Latinos are leaving the U.S. Catholic Church in droves. Pope Leo could bring them back.
Young Latinos are leaving the church. That’s not a problem to be put off.
According to Pew Research, young Latinos are more likely to be unaffiliated with a religion than they are to be Catholic. Among U.S.-born Latinos ages 18 to 29, 49 percent do not affiliate with a religion. Across all generations, only 36 percent of U.S.-born Latinos identify as Catholic.
Juan Miguel Alvarez, the director of New Horizons at the University of Notre Dame, noted the trend of disaffiliation in his recent feature for America and recommended some practical solutions. The X-factor, I would argue, is the American who walked out onto the Loggia of Blessings dressed in white just over a year ago.
When Pope Leo XIV introduced himself to the world in prepared remarks on May 8, 2025, he spoke almost exclusively in Italian. He did pray in Latin and, to the delight of Latin Americans everywhere, he also briefly spoke in Spanish when greeting his “dear Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru.

