The Power of Easter in an Increasingly Secular America | Opinion
Bishop Robert Barron
, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Los Angeles
On 4/6/21 at 7:00 AM EDT
The number of those who formally affiliate with a religion has been dropping precipitously in the United States, and indeed throughout most Western countries. In the early 1970s, roughly 3 percent of Americans would have claimed no religious identity, but today, that figure has skyrocketed to 26 percent. This problem persists across the spectrum of the mainstream religions, but it is particularly acute within the Christian churches—and worst of all in my own Roman Catholic Church. Recent surveys have indicated that for every person who joins the Catholic Church in America, six are leaving.