics in the Northeast and Midwest.
This reflects regional patterns in the racial and ethnic composition of U.S. Catholics. Hispanics account for 45% of Catholics in the South and 58% of Catholics in the West, but they make up just 20% of the Catholic population in the Northeast and 15% of the Catholic population in the Midwest.
Involvement in Catholic parishes
Overall, 14% of Catholics say they volunteer at their parish, such as by serving as an usher, lector, extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, or in another capacity. And 16% say they participate in parish activities other than Mass – like Eucharistic adoration, prayer groups or community meals – at least several times a year.
In total, 22% of U.S. Catholics say they do one or the other (volunteer or participate in activities other than Mass) or both at their parish.
And among Catholics who attend Mass weekly, 51% say they also either volunteer at their church or participate in activities other than Mass.
Parish atmosphere and growth
U.S. Catholics are more likely to describe the atmosphere at their parish as formal and traditional (50%) than casual and contemporary (35%). This pattern is similar in all the regions of the country.
However, there are larger regional differences on the survey’s question about whether parishes are experiencing growth or decline. The share of Catholics who say their parish is growing is higher in the South than in other regions of the country.
Meanwhile, the share of Catholics in the Northeast and Midwest who say their parish is shrinking is higher than the share of Catholics who say this in the South or West.
Awareness of National Eucharistic Congress, Synod on Synodality
Roughly three-in-ten U.S. Catholics say they have heard at least a little about the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress, which was “the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) initiative to renew the Catholic Church through the Eucharist.” And 23% say they’ve heard at least a little about the church’s recent Synod on Synodality, which included events in dioceses around the world and concluded in 2024.
Awareness of these recent events is higher among weekly Mass-attending Catholics than among Catholics who don’t go to Mass regularly. Still, even among Catholics who go to Mass weekly, 43% say they haven’t heard anything about the National Eucharistic Congress and 60% say they have heard nothing at all about the Synod on Synodality.
