Gallup: Drop in U.S. Catholic Church Attendance Sharpest in Decades - The downward trend has resumed during the Francis years, falling more abruptly than it had since the 1970s.

Catholic church attendance in the United States fell by six percent between the pontificates of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, the sharpest drop in decades, a new Gallup poll has revealed.

As a useful point of comparison, the average number of U.S. Protestants who reported attending church weekly during the period 2015 to 2017 remained fundamentally unchanged from the average attendance during the period 2005-2008, which suggests that specific confessional issues rather than broader societal changes are behind the recent drop in Catholic Mass attendance.

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