American Catholics in Transition

William V. D’Antonio is research professor of sociology at The Catholic University of America and a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies. He is the co-author or co-editor of fifteen books, includingAmerican Catholics Today.Michele Dillon is professor and chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, and President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. She is the author of a number of books including Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith, and Power, and In the Course of a Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, and Change (co-author Paul Wink). In 2012, she was the JE and Lillian Byrne Tipton Distinguished Visiting Professor in Catholic Studies, at the University of California Santa Barbara.Mary L. Gautier is senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. She is coauthor of a number of books, most recently Same Call, Different Men: The Evolution of the Priesthood Since Vatican II.

• ForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: 25 Years of Observing Catholic LifeChapter 1: The legacy of Pre-Vatican II Catholics Chapter 2: Catholics in the United States: A Quarter Century of ChangeChapter 3: Catholic Identity and Commitment Chapter 4: American Catholics and Church AuthorityChapter 5: Catholic Women: Commitment and ChangeChapter 6: Generational Changes in Catholic PracticeChapter 7: Religion and Party PoliticsChapter 8: Millennial CatholicsChapter 9: Conclusions: Continuities and changes in American CatholicismAppendix:2011 SurveyReferencesIndexAbout the Authors

D'Antonio, Dillon, and Gautier have written a report on the fifth survey (administered in 2010) in a series of opinion polls of the American Catholic laity that started in 1987. Responses were analyzed by generation, gender, and ethnicity, with attention to the increasing impact of Hispanic Catholics. Many trends established in the earlier studies have stayed on the same trajectory, with a few changes. Core beliefs remain strong, the magisterium carries relatively little weight with the laity, and certain areas (the importance of the sacraments, Mary the Mother of God, and helping the poor) continue to differentiate Catholics from others. On the other hand, a decreasing commitment on the part of American women to the church is evident. Hispanics often are more traditional in their responses, but the authors do not discuss whether this will change with economic and cultural assimilation. The study is clear and readable. The authors clearly have a bias toward what one might call the 'progressive' direction in American Catholicism. At times one can see that a different grouping of the data would present a different picture. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.