This study offers no support for the thesis that suicide rates are inversely related to the proportion of catholics in society. Durkheim’s theory of religion & suicide is no longer tenable because of a convergence between catholicism & protestantism levels of participation. Durkheim’s theory of marital intergration & suicide exept for societies with a very high divorce rate, is supported, as is ellner’s model of industrialization and increased social mobility & suicide. G W.