The most recent issue of the Long Island Catholic has a special pull-out section
on “Education and Youth.” There’s a graph–a pie chart, for the
inquisitive–about how often young Catholics (ages 18-39) attend Mass.
Thirty-seven percent report attending once a week; 21 percent, 2-3 times per
month; 15 percent once a month; and 27 percent say “seldom or never.”
Except for the last, these numbers seem awfully high to me. Even at two (very)
Catholic institutions of higher learning, I haven’t seen anything to suggest
that level of attendance. I think that by defining “young adults” to include
people in their thirties, the graph is misleading. By 30, many people are
married; they are even likely to have children. Both of these things tend to
bring young adults back to the church. It’d be more interesting, I think, to
break the data out by 18-28 and 29-39, at the least.