• Americans’ belief in God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil fell to the lowest point in more than two decades.
• Belief in all five spiritual entities has decreased 3 to 5 points since 2016.
• Americans who regularly attend religious services, Protestants and Republicans were all more likely to believe in such spiritual entities.
Americans’ belief in God, the devil and other spiritual entities has fallen to a new low, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday.
Seventy-four percent of Americans said they believe in God, while 69 percent said they believe in angels and 67 percent said they believe in heaven, the poll found. Slightly smaller shares — 59 percent and 58 percent — said they believe in hell and the devil.
Belief in all five spiritual entities has fallen between 3-5 points since 2016, the last time that Gallup polled Americans on the topic.
Since the pollster first began collecting survey data on the subject more than two decades ago, belief in God and heaven has dropped 16 points, while belief in hell has fallen 12 points and belief in the devil and angels has decreased by 10 points.

Support for marriage and marriage rates themselves have sharply declined among young people in recent years, leading experts to offer various explanations for the troubling trends as well as potential solutions to reverse them.
Data has long pointed toward a sustained drop in marriage rates for every age cohort following the “Silent Generation,” the group of Americans born roughly between the two World Wars. A recent Pew survey found that just 30% of marriage-age Millennials live with a spouse and a child, compared with 70% of those from the Silent Generation.
A survey in June from the Thriving Center of Psychology, meanwhile, found that about 40% of Millennials and GenZers believe marriage is an “outdated tradition,” with 85% responding that marriage “is [not] necessary to have a fulfilled and committed relationship.”
Speaking on the statistics, W. Bradford Wilcox, the director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, said bluntly: “It’s bad.”
Wilcox, who for years has been ringing alarm bells about the decline of marriage rates in the U.S, said collapsing marriage numbers are worrisome in no small part because of the economic fallout that can result.
“Marriage is a wealth-generating institution,” he told CNA. “Having kids outside of marriage puts you at risk of family instability and accumulating kids with more than one partner. That starts you up for men, for child support; for women, single parenthood. Both of which are financially exceedingly difficult to navigate.”
“But I’m more concerned about the social and emotional side to all of this,” he continued. “And what we see in the data are that Americans today who are not married are markedly more likely to report that they’re lonely, adrift in terms of meaning, and about half as likely to be very happy with their lives compared [with] their fellow [married] citizens.”
Wilcox said when he began his research into marriage and family stability, his largest concern was for children affected by the changing family demographics.
“As I see the marriage rate tick lower and lower and lower, I’ve become more concerned about adults,” he said. “A lot of adults, more than one-third of young adults today in their 20s, will never marry. This is record demographic territory we’re heading into.”
Mary-Rose Verret, who with her husband, Ryan, founded the marriage renewal and preparation initiative Witness to Love, told CNA that the problem is nearly as acute among Catholics as it is among non-Catholics.

Today’s Christian believers are facing an ever-darkening world. We are continuously confronted with shocking news reports, disturbing ideologies, and dangerous influences in our own country — outrageous stories vie for our attention. And, of course, our first responsibilities lie close to home. Every day, The Washington Stand focuses on those national concerns.
Still, at the same time, it’s important for us to remain aware of the enormous struggles and threats our spiritual sisters and brothers are facing abroad — far beyond our national borders. With that in mind, let’s focus our attention on one of the most challenging places in the world to be a Christian: The vast continent of Africa.
Here are some recent developments:
In Uganda: On June 18, BBC reported that Ugandan students “… were singing gospel songs before an attack by suspected Islamist militants. ‘Then I heard screaming,’ a woman who lives opposite the school explained.”
In Sudan: During the present civil war, innumerable Christians in Sudan are fleeing for their lives, trying to survive the fighting, and still facing persecution for their faith in Christ.
In Nigeria: Every month, hundreds of Christians are being killed in ongoing attacks. “Christian death tolls include at least 300 in several attacks in Plateau state spanning May 15–17 … more than 100 in attacks spanning May and June in Benue state … 43 in Nasarawa state in mid-May. Tens of thousands were displaced. Whole villages, dozens of church buildings, and thousands of homes reportedly were destroyed …”

German bishops and representatives of the Roman Curia met in the Vatican on july 26 to continue discussions started last year about the German Synodal Way.
According to a joint statement from the Vatican and the German bishops’ conference, the July 26 meeting took place in a “positive and constructive climate” and will be followed by other encounters.
The meeting was convened, the brief statement said, following the German bishops’ November 2022 ad limina visit, when “it was agreed that the theological and disciplinary issues that emerged in particular in the ‘Synodal Way’ would be further discussed.”
The Synodal Way, which began in 2019, is a collaborative effort between the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) and the German bishops’ conference.
During a concluding assembly in March, delegates overwhelmingly passed measures to change Church practices based on transgender ideology and to push the universal Church to ordain women to the sacramental diaconate.
Delegates also voted to adopt same-sex blessings, normalize lay preaching, and ask Rome to “reexamine” the discipline of priestly celibacy.

The Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM) has recently presented to the Vatican for its approval a series of Indigenous liturgical adaptations for the celebration of Holy Mass for the “original peoples” of the country.
Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, promoter of the initiative and one of those in charge of making the presentation to the Vatican, explained that the adaptations have the objective of “advan-cing the progress of inculturation of the Church in the native peoples and of taking responsibility for the celebration of Holy Mass with some elements of these cultures.”
“It’s not a question of creating a new Indigenous rite but of incorporating into the liturgy various ways of relating to God of these peoples and which express the same thing as the Roman rite, but in its cultural form.”
Before the Indigenous liturgical adaptations were presented by the Mexican Church to the Holy See, they had been approved during the 114th plenary assembly of the CEM, held April 17–21. The adaptations were approved by 103 of the 105 voting bishops.
“They asked me to present the text and write it up, to present it to the assembly,” he said. “The vote in favor was last April 19. Now the proposal is already in Rome, at the Dicastery for Divine Worship, awaiting its final approval.” The document was delivered in June. Incorporating elements ‘without harming the eucharistic liturgy’
Arizmendi said that “there are certain elements, which have been studied, that can be incorporated into the Holy Mass without harming the eucharistic liturgy.”
“We were studying and seeing what things could be taken into the Catholic liturgy, what things yes, what things no,” he said.