Catholic Communion, confession, devotions and other practices in the US

How we define Catholics in this chapter

This chapter exclusively explores views and experiences among U.S. Catholics (i.e., the 20% of U.S. adults who say they are Catholic when asked about their present religion).

Many Americans who are not Catholic are still connected to the faith in other ways. Read more about these “cultural Catholics,” former Catholics, and people with other Catholic connections (i.e., those who have a Catholic parent, spouse or partner, or say “yes” when asked if they ever attend Catholic Mass) in Chapter 7 and the Overview.

There is a wide spectrum of religious observance among U.S. Catholics. Some are quite devout by a variety of traditional measures:

50% of U.S. Catholic adults in our 2025 survey say they pray daily.
28% say they go to Mass weekly.⁷
23% say they go to confession at least once a year.⁸

Table showing 13% of U.S. Catholics go to Mass weekly and go to confession yearly and pray daily

In total, 13% of U.S. Catholics say they engage in all three of these practices. An additional 15% say they do two of them.

Meanwhile, 31% say they do just one of these things. And 40% don’t do any of them – they do not go to Mass each week, do not go to confession at least once a year, and do not pray every day.

Read on for additional information about Catholic practices such as:

Receiving Communion at Mass
Confession
Wearing religious symbols, devotions and other practices
Traditional Latin Mass
Anointing of the sick

Going to Mass and receiving Communion

Overall, about three-in-ten U.S. Catholics say they go to religious services at least once a week, according to Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 U.S. Religious Landscape Study (RLS). An additional 11% say they attend Mass once or twice a month.⁹ And roughly six-in-ten U.S. Catholics say they go to Mass a few times a year or less often (50%) or not at all (9%). (For details on how rates of Mass attendance vary across subgroups based on data from the RLS, refer to the accompanying detailed tables.¹⁰)

Bar chart showing mass attendance among U.S. Catholics

The Center’s Feb. 3-9, 2025, survey finds that half of U.S. Catholics say they receive Communion every time (36%) or most of the time (15%) they attend Mass. Roughly one-in-five say they receive Communion about half the time (6%) or less than half the time (13%). An additional 16% say they never receive Communion when they go to Mass, and 14% of Catholics in the survey say they never attend Mass in the first place (and thus were not asked how often they receive Communion).

Table showing half of American Catholics say they receive Communion most or all the time when they attend Mass

Roughly eight-in-ten weekly Mass attenders receive Communion all or most of the times they go (82%). Lower shares of less frequent attenders say they receive Communion all or most of the time. Still, even among those who go to Mass a few times a year or less often, 43% say they typically receive Communion when they go.

Catholics typically have the option at Mass to receive Communion either in their hand, or placed directly onto their tongue. More Catholics say they prefer to receive Communion in the hand (44%) than on the tongue (14%). An additional 11% say they have no preference. The remainder either don’t receive Communion or don’t attend Mass (and thus were not asked this question).

Table showing more Catholics prefer to receive Communion in the hand than on the tongue

Confession

Overall, 23% of U.S. Catholics say they go to confession at least once a year, while 30% say they go less often. About half of Catholics (47%) say they never go to confession.

Catholics who go to Mass weekly also tend to go to confession more frequently than those who don’t attend weekly Mass; 53% of weekly attenders say they go to confession at least once a year.

Table showing 23% of U.S. Catholics say they go to confession at least once a year

Wearing religious symbols, devotions and other practices

The survey asked Catholics how often they engage in practices such as wearing or carrying religious items; practicing devotions to Mary or a favorite saint; praying the rosary; reading the Bible; and lighting candles or incense for spiritual or religious reasons.

The most common of these practices is wearing or carrying religious items, which 44% of Catholics do monthly. Meanwhile, 36% say they practice devotion to Mary or a favorite saint that often. The least common of these practices is lighting candles or incense for spiritual reasons, which 17% of Catholics say they do monthly.

Table showing 59% of weekly Mass attenders say they regularly practice devotion to the Virgin Mary or a favorite saint

Weekly Mass attenders are generally more inclined than Catholics overall to engage in these practices. For example, around six-in-ten Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week (62%) say they regularly wear or carry religious items with them, compared with 44% of Catholics overall. Meanwhile, 59% of weekly attenders say they practice devotion to Mary or a favorite saint, compared with 36% of Catholics overall.

The survey also finds that several of these practices are far more common among Hispanic Catholics than White Catholics. For example:

56% of Hispanic Catholics say they wear or carry religious items with them at least monthly, compared with 39% of White Catholics.
46% of Hispanic Catholics practice devotions to the Virgin Mary or a favorite saint at least monthly, compared with 31% of White Catholics.
37% of Hispanic Catholics pray the rosary at least monthly, versus 22% of White Catholics.
26% of Hispanic Catholics say they light candles or incense for spiritual or religious reasons at least monthly, compared with 11% among White Catholics.

Refer to Chapter 4 for additional details about the distinctiveness of religious practices among Hispanic Catholics.

Traditional Latin Mass

Overall, 13% of U.S. Catholics (including 22% of those who attend weekly Mass) say they have attended a Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at least once in the last five years. To help avoid confusion and ensure respondents understood what we meant by “Traditional Latin Mass,” the survey described it as a Mass where “the entire Mass is said in Latin and where the priest faces the altar with his back to the people in the pews.”

People who say they have attended at least one TLM in recent years were then asked how often they attend one “these days.” Very few Catholics report regularly attending a TLM today.¹¹ Overall, 2% of Catholics say they do this at least weekly, 1% do so once or twice a month, and 2% do so a few times a year. An additional 8% say they either seldom or never attend a TLM “these days,” while 87% of U.S. Catholics have not attended one at any point in the last five years.

Table showing 87% of Catholics haven’t attended a Traditional Latin Mass in the last 5 years

Anointing of the sick

Most Catholics, including 84% of those who attend Mass at least once a week, say it would be “extremely important” or “very important” to them to receive the sacrament of the anointing of the sick if they were seriously ill.

The importance Catholics attach to this sacrament seems to rise with age. Among Catholics who are ages 65 and older, 64% say it would be extremely or very important to them to receive this element of what is commonly known as last rites, compared with 50% among Catholics ages 18 to 34.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholics are “bound to participate in the Mass” on “Sundays and other holy days of obligation” unless there is a serious reason for not attending, such as illness or “the care of infants.”↩

The Catechism also says Catholics are “bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year.” Although it is not “strictly necessary,” the church “nevertheless strongly” recommends that Catholics should confess “everyday faults (venial sins)” as well.↩

Respondents in the survey were asked, “Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services in person?” Though the question asked about religious services broadly and did not ask specifically about “church attendance” or “Mass attendance,” we assume that Catholic respondents answered this question with reference to how often they attend Mass.↩

This discussion (and the accompanying detailed table) rely on estimates of Mass attendance from the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) because the RLS had a much larger sample than the survey of Catholics conducted Feb. 3-9, 2025. The two surveys produce similar estimates of the share of Catholics who attend church weekly or a few times a month. The RLS finds somewhat higher estimates of the share who attend a few times a year, while the 2025 survey finds somewhat larger numbers saying they seldom or never attend.↩

In July 2021, Pope Francis issued Traditionis Custodes, which “reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass.” The Center has not previously asked about attendance at the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). It is possible that the share of Catholics who attend a TLM may have declined in recent years because the TLM is less widely available now than before Traditionis Custodes took effect.↩