Ben CLEMENTS & Stephen BULLIVANT. Catholics in Contemporary Britain: Faith, Society, Politics. Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. VIII + 222. Harcover $100.00 Kindle $95.00 Reviewed by Pierre HEGY, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530.

This book presents the findings of the first wide-ranging, empirical study of British Catholics in over forty years. It endeavors to update the comprehensive study of Hornby-Smith in the late 1970s while replicating some of the questions of the various studies by D’Antonio and colleagues in the U.S.  The findings are based on a representative sample of Catholic adults living in Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland), which was administered online between 21 October and 7 November 2019.

The book is divided into six chapters. It begins with definitions and demography. Catholics are those who identify themselves as such, a questionable but common practice in survey research. Catholics are the second largest denomination in Britain: they hold 7 percent of the population, after the Episcopalians (12 %) and before the Muslims (6%).

Chapter 2 gives basic statistics about religious practices: Mass attendance, frequency of prayer, and regularity of Confession. Chapter 3 on beliefs offers some surprises: younger Catholics tend to be more orthodox than older people, and there is a positive correlation between holding orthodox beliefs, and believing in non-orthodox spiritual beliefs like reincarnation. The next chapter deals with basic moral issues. On abortion, assisted suicide, sex before marriage, gender roles, and same-sex relations, the attitudes of Catholics have moved towards the liberal position, yet remain slightly less liberal than the rest of the population. Chapter 5 gives statistics about voting behavior. The Labour party has long been the favorite of Catholics, but that advantage has sharply decreased to the point that in 2019 there is only a 3 to 5 percentage difference between the votes for the Labour and those for the Conservative party. The last chapter documents the positive views of Catholics about Pope Francis and the Catholic bishops.

What is the intended audience of this book? It is not primary the British Catholic Church because there is not much which bishops and priests did not know. The bishops will be pleased to read that the majority of Catholics see the direction of the church under Pope Francis as being mainly for the better (50%) rather than for the worse (6%), and that the leadership of the British bishops is mainly positive although about 40% have no opinion. Parish priests will be comforted in reading that 41% of the 18- to 24-year-olds attend Mass weekly, although their percentage in the Catholic population has shrunk considerably. Pastors already know that immigration from Catholic countries is a major factor of regular church attendance. Confession among the weekly attenders remains high. Unknown to many is the frequency of private prayer; over half of the weekly attenders pray once or several times a day. On the ethical front, we notice a slow progression of liberal attitudes about abortion, premarital sex, and same-sex relations, but a strong progression for assisted suicide, especially in the case of cancer. The main audience for this book are researchers who may quote some of its statistics in their own publications; in other words, this sociological study is mainly for internal consumption.

This is a solid book of statistics, the most up to date in forty years. It gives an accurate picture of the skeleton of the British Catholic Church. As in most quantitative research, it offers numbers rather than intellectual questions, yet number have their own irreplaceable value.