ABSTRACT
In the last chapter we concluded that Catholic schools had some moderate success in achieving the goals for which they exist, but our conclusion must be very tentative until we make sure that the apparent relationship between Catholic education and adult religious behavior is not the result of the work of some factor other than Catholic schooling. We know, for example, that those who went to Catholic schools are more likely to be more successful economically than those who did not. We also know from the work of other sociologists that, in the American society, the higher one’s income the more likely he is to take part in religious activity. So it might well be that the real explanation for the greater religious activity of Catholic school Catholics lies not in their religious education but in their social class. Until we can exclude the possible influence of this and other variables, we cannot back up the generalizations made in the previous chapter with any degree of confidence.
