Roman Catholics: Degrees of Devotion

Are graduates of parochial schools better Roman Catholics than those who receive a purely secular education? Yes—but not by much, is the unenthusiastic conclusion of a new survey of U.S. parochial schools called The Education of Catholic Americans (Aldine; $8.95). Financed by a $250,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation, the four-year study was conducted by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center and edited by two of its sociologists: the Rev. Andrew M. Greeley, a Catholic priest, and Peter H. Rossi, a self-styled "devout agnostic."

By a purely quantitative measurement of...