Just 31% of U.S. Catholics believe that the bread and wine used in Communion become the body and blood of Christ. Nearly seven-in-ten say the Eucharist is symbolic.
A majority of U.S. adults say recent reports of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church reflect problems that are still happening.
More than 15 years after U.S. bishops pledged “zero tolerance” for sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, reports of previously unpublicized misconduct continue to receive wide media coverage.
Germany has seen a dramatic shift away from Protestantism – one that has greatly outpaced a decline in the share of Germans who are Catholic.
On a number of issues, Catholic partisans often express opinions more in line with their political parties' positions than with their church's teachings.
While Slovakia is majority Catholic, around seven-in-ten Czechs are religiously unaffiliated – the highest share of unaffiliated adults in 34 European countries surveyed.
The Catholic Church remains closely tied to Europe. Catholics are the largest religious group in many of the continent’s most populous countries.
American Catholics are racially and ethnically diverse and fairly evenly dispersed throughout the country. Many want to see the church make significant changes.
Just three-in-ten American Catholics now say the pontiff is doing a good or excellent job of addressing the sex abuse scandal.
Just three-in-ten Catholic adults say Francis is doing an excellent or good job addressing the sex abuse scandal, down 14 points from this January and 24 points since 2015.
