The USA talks about the "effect of Francis": the number of "strong believers" Catholics is growing

According to sociologists, the so -called "Francis" is evident in the United States. Polls data show that the number of Catholics who declare their “strong faith” has increased significantly since the papa-Argentine pope election to the Roman throne, Blagovet-Info reports with reference to Kipa-Apic .

The number of American Catholics who answered during the survey that they "firmly believe" to the church grew from 27% in 2012 to 34% in 2013, when Pope Francis was elected. The employee of the Applied Research Center in the Apostolate at the Jesuit Georgetown University Mark Gray considers this increase “significant”, the newspaper “The Washungton Post” wrote. Gray also noted a decrease in 6% of the number of Catholics who stated that their connection with the church is "not very strong." “We cannot say that large -scale changes have occurred, but the tendency to reduce the percentage of“ deeply believers ”stopped, the sociologist noted.

Also positive for Catholics is the “retention ratio” showing what percentage of children brought up in religious families remains true to the Church upon reaching maturity. These surveys showed that in 2014, in the US Catholic community, this coefficient stabilized, while, starting in the 1970s, it was constantly reduced. In other Christian denominations of the country, the percentage of those who, having matured, remained in their church, continues to decline.

At the same time, statistics do not note the growth of attendance of worship. According to sociologists, this indicates that the "effect of Francis" was mainly subjected to those Catholics who regularly go to the temple.

In order to fully understand this trend, it is required to conduct additional sociological surveys for another or two years, says Mark Gray.

Recent studies of public opinion have shown that Pope Francis is very popular in the USA. Experts believe that after the visit of the pontiff to this country, scheduled for September, sympathy for him will grow even more.