CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN THE APOSTOLATE
Placing Social Science Research at the Service of the Catholic Church Since 1964
Latest News
Studies Commissioned by the McGrath Institute
CARA has completed three studies commissioned by the McGrath Institute at Notre Dame University. The first evaluated satisfaction and challenges among recently ordained priests in the U.S. The second assessed sexual harassment, abuse, and misconduct at U.S. seminaries. The third evaluated the Church’s practices in assessing the suitability of candidates for the priesthood. All three reports are available in CARA’s publications section of our website (click “Read More” below).
Latest News
The Impact of Marian Devotions on Vocations
This report presents findings from a survey of U.S. bishops, diocesan priests, permanent deacons, deacon directors, and major superiors of men and women about the impact of Marian devotion on their ecclesial vocations. The survey was designed by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in collaboration with the Diocese of Saginaw. Altogether there were 1,091 respondents.
Latest News
Women and Men Entering Religious Life: The Entrance Class of 2024
This report presents findings from an annual national survey of women and men religious who formally entered a religious congregation, province, or monastery based in the United States during 2024. A total of 392 major superiors (76% of those responding) reported that they had no one enter the institute in 2024, in which 115 major superiors reported their religious institutes were not accepting new members. Another 54 major superiors (11%) reported one new entrant, and 69 major superiors (13%) reported two or more new entrants. Over the last 10 years, on average, there are 381 new members entering their religious institutes every year.
Our
Mission
To increase the Church’s self understanding;
To serve the applied research needs of Church decision-makers;
To advance scholarly research on religion, particularly Catholicism.
We meet your research needs
Parishes | Dioceses | Religious Institutes | Catholic Media and Publishers | Catholic Schools | Catholic Colleges & Campus Ministries | National Organizations
CARA can help you with surveys, focus groups, interviews, demographics, mapping, planning studies, trend analysis, projections and forecasting, program reviews, market research, data collection and database creation and maintenance, archival research, and pre-test/post-test experiments.
CARA's team includes researchers and staff with degrees in sociology, political science, city planning, education, communications, business, marketing, philanthropic studies, religious studies, and church ministry. We're here to help you solve problems, understand issues, plan for the future, and be more effective.
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