12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic?

| America Magazine

POLITICS & SOCIETY DISPATCHES FEBRUARY 4, 2019 ISSUE

How many members

of the new Congress
are Catholic?
Michael J. O’Loughlin
January 03, 2019

Hours before being sworn in, many senators and

representatives of the 116th Congress gathered inside
St. Peter’s Catholic Church, just steps from the U.S.
Capitol, for a multi-faith, bipartisan prayer meeting
Thursday morning. Patrick Conroy, S.J., the chaplain
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to the House of Representatives, offered an opening

prayer, which was followed by a number of spiritual
readings from new and returning members.

Representative Susan Wild, a Democrat from

Pennsylvania, read from the Book of Genesis.
Representatives Phil Roe, a Republican from
Tennessee, and Collin Peterson, a Democrat from
Minnesota, led the singing of “Here I Am, Lord.”
There were readings from the Bhagavad-Gita, the
Book of Psalms, the New Testament and Thomas
Merton’s writings. Representative Ilhan Omar, a
Democrat from Minnesota, read an Islamic
invocation. Members from both parties offered
prayers and the 30-minute service concluded with the
song “America the Beautiful.”

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The service reflected a gradually rising religious

diversity as Congress becomes a bit more
representative of the U.S. population as a whole. But
the institution still harkens back to a different time in
the United States, with nearly nine in 10 members
identifying as Christian.

The institution still harkens back to a different time in the

United States, with nearly nine in 10 members identifying as
0 Christian.
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12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic? | America Magazine

According to an analysis released on Jan. 3 by the Pew

Research Center, about 88 percent of Congress
identifies as Christian, compared with just 71 percent
of all U.S. adults. Catholics now make up 30.5 percent
of Congress; 21 percent of U.S. adults identify as
Catholic.

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Democrats, including newly elected Speaker of the
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to identify as Catholic. More than a third of
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12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic? | America Magazine

congressional Democrats (35 percent) are Catholic,

while just over a quarter of Republicans (26 percent)
identify as Catholic. Compared with the two previous
Congresses, which saw the number of Catholic
Democrats and Republicans about equal, the new
Congress sees a large gap, with 86 Catholic Democrats
and 55 Catholic Republicans. But this change is
mostly attributable to the Democrats gaining at least
40 seats in the House (with one race yet to be
decided).

Catholics make up majorities of congressional

delegations from six states—Alaska, Arizona,
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont
—and half of the delegations from Iowa, New Jersey
and Rhode Island. Two Catholic Democratic women
who lost Senate elections, Claire McCaskill of
Missouri and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, were
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replaced by two Protestant Republican men, Josh
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12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic? | America Magazine

Of the 96 newly elected members of Congress, 78 are

Christian, including 28 who are Catholic. Overall,
there are 141 Catholics in the House, or 32 percent of
the chamber; 22 of the 100 U.S. senators are Catholic.

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Overall, there are 141 Catholics in the House, or 32 percent of

the chamber; 22 of the 100 U.S. senators are Catholic.

0
The first two Muslim women elected to Congress were
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members to three. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from
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12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic? | America Magazine

Michigan, and Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from

Minnesota, join Andre Carson, a Democrat from
Indiana. There are 34 Jews in the new Congress, along
with two Buddhists, three Hindus and three Unitarian
Universalists.

But
religious
diversity in
the new
Congress is
U.S. Politics Catholic Discussion mostly
Group relegated
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party.
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Republican

Discuss politics with other America readers. members of

the Senate
0
and House are 99.2 percent Christian and 0.8 percent
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Jewish. Congressional Democrats are also mostly
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12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic? | America Magazine

Christian, at 78.3 percent, but all 29 members who

are non-Christian and non-Jewish, or who did not
volunteer a religious affiliation, are Democrats.

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A notable discrepancy between the new Congress and

the general population has to do with those who are
not affiliated with a church. Just one new member,
Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona,
identifies as religiously unaffiliated. That makes just
0.2 percent of the new Congress part of the so-called
nones, compared with 23 percent of the U.S. adult
population.

But Pew notes that 18 members of the new Congress,

or 3.4 percent, are classified as “don’t know/refused.”
They are all Democrats. Additionally, 80 members of
0
Congress, or 15 percent,Sign
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12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic? | America Magazine

do not identify with a specific denomination,

compared to just 5 percent of U.S. adults. Of that
group, 51 are Republicans.

Just one new member, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat

from Arizona, identifies as religiously unaffiliated.

According to Pew, the percentage of Catholics in the

last four congresses has remained stable, at around 31
percent. That is far higher than the 19 percent of
Catholics who comprised the 87th Congress in 1961,
just after the election of President John F. Kennedy.
Six percent of Congress identify as Jewish, up from
about 2 percent during the 1960s. The share of
members who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints is down in the new Congress to 10
members, the lowest since 1979.

The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities

reported on Jan. 3 that 10 percent of Congress—12
0
senators and 43 representatives—are alumni
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dozen Jesuit colleges and universities. Georgetown

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12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic? | America Magazine

University in Washington, D.C., counts 28 alumni in

the new Congress, with another half dozen each from
Boston College and Fordham University.

As for priorities important to Catholic leaders, it

remains unclear if the new Congress, in which
Democrats control the House and Republicans the
Senate, will be able to make any progress.

The previous Congress, with both chambers

controlled by Republicans, was largely sympathetic to
President Donald Trump’s agenda, U.S. Catholic
bishops issued a number of statements opposed to
Mr. Trump and the Republican leadership’s policy
proposals in immigration, health care and taxes. They
were supportive of some measures that they said were
in harmony with the church’s views on life issues.

With Democrats now in charge of the House, it is

0
possible that bishops and other church leaders will
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find themselves shifting gears in terms of advocacy.
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House Democrats may seek to protect access to

abortion, which church leaders oppose. But they may
find more common ground when it comes to
economic and immigration issues.

Quincy Howard, O.P., a government relations staffer

for the Catholic social-justice oriented advocacy group
Network, told America that her group feels “hopeful”
and that there are some “solid allies to work with” in
the House. She said Network supports HR1, a bill
Democrats plan to introduce that includes several
political reforms, including publicly financed
elections, voter rights and anti-corruption measures.
Network, which sponsored a bus tour during the
election calling out members who supported the
Republican-backed tax overhaul, said it will also
advocate for immigration reform, an increase in the
federal minimum wage and additional reforms of the
0
criminal justice system.
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12/12/2020 How many members of the new Congress are Catholic? | America Magazine

Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, an earlier

version of this story stated, “House Democrats may
seek to protect access to abortion, which many
Catholic leaders oppose.” The phrase “many Catholic
leaders” was imprecise; it was not meant to refer only
to church leaders, or to imply that some church
leaders do not follow the church’s teachings against
abortion.

This article also appeared in print, under the headline

“Growing U.S. religious diversity reflected by
Democrats in new Congress,” in the February 4, 2019,
issue.
More: US POLITICS

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