CARA is a national, non-profit, Georgetown University affiliated research center that conducts  social scientific studies about the Catholic Church. Founded in 1964, CARA has three major dimensions to its mission: to increase the Church’s self understanding, to serve the applied research needs of Church decision-makers, and to advance scholarly research on religion, particularly Catholicism.

CARA has more than 50 years of experience in quality social science research on the Catholic Church. We offer a range of research and consulting services for dioceses, parishes, religious communities and institutes, and other Catholic organizations. CARA’s longstanding policy is to let research findings stand on their own and never take an advocacy position or go into areas outside its social science competence. All CARA researchers have advanced degrees in relevant academic disciplines as well as pastoral experience. CARA researchers are active in the academic community publishing and presenting research about the Catholic Church.