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Why U.S. Catholics are heading for the exits
Publication date:
October 17, 2008
Section:
J. Columnist 
Stafford BettyThe recent Pew survey on religion found that 10 percent of American adults describe themselves as ex-Catholics. That is a very large number, over 20 million.
Almost as alarming, according to Catholic Answers, the nation’s largest Catholic Internet community, “anywhere from one-third to one-half of many fundamentalist congregations once belonged to the Catholic church.” And in the Southwest, “with its substantial Hispanic population, former Catholics are the congregation.”
These numbers support my own experience in the classroom, where a disproportionate number of students tell stories of why they left the Catholic church.
There are at least three reasons for the exodus.
1) Fundamentalist Protestantism powerfully appeals to people looking for an easy and certain ride to eternal life. All one has to do is to believe in five fundamentals of the faith: the infallibility of scripture; the deity of Jesus, born of a virgin; Jesus’ atonement for our sins on the cross; his bodily resurrection following his death; and his second coming. What anchors these beliefs is a one-to-one personal relation with Jesus as lord and savior. Once achieved, there is no more worry, no matter how grievously one has sinned or will sin. The rest of the world, including Christians, especially Catholics, who have not had this experience, may find themselves in hell for eternity, but the “true Christian” will go directly to heaven at death, his sins entirely wiped clean.
Catholicism does not offer such assurance. Faith in doctrine is not enough, and many sins are defined as “mortal.” Even if one dies as a “good Catholic,” there is no instantaneous entry into heaven. Purgatory intervenes. Then there are the strictures surrounding the sacraments, especially the warning to avoid holy Communion for unabsolved sins. So many ways to wander off the path. And so much danger if one does.
Simple, anxious, often uneducated souls are easy prey to a charismatic pastor who tells them the Catholic way is unnecessarily complex, artificial and rule-bound.
No wonder Catholics are leaving the faith for fundamentalism.
2) But there is more than an aggressive fundamentalism accountable for the downturn. Many Catholics, especially whites, are defecting for the same reasons that Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Methodists are defecting from their churches. They find problems within the religion. The sense of meeting God in church that I enjoyed as a boy and young man is usually missing these days. The romance of religion, the sense of awe in the presence of the Divine is seldom evident -- not in the liturgy, not in the sermon, not in the music, not even in the dress. In my youth, Catholics made “visits” to church during the week to pray quietly by themselves, and these “visits” were often times of deep spiritual experience. Sometime in the ’70s, “visits” stopped being something that Catholics did.
The Second Vatican Council rattled many a Catholic. Superficial believers held in place by fear of hell suddenly realized that men, and not God, were at the helm of a thoroughly human institution, and many left because they were no longer afraid to. But the deeper spirits left for the reason pointed out above: They weren’t getting anything out of their religion. Many found a new spiritual home in some sort of Eastern or New Age spirituality, quite a few in the more accepting environment of Anglicanism. Many, regrettably, became atheists. These trends continue today.
3) Finally, the Catholic church is losing members because of poor leadership. The child sex abuse scandal that surfaced in Boston in 2002 was the last straw for many U.S. Catholics already fretting over Vatican decrees on such matters as divorce and birth control. The church seemed to them like an out-of-touch bully quick to exclude and punish -- the very opposite of a Christ presence urging forgiveness seven times 70.
But an even bigger problem today is the shortage of priests. Fifty years ago average-sized churches had three to five priests to share the work. Now the work too often falls on only one man, the beleaguered pastor. Our overworked priests are exhausted, torn in a hundred directions, spiritually undernourished, and too often burned out. As a result, parishes are relying more and more on “supply clergy.” Usually these are foreign-born, speak poor English, and have almost no understanding of the culture they’ve been thrown into.
