Exit Interviews for Fallen RCs?

As with employers who do "exit interviews," the Church is likely to ignore what departing associates have to say. That's the way institutions, be they religious or secular, generally behave.

They generally assume that the person resigning is the one with the problem--- the issues--- not the organization.

In my opinion, it's wrong to assume that the Church cares to listen to the laity, particularly the laity who are leaving the Church. The presumption is
that it is the fallen-away Catholic whose "faith is weak."

Catholics who leave have no desire to talk to those who drove them out. I am also fairly sure the bishops don't really want the truth. They are pefectly satisfied with their self-serving spin.

The only place a fallen-away Catholic needs to be "interviewed" is in Confession! A fallen-away Carholic's faith is not weak, it is GONE. I don't care why heretics want to leave as long as they leave. As heretics leave the faith, the Church is being repopulated with fire-breathing orthodox converts like ME! We became Catholic because the Church via the Pope and Magisterium teach the Truth of Christ. Converts are attracted to the Catholic Church because of orthodoxy, not liberalism.

I absolutely agree. When a new pastor came in to my parish, 4 key staff members, who had been on staff for 20 years, left within one year. NO ONE from the Archdiocese called to ask what happened. If they do that to loyal staff, the laity won't even show up on the radar.

How will you find them to interview them? Most of them leave in phases; first they skip mass once or twice a month, then only come occasionally, then don't bother enrolling the kids for CCD. By the time they're really gone, nobody remembers they were there and they don't really remember why they ever went.

Don't leave.
Having been driven out in the late 60's, I returned in 1998 because a staret (wise holy man) at a Benedictine Abbey assured me that I could be a "good Catholic" by ignoring Rome and following the precepts of the New Testement Gospels. By staying, you subvert the Pharisees and the Scribes (bishops and canon lawyers). Just knowing that we are out there drives these intellectual, political, economic, religious fascists out of their gord. As Gary Wills instructs, profess and act upon the Creed that was recited at your Baptism.

Demetrius

I think the concept of "exit interviews" is hilarious.

Everyone I know who's left the church has engaged with it vigorously before concluding that they had no alternative but to leave, whatever the serious issue(s) that drove them out. I know of nobody who's left because of trivial matters ("the receptionist was rude!" variety).

If the pope, cardinals, bishops and priests didn't listen to lay feedback when a person was actively engaged in a parish's work, the likelihood of them listening as people leave is virtually nonexistent. It's an insult to ask for feedback that the church has absolutely no intention of acting upon.

Most people are long gone before someone of responsibility in a parish of 3,000 families has a clue that they are even gone!

Parishes are way too large, impersonal and dedicated to doing stuff as opposed to fostering a good religious life within the masses, many of whom are nothing more than slack-jawed pew potatoes, content to get their weekly ticket punched and out the door in 45 minutes. Oh, yes, contributing $1.00 is just fine with them, too.

exactly. they don't want to know. it would only interfere with the proper blaming of the people who felt it necessary to leave.

Isn't the whole point of the New Evangelization to get people into the Church who are with the episcopal program, so as to make up for all those who have left because they weren't with the program? What's to find out?

I would have been happy to tell anyone who asked why I left the Catholic Church. But the reason they didn't ask is the same reason I left: no one in the Catholic Church cared. They were a group of individuals, both priests and parishioners, who had no interest in each other on a personal basis. Catholicism is all about complicated doctrines and dogma, and not about kindness and encouragement of the person in the pew next to you. Thank God I found a much more caring community in the Protestant faith where people genuinely care for each other, and seek to build each other up in faith and discipleship.

This is a great idea. I would bet that the data collected would surprise all factions, trads and liberals alike, and it is clear from the responses here how desperate former Catholics are to tell someone of their experiences.

Father Byron's idea has some merit. Since the Vatican has seen fit to interrogate the nuns as to their faith and lifestyles and why no women today are entering the religious life in droves (neither are the men, by the way) there should be no hesitation to do this! Why not ask the current parishioners to fill out an interview paper, then ask them to interview the people they know who have left and to actually dialogue with them, not just take a hasty retort. This might have a dual result: priests and bishops can see what is bothering their parishioners at present, and then the people and the hierarchy can see why the no longer faithful have left. Whether the bishops or Vatican care or not makes no difference; this will unleash at least a few decent discussions among the people. Which is exactly what Jesus did. WWJD/?

The pope refuses to listen or to learn. He and his brother, a cleric too in Germany, say they never read any criticisms about the church. Arrogant, self-satisfied, uncritical, unthinking status quo rigidity is what this RCC ''leadership'' of the pope is what it is all about.

The pope chooses not to listen, he only listens to extreme bad publicity and lack of funds. If he can get orthotoxic wealthy contributions to his coffers to maintain his luxurious life-style he is happy, he does not care one bit what ordinary parishioners think or that poor people or non-wealthy parishioners leave the RCC. Only big money talks to this pope, and still he will not listen or learn if he hears anything different from his own warped ideas.

