Both Vatican II and The Catechism of the Catholic Church state that the Catholic Church is "the one and only Church of God" (Catechism #817) and that "it is through Christ's Catholic Church alone…that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained." While maintaining that the Catholic Church has a greater share of religious truth than other faiths, the Council and the Catechism (#819) acknowledge that "many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church."

Some observers (such as David Carlin in his 2004 book The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America) fear U.S. Catholics no longer agree with this point of view. They argue that Catholics have succumbed to America's post-modern or relativistic culture, which portrays all faiths as essentially equal and viable pathways to the same God. In Carlin's words, Catholics now have a "denominational mentality" and believe that the Catholic Church as "just another denomination."

The 2003 national survey Dean Hoge and I conducted for the University of Notre Dame points to a different interpretation.

First, Catholics like being Catholic and are not very likely to leave the Church for other religious groups. Eighty-one percent of Catholics said that "being Catholic is a very important part of who I am," and two-thirds said they "cannot imagine…being anything other than Catholic." Eighty-two percent said the "Catholic Church is very important to me personally," and 71 percent said they "would never leave the Catholic Church." Sixty-three percent said, "There is something very special about being Catholic that you can't find in other religions" and 53 percent said, "The Catholic religion contains a greater share of the truth than other religions do."

A majority of Catholics also embrace distinctively Catholic teachings. They affirm the importance of charitable efforts toward helping the poor (82 percent), belief that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist (81 percent), devotion to Mary the Mother of God (72 percent), and belief that God is present in a special way in the poor (71 percent).

However, there also are elements of relativism in Catholics' responses to other items in our survey.

---Eighty-six percent said, "If you believe in God, it doesn't really matter which religion you belong to."

---Seventy-six percent said, "Individuals should seek out religious truth for themselves and not automatically conform to the doctrines of any church."

---Seventy-four percent said, "The major world religions are equally good ways of finding ultimate truth."

---Fifty-two percent said they "could be just as happy in some other church --- it wouldn't have to be Catholic."

---The same percentage said, "The Catholic religion has no more spiritual truth than other major religions."

Thus, Catholics continue to believe in the distinctiveness of their church, but they also have a high level of appreciation and acceptance of other faiths. They are trying hard to be both Catholic and ecumenical in a highly pluralistic world.

Pre-Vatican II Catholics are the most likely to endorse the Catechism's view and least likely to express the view that all faiths are equally true. There are no noteworthy differences between members of the Vatican II, post-Vatican II and millennial generations on these issues.

Registered parishioners also feel a stronger Catholic identity than non-parishioners, but on the questions about the validity of other faiths, differences between registered parishioners and others are small. The non-parishioners are slightly more affirming of the equal truth in other religions, but not much.

As Catholics strive to be both Catholic and respectful of other faiths, they encounter some boundary issues that need to be addressed. Laypeople need to explain to theologians and other experts how it is they are trying to be both Catholic and ecumenical. Theologians and other experts need to appreciate the sociological dimensions of this struggle, avoiding the temptation to simply write it off as a logical impossibility.

At the same time, theologians and other experts need to clarify the Church's view of itself, its commitment to ecumenism, and the points at which relativism is problematic.

James D. Davidson is professor of sociology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. His most recent book is Lay Ministers and Their Spiritual Practices (Our Sunday Visitor Books, 2003).