Another casualty of the priest shortage is the religious education of our youth. Our children aren’t getting good instruction in the faith, especially in confirmation classes. Too often, these are taught by any adult who volunteers, and smart kids just aren’t buying what they are told. The in-depth instruction I received as a boy from priests and nuns is missing. My son came back from his first confirmation class convinced that he was wasting his time. Well, not quite. “There was a pool table, foosball, a big-screen TV and cute girls.” In contrast, his Mormon friends were getting daily instruction before school started from well-prepared volunteers. Mormonism is growing by leaps and bounds in Bakersfield. But the population of church-attending Catholics has only slightly increased since I arrived here years ago, although the city has grown fivefold during that time.
There are other reasons the church is losing ground, but these three strike me as the most basic.
Stafford Betty is professor of religious studies at California State University at Bakersfield.
National Catholic Reporter October 17, 2008
I agree with item 1 & 2/ it
I agree with item 1 & 2/ it is more difficult when you have to think for yourself.
Item 3 / It is not just the lack of priests...it is the unwillingness of church leaders to acknowledge and empower lay leadership. Or to re-consider the 'man made law' of celibacy. As for education? Don't blame it on volunteers. Once again, church leaders will not empower and/or train lay leaders (or they ask them to fund their own education). And, the way we educate our youth is based on a pre-vatican II curriculum....and the church continues to use Confirmation as the benchmark for adult faith. Until the church is willing to truly put confirmation back into the initiation sacrament context (baptism, confirmation, eucharist), catholics will still see themselves 'done' at age 14 (or 15 or 16).
Anonymous is right on. As a
Anonymous is right on. As a cradle Catholic and long time Univesity professional, I was asked by a student to be his sponsor as he "went through" the RCIA progam. I was amazed at the lack of training of the leadership of the program. I'm all for trusting in the Holy Spirit, but it seems we should also give the HS a bit of help by providing well trained volunteers to lead prospects into the Church. We went to the sessions and,then, I called on my 16 years of Catholic education and 14 years of teaching and administrating in Catholic Schools and 18 years of serving on Diocesan School Boards to answer the myriad of questions that the candidate had that were never close to being answered in the RCIA program. We should have called his RCIA program "home schooled"!
Just wondering if Stafford
Just wondering if Stafford Betty is the same Stafford Betty who was at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, when I was there in the 1960s. If so, glad to hear from you! God bless and good luck!
The statement in #1 about
The statement in #1 about being a Fundamentalist Protestant doesn't seem fair. It's like saying Catholics can just go to confession and go out and sin again without worry (which some Fundamentalist have said). There's more to it.
Catholics might disagree with the Fundamentalist who believes that "being saved" is the beginning of the Christian life but have to respect the Christian lives led by so many. Their strong faith in Christ leads to generousity to their churches and other causes that often put Catholics to shame. Their per capita giving exceeds that of other Christians. Telling of their faith in Christ can seem joyful when compared to Catholics.
It also seems unfair that they are described as so narrow minded. The evangelist Billy Graham has often had Catholic leaders on the stage at his meetings. A friend, a former Catholic with a PH.D. from a Catholic university, who joined a Fundamentalist church told me she's there because of their strong faith in Christ and outreach to the poor. Neither she, nor Billy Graham, nor so many others think salvation is only for them. Certainly some are narrow minded. Aren't some Catholics?
Catholics disagree with their fundamental of the infallibility of scripture but can certainly hold the other fundamentals as part of their faith. Infallibility certainly has limits and many Fundamentalist have problems here. And many Catholics have problems with the teaching of papal infallibility. Each can say the other is dead wrong, but is it fair to do so?
Perhaps one reason Catholics
Perhaps one reason Catholics don't make 'visitations' to churches
any more is because they find the doors firmly locked and bolted.
Time was when you knew that, even if you found the big front doors
locked, we knew that the church door nearest the rectory was going
to be open.
Concerns about vandalism and such are valid; none the less, the
locking of church doors does, quite literally, lock the prayerful out.
I agree with anonymous and
I agree with anonymous and Tom. Mr. Betty writes that the shortage of priests is "an even bigger problem" than poor leadership. This implies that if we had an abundance of priests, then better leadership would follow, and all would be well.