BXVI's theology matches the toxic homoerotic crap of Maciel and ''theologian'' Hans Von Balthazar, that male priests become God during their orgasms. That the moment of eucharist is like a male orgasm. This is the "beauty" of the male priest that Benedict XVI writes about. SICKENING HERESY contaminates our RCC because of this 'pope' and his sick predecessor, JPII.

BXVI and JPII selected his clerics based on similar unthinking, blindly obedient mind-sets for priests, bishops, cardinals, theologians, Vatican bureaucrats, archbishops.

For example, some years ago a bishop was moved into a large urban city and made an archbishop. He was asked why the promotion to archbishop. He said he did not know, he said he "asks NO questions, does as he is TOLD".

This vapid unthinking, blind obedience of RCC clerics and any similar unthinking laity has resulted in continuations of extreme criminality and appalling lack of ethics, lack of morals, lack of justice, lack of intellectual inquiry, lack of theological inquiry and lack of intelligence and lack of integrity. Exit interviews of parishioners? The pope will not listen.

The pope is a self-serving, unrepentant criminal himself, he allowed this criminal rape and sodomization of our children and seminarians to continue and to increase under his self-preserving ''leadership''. He considers pedophilia to be a normal sexual expression of males. He just said so in a recent press release.

Anyone who is serious about interviewing Catholics who have left the church should first of all consider how to do so respectfully.

Describing or addressing them as "fallen Catholics" is hardly a good start. It comes across with a connotation of "fallen from grace", as if Catholics who've left the church are /prima facie/ greater sinners than Catholics who haven't. Respectful interviews require some humility on the part of the interviewer: last I checked my catechism, we're /all/ fallen.

"Lapsed" or "former" would be more respectful choices.

Some Catholics simply disappear and might not remember after a while why they left. Some leave in anger. Others leave wounded and bleeding. I suspect these last two categories remember, all right.

Perhaps we should ask the church communities of our separated brothers and sisters in which such former Catholics have found a new home to interview them for us, and publish the results. That might stand a better chance of garnering notice from the RC hierarchy.

After a lifetime of working in and loving my Church, I am struggling with what is left other than the Eucharist.
Finances, poor preaching, absent pastors, and a weak hierarchy are all I see. I am about to reread Edward Hayes, Letters to Exodus Christians. After years of evangelizing, I need to be evangelized. My answer can only come from within, but the tapes of a lifetime refuse to set me free. I won't disappear, but I am drowning.AFSHH

As a veteran ecumenist, I have observed this phenomenon for the past few years. Years ago, if a Catholic abandoned his faith, he or she went nowhere. Now they going almost in droves to other denominations, esp. Lutheran and Episcopal churches. One of the secrets of most successful Protestant parishes is the large number of former RCs in the membership. And some Protestant pastors have told me that their ex-Catholic members are among the most fervent,active and loyal parishioners. Reasons,I hear, for this phenomenon, include pastoral insensitivity on the part of Catholic priests, a friendlier environment, the role of women, and of course, clergy sex abuse. Lutheran and Episcopal liturgies are quite comprehensible to most Catholic. (Indeed, usually they are performed a whole lot better). I have always found Lutheran and Episcopal clergy to be open and engaging. One Missouri Synod pastor let me explain the Rosary and other Catholic practices without any rancour or hostility to his parish Bible class and we had a polie discussion on the issue. Another a Luthern Pastor "caught" me saying the Rosary before a Eucharist. He said he didn't observe the practice, but that his wife, (also a Lutheran pastor) did.

I am not sure it can be reduced to a question of customer satisfaction. My being in the Catholic Church doesn't depend on how the priests are nice, or clever, or on the kindness of the person sitting beside me in the pew, though relevant issues. I remember that the Church has defined itself (i.e. all of us Catholics)as casta meretrix and semper reformanda, but it remains the mystic body of Christ.
I have no interest in just following my personal ideas on Christ, I prefer to follow Bible, Tradition and the Church Teaching, though debating on all this if I need so but in a deep obedience to the historic presence of Christ in the history, i.e. the Church. If I wouldn't live the Church in this way I would join our Protestant brethren.

Dario Chiesa, Milan, Italy

I have not left the church. Membership is not based on 'attendance' contrary
to what appears her to be the determining factor. In the Church we have always had hermits. many of us today are simply that Catholic but Hermits.
By being a Hermit, Praying, studying scripture, and doing good deeds we do continue in the best tradition of our Faith. There is no real need to address
many of the issues validly stated above. Those who have eyes to see let them see. We are in fact in the historical sense reforming and redefining the Church. Omnipotent Dictatorial leadership is not long for this world.
Soon there will be a relict boxed into its own corner. They will assume they
are the pure and the holy. God Bless them! The rest of Christianity will
carry on trying to be the best they can be in the real world. Does anyone
seriously think we will be divided in Heaven according to our Confessions?
I don't wear red shoes people might think I am looking for the Yellow Brick Road, worse, people migh think I worship the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Lighten up, even Jesus laughed! Be faithful to Him, after all that is what
it is all about.
Happy New Year.
TomC Gloria in Excelsis Deo, et in terra Pax Hominibus!