When did it become "socially acceptable" in the US to convert from Catholicism?

[they don't love you like i love you]

"Socially acceptable" is obviously a terrible phrasing but I couldn't think of a better one that would fit in the topic line, obviously it's been that way since the US has founded, I'm thinking more of when it became like the modern day US where such a conversion is not considered strange or atypical and there's no general expectation that every single person raised Catholic identifies as Catholic today. So basically when "cultural Catholicism" began to erode. Because as many like to argue even the US wasn't always like this.

Anyway sometime in the 70s? Probably coincides roughly around when US involvement in Vietnam ended.

[SingingAnalyst]

I'd say mid-1970s is spot on.

Converting from Catholicism can, of course, mean many things. As a freshman at MIT in 1984, I was recruited into an ultra-conservative Christian sect which believed that Catholics weren't "saved". I eventually left the sect, but wandered in the wilderness for many years until being confirmed Catholic in 2012 at age 45-- about 30 years later than I "should" have.

It was also around that time that it became commonplace for those who remained Catholic to not only profess views that went against Church teaching (contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc.) but to act on them: in doing my research for the Abortion referendum question on this site, I read that Catholic women had an abortion rate 29% higher than that of Protestant women.

As a Catholic, what do I think of people who leave the Church? I believe everyone should follow their own conscience; therefore I would have no qualms about befriending such a person.

[7,052,770]

A better question is when it became socially acceptable to be Catholic. Maybe around the same time In most areas, although in the rural South that day hasn't come yet.

[they don't love you like i love you]

A better question is when it became socially acceptable to be Catholic. Maybe around the same time In most areas, although in the rural South that day hasn't come yet.

Uh, 1960?

[Lechasseur]

A better question is when it became socially acceptable to be Catholic. Maybe around the same time In most areas, although in the rural South that day hasn't come yet.

In Southern Louisiana most people are Catholic

[BuckeyeNut]

"Socially acceptable" is obviously a terrible phrasing but I couldn't think of a better one that would fit in the topic line, obviously it's been that way since the US has founded, I'm thinking more of when it became like the modern day US where such a conversion is not considered strange or atypical and there's no general expectation that every single person raised Catholic identifies as Catholic today. So basically when "cultural Catholicism" began to erode. Because as many like to argue even the US wasn't always like this.

Anyway sometime in the 70s? Probably coincides roughly around when US involvement in Vietnam ended.

Probably around the same time the "Catholic vote" stopped being a thing.

[JGibson]

The timeframe between JFK's election in 1960 and the founding of EWTN in 1981.

JFK's election laid the starting pieces together, while Pope John Paul II becoming Pope in 1978 and EWTN's founding in 1981 was when it became fully socially acceptable to do so.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Probably the counterculture of the 60s or 70s.  That generation screwed America royally.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

A better question is when it became socially acceptable to be Catholic. Maybe around the same time In most areas, although in the rural South that day hasn't come yet.

Didn't happen all at once, but in postWW2 era Catholicism gained popular appeal, as seen in the response to Thomas Merton's Seven Story Mountain, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's TV programs, and Bing Crosby's portrayal in The Bells of St Mary's.