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March 4, 2008
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently released a study on religious affiliation in America. It found among other things, that "the Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition because of affiliation swapping....While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they're Catholic today. That means roughly 10% of Americans are ex-Catholics." Thanks to immigration (more than half of recent immigrants to the U.S are Catholic), the Catholic Church still constitutes about 25% of the U.S. population. One in three Catholics in the U.S. is Hispanic.
The survey sampled 35,500 thousand people. One could argue that the sample size in a country of some 300+ million was too small. However, the survey generally confirms what many observers of the Catholic scene in the U.S. already knew - at least anecdotally.
Here in Central Florida, the numbers of Catholics are growing. Since I have been bishop I have established eight new parishes or missions. This Easter Season, more than 1,000 people will join the Catholic Church here in our Diocese. Our pews are full - because of the continuing influx of people to our area, either from the North (the snowbirds moving to a warmer climate) or from the South (Puerto Ricans and immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean). It is tempting to glibly dismiss the Pew study. However, given the constant arrival of newcomers we might not as easily notice the members who quietly defect.
Why are we losing people? A possible explanation - but one I think is too facile - is that many adult Catholics have left the Church because of the phenomenally poor religious instruction received by baby boomers and their children over the last 40 years. This certainly plays a role - more often than not the former Catholic who joins another religious denomination did not understand why he or she was Catholic in the first place. But that cannot be the sole explanation. In fact, many of the immigrant Catholics who built the Church here in the U.S. a century ago were poorly educated in their faith and in just about everything else. However, they kept the faith - and built the schools that handed on both a solid education and the faith to their children. These immigrants brought with them a culture that helped shape their faith and forged a collective identity in which Catholicism was part of a distinctive way of life - a way of life that revolved around the parish.
Something changed though when their children and grandchildren entered into the American mainstream. Catholics were assimilated - or absorbed - into American culture resulting in an erosion of Catholic identity. The parish play a lesser role in their lives. The strong individualism of our culture undermines the sense of a "collective identity". And thus Americans become individual "consumers" of religion, picking their religious identity "a la carte" as it were. Churches are seen as merely voluntary organizations and affiliation or non affiliation a matter of personal taste or choice. The attraction of the Evangelical denominations with their emphasis on the therapeutic side of faith seems to bear this out.
What do we do about it? Certainly better catechesis is needed; but, Catholics do not live their faith merely as individuals but as members of a community. Parishes are key to reinforcing Catholic identity and providing a place where people can experience the distinctiveness of Catholic life. Parishes at their best can draw people into a Catholic ethos in a way that does convert them. Most parishes did that well up until the mid-20th century - and many still do. If we want to stem the "leakage" from the Church - and at the same time reach out to the unaffiliated, parish life must be revitalized. As Pope John Paul II said in Novo Millenio Ineunte, the Church must be "the home and school of communion" where each member of Christ's faithful is valued and taken into account and where each is aware of his or her active responsibility for living the faith.
Stan
American culture: moral relativism. Perhaps many Americans don't even know what that means. But I think they follow it. "Nothing is absolute", even in the moral realm. Therfore, the Catholic Church cannot teach morals without error.
Hispanics have a strong family tie and that's what's holding them together. But we also see the assimilation going on there too. Look at all the coconuts: brown on the outside, white on the inside.
Sex, divorce, remarriage, and that's why many leave the Catholic Church. Other Christian groups allow divorce and remarriage. They cite Catholic annulments as a Catholic divorce. That's their perception. Birth control is another thing. Catholics are not supposed to use any form of birth control. Other Christians do. Like I say, moral relativism is the key and the belief that the Church can't possibly teach morals without error.
Submitted by Stan on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 9:52am.
If we have faith in the promises of the New Testament, then we have to believe that the Church teaches without error.
It may be, as Bishop Wenski says, a loss of identity. When people do not see any real difference between Us and Them, they may well ask "Why not be one of Them, instead of one of Us?" Such identity is maintained at the level of family, and so, it comes back to Catholics not living their faith.
The only remedy I can suggest is prayer and fasting.
Submitted by Arkanabar on Wed, 03/05/2008 - 5:34am.
Your Excellency,
I have lived in 5 dioceses in the last 20 years and have attended Sunday mass every week. I have also visited many other dioceses in that time. Yet I have NOT heard one homily on abortion, homosexuality, pornography, birth control, or premarital sex during that period. Yet I have heard ad nausium that Jesus loves me. We are deluged by the culture of death in the media and our everyday life. Yet Catholics are NOT being sustained in their faith and fall prey to the culture.
The day you and your fellow bishops and prieste decide to get serious about relavent instruction of the laity, then we will see more people in the pews.We all have God's spirit in us and we hunger for His word. But if that spirit is not nurished, it will die.
Submitted by mraiello on Wed, 03/05/2008 - 8:05am.
Yopur Excellency,
One more thing. Most of the Catechesis on these issues has been from the laity without the support of the bishoops. The American Life League, One more soul, etc.
We can't expect any help from te USCCB. Since there are many individuals in the organization who DO NOT espouse the true faith, there have been many erroneous statements and papers coming from that group like "Always Our Children". And even if that organization presents proper information on issues, it never gets disseminated to the local diocese. The USCCB pays lip service to Catholic teaching while the local dioceses are in decay.
Submitted by mraiello on Wed, 03/05/2008 - 8:12am.
AMEN MRAIELLO!!!!!!
--You have made us for yourself, O Lord; and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. — St. Augustine
Submitted by suz slu on Wed, 03/05/2008 - 3:12pm.
Amen Mraiello!
"My people perish for lack of knowledge!" Hosea 4:6
Submitted by Campana on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 9:05am.
And don't forget what our children are and are NOT getting in CCD and their catechesis classes. Almost all Catholic teenagers graduating from High School are pro life but almost 80% become pro choice by the time they graduate from college. Perhaps this says much about what they are being taught as religious ed. This is analogous to army recruits in basic training. We as Catholics are "trained" every Sunday to effectively survive our other 6 days swimming in the "Culture of death'. But our training is so poor, it is like army recruits being sent into battle and not having any training with their rifles.
Sadly, the Catholic Church in America is the "Farm System" for the culture of death.
Submitted by mraiello on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 2:46pm.
Great article, your Excellency. Parish life has changed drastically since Vatican II. Even when the lessons in our CCD program are strong and Christ centered, our children leave us to return the following week for their lessons not having once heard a good word about God, the Catholic Church or any Christian concept. They live in a pagan world here in our once Christian country. Everything seems stacked against our children and their families knowing the Lord. Parish life should be renewed so that our people have someplace to come to for socialization with other Catholics. The moral issues of the day should be discussed from the altar and in church groups. But, first of all, we must be taught to have a relationship with Christ. I have been blessed never to have lived in a parish with poor teaching from the altar. Bishop, you will be prayed for tonight.
Your sister through the love of Christ,
Submitted by Mary Durkan on Tue, 03/11/2008 - 2:27am.
I would suggest a reason: the liberal-ness of the American church. Priests who take horrific liberties with the mass and who water down the call of Christ (our priest this week, in the prayers of the faithful, asked for our "prayerful energies" to be with the sick?!)
The call of Christ is a radical one, if truly followed, and
"narrow is the road, few there be that find it. " Of course, it IS difficult to find when not pointed out by our leaders!
--You have made us for yourself, O Lord; and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. — St. Augustine