As Lent continues, a first-of-its-kind national study finds that most Catholics would consider going to Confession

Do you ever go to confession in a Catholic Church?

Most Catholics in the United States who go to Mass at least occasionally say they haven’t been to the confessional in over a year, but a new study suggests a great majority of them would consider going.

A Pew survey in 2025 said only 12 percent of Catholics confess regularly, 12 percent say they go “occasionally” and 77 percent haven’t been in over a year (though the same study says 53 percent of regular Mass-goers confess at least yearly).

A Vinea Research survey this year, however, reported 20 percent saying they go regularly and 12 percent occasionally, while 68 percent haven’t been in over a year.

This latest survey was conducted for the Catholic Pulse Report, and contained what the organization described as positive news.

Distance from confession, the research shows, is shaped more by hesitation, uncertainty, and the absence of habit than by disbelief or rejection.

The survey asked other questions that looked at the “whys” of Catholics’ distance from the sacrament, and found that two thirds of Catholics who have not been to confession in the past year are open to returning, with roughly half expressing a