But, the clergy shortage "crisis" has been a long time in coming. Those in charge knew that it was coming, or should have known. More important, if we had clergy who trusted in the dignity and worth of the laity, the declining numbers of priests would not matter so much. After all, if the laity were empowered, we would automatically have more leaders! Don't forget, the laity of today are the best educated and most financially secure ever - we are more than qualified to lead.
The mantra in this diocese (Springfield, Massachusetts) is that "we all must learn to change to face the shortage of priests". That is true enough. But then, this slogan is used to justify the wholesale closing of parishes, without allowing parishioners to have any say in how the decisions are made, or in administrative decisions going forward.
This insistence that it is only the parishes that must change to fit the priest supply, while the clerical/lay interaction is expected to remain the same, raises grave questions about the future of the institution.
It is sad that the Church in
It is sad that the Church in America is losing so many.
However...
As someone who attends the traditional rite, I don't see much of it. The churchs with the traditional rite are filled every Sunday, about half with young, growing families.
A couple of other posters mentioned as well the lack of training. This is a VERY big problem. Lots of modern Catholics I meet simply seem to be coasting through life and know little if ANYTHING about thier faith. I've lost count of how many people thought the Blessed Sacrament was nothing more than a symbol.
God is with His Church, though. Through hard work, we will regain the ground we lost.
The difficulties of
The difficulties of maisntream protenstatism and progressive Catholicism stem from several social factors appearing since the 1970s. Conservative Catholics are actually recording onvert based growth.
In the end, secularized Christianity is neither "fish nor fowl". Its religious elements do not appeal to the non religious portion of the public. Likewise, it is too secularized to attract many people seeking a religious basis for their lives.
Also a side note: Mormonism may or may not be "growing by leaps and bounds" in Bakersfield. The Mormon organizations have been known to exagerate convert numbers. In addition, Mormon leadership has acknowledged that an unusually high percentage of recent Mormon converts quickly leave the church for a variety of reasons.
I couldn't disagree with Mr.
I couldn't disagree with Mr. Betty more about religious education of our youth. He states "Our children aren’t getting good instruction in the faith, especially in confirmation classes." I'm one of those adults: I'm a catechist with years of experience AND a volunteer. My two biggest challenges are parents who don't care and priests who care even less. The attitude of our parish priests is that the volunteers should "just take care of it" - "it" being the education of our youth. The priests don't want to be bothered with any of it and seem to resent being asked even to show their faces in a classroom. I'm sick to death of hearing our priests (and we have three) whine about how overworked they are. I work a full-time job and still find time to volunteer to teach. And no matter how ineffective or inadequate you think that might be, I assure that these kids would never receive instruction if it were left up to our parish priests alone. Priest shortage my eye!
Being a non-catholic staff
Being a non-catholic staff member at what is a conservative Catholic school, and having a Catholic wife, I think what is described here is basically a good description of the problem the church faces. I also see little or nothing indicating much awareness of these problems among the people I am surrounded by at school. I am repeatedly astounded at how little these students and some faculty know of others' beliefs, of the teachings of Jesus through personal reading, and the lack of any sense of need to understand others' point of view. Meanwhile the church is shrinking around them and all they can do is denounce those who lack faith and loyalty to the church. They do not see that many feel the church has failed to remain relevant in many people's lives because of its failure to come to terms with modern issues and its narrow focus, at least as publicly seen, on a couple of issues. My wife does not seem to agree with many if not most of the church's stances these days, but stays catholic out of habit and fear of change. Asked why she remains a catholic she cannot say. Basically she stays because she is descended from Italian immigrants and they've always been catholics. It's just what you do, you see, and you don't think about it because that opens up too many uncertainties. I attend the Mass at school more often than she attends it at church, and I am not Catholic. I suspect I listen more closely to the reading and the homily as well. As I watch during Mass, I see many who seem unaware of the readings, but are there just to participate in the Eucharist which they seem to do by rote. I cannot judge what they are thinking, but their expressions can tell a lot. They appear disconnected.
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