SheryWeddell at the St Catherine of Siena Institute reports that 32% of Americans raised Catholic abandon the identity altogether by their mid twenties. An additional 38% retain the identity but rarely practice their faith. 30% of those who call themselves Catholic attend Mass only once a month. On a given Sunday only about 15.6% of American Catholics attend Mass.
What is the reason for these disastrous statistics? Basically because for the last forty years Catholics themselves have not taught Catholicism to their children. They've taught 'American Catholicism' which is a watered down blend of sentiementalism, political correctness, community activism and utilitarianism. In other words, "Catholicism is about feeling good about yourself, being just to others and trying to change the world." The next generation have drawn the obvious conclusion that you don't need to go to Mass to do all that. You can feel good about yourself much more effectively with a good book from the self help shelf, or by attending a personal development seminar. You can be involved in making the world a better place without going to church.
If only 15% of Catholics go to Mass on a given Sunday, look around and see how many of them are old. Even the 15% who are there won't be there for very long.
The solution is simple: we must return to the supernatural realities of the historic faith and evangelize like the Apostles of old. The big difference is that the Apostles knew their targets were pagans and the pagans knew they weren't Christians. We're dealing with a huge population of Americans (Catholics and Protestants alike) who are pagan but who think they're 'good Christians.' It is very difficult to evangelize people who already think they're fine just as they are. We don't know what we don't know, and the vast majority of poorly catechized, lazy and worldly Catholics aren't aware that there's anything wrong.
What will it take for us to wake up?
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34 comments:
'What will it take for us to wake up? '
Suffering Father, suffering. It's a great enabler in trying to correct one's behaviour eventually, I've found. Having said that, the will still tries to cling to it's old haunts.
All shall be well.
Hi Fr. Dwight:
To be precise, 30% attend *at least* once a month but less than every week, and only about 15.6% are present to have their nose counted on a given weekend.
Does that make sense? It's a little bit better than it sounded at first.
Sherry Weddell
Dear Father,
Catholic identity?
That went the way of the Liturgical East and Latin in the Mass.
I hate to point to the elephant in the room but once again we must look at when this shift started.
Post VII
I know, I know not everything was perfect before the council, true. However, was it this bad?
I am sorry Father but its time to either correct VII or do away with it all together and that goes for the Bugnini Mass as well.
We have such a "protestant" mentality in our American culture, even as Catholics. When I talk to Catholics there isn't an understanding of the "Sunday Obligation."
I think you hit the nail on the head about what 'American Catholicism' is, but need to include a protestant "underbelly." I don't mean to "bash" protestantism, but simply to say that we have taken that tone with the faith in this country - things are almost reveresed from history.
Your point about the "Age" of the faith is partially correct. There is a youth movement, but it is in more traditional settings. You see the young folks saying: "If I am going to do this... I am going to do it 100%."
I think we need to realize there is competition for eyes, ear, heart and minds. Unfair, perhaps, but we've done a lot to eviscerate not only the supernatural but the good and the beautiful from the Mass, our parishes, our homilies. I reverted and my wife converted after a long process of soul-searching, thank God. But I admit longing for the pervasive feeling of warmth, welcome, and thoughtfulness I left behind in my Anglican church. Rather than being treated as curiosities or annoyances, audiences ranging from boomerangs and would-be-converts, to strangers, kids, and seekers were treated (a) as if they were expected and (b) with some attention to their specific situation. I hope the flourishing, however slow, of the Ordinariate lets more of us onto the power of small improvements in organization and aesthetics.
@Giovanni is correct. If a business is selling a product which is objectively defective (as the "ars celebrandi" is at 80 percent of suburban parishes), then said business (the Church) should not be surprised when sales of that product decline.
A necessary (though not sufficient) step to increase Mass attendance is to make Mass something beautiful and interesting to attend. When it's banal crap with valid sacraments, you won't get any but the most dutiful Catholics.
@Ryan Ellis
Two words "New Coke."
However I do take contention of what the beauty of the Mass is suppose to be about. I would say that any work put in to the Liturgy first and for most is for God in order to Honor and Glorify him weather this draws people or not is not the concern of the Mass.
I am aware however that the Mass can be an evangelistic tool and to many its beauty will attract and retain said people. However that is not or should ever be its primary role.
The Mass and its edifying characters are there because of the reality it conveys that of God living and present and the act of love which is His sacrifice for all man kind.
All of our works are but a whisper in the Truth that thunders from Heaven.
"Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus"
I wonder how many Israelites in the Book of Exodus thought they were good Israelites after 400 years in Egypt, despite all the acculturation?
Is their real slavery, and its religious form, based in nature, symbolic of our intellectual slavery to Nominalism, and its religious form, based in the mind: almost 500 years of Protestantism?
Where's Moses? Rome? :)
As said previously; suffering, suffering, suffering. Can we take it?
I think we must as all suffering is a gift from God to give us the opportunity to do penance.
I don't want the Mass changed or eviscerated in the name of accessibility (certainly not, as that's what's happened so many places already). What I'd jettison is the cheese (liturgical dance, opening hug) and the nonchalance (boring homilies) and churches with all the exaltedness of a car-wash. I think the congregation can help, too. If that's God on the altar, maybe jeans and visible toe-hair aren't the best sartorial choices?
On suffering, that's a very spiritually mature point, but I have some concerns about "come suffer with us" as a tag-line. Part of the point of Fr. Longenecker's post is that the most basic of spiritual habits have broken down, and presumably the interior life as well. Getting new people "in" or "back" means meeting them where they are, and that's not always or usually a spiritually mature place. Don't water down anything, but give people entry points.
When our actions (liturgical, ministerial, evangelizing, worshiping, atoning, etc) say "God is here" in the fullness of what that means and implies, we'll get more of the wake up. When our actions convey little more than that "church" is something that gets done grudgingly between IHOP and Lowe's, and that is expected drudgery wrapped in tolerated ugliness, it will eventually lose out to IHOP and Lowe's.
If there are 30% who attend at least once a month but less than every week, then what is the percentage of those who attend every single week? Shouldn't they be added to the 30% to get the total of those attending within a month's period? I looked at what Sherry wrote and have trouble reconciling the 30% figure with the 15.6% figure. Is the latter made up of those who attend every week or a portion of that 30% who attend at least once a month but less than every week? In my parish, at least 80% of those present at Mass are there every single week.
I do not think it's just an 'American thing'. I do not think mass attendance in Europe fares much better.
Father, as a Catholic convert, I have to say that my experience is nothing like this. At our parish in Florida, and at others in this area, I am amazed at the age diversity I see at Mass. There are worshipers there of all ages from infants through the elderly, all in good numbers. And when the priest calls for the children, we must have well over 100 young children who go down. It is truly remarkable. Sandy O'Seay
Strong words in these comments. "Banal crap"...really? Has it changed the fact that our Lord and Savior is present....or does He only present Himself when all is 'perfect'? Careful. Those of us who remain faithful must show by example of love and patience. In this 'valley of the shadow of death' we will see many come back. Are WE ready?
The way the faith has slipped away has intrigued me for some time. I always use the analogy of a vaccine. You take a dead version of a virus strain, inject it into the body, and the body builds an immunity to the live virus. When the live virus comes along, the body is resistant.
Poor catechesis and poor liturgy have vaccinated young people (my generation, but even more the generation of students I teach) against the true faith. They’ve been handed a dead version of the Christianity and now they resist real Christianity because they confuse it with the dead thing they’ve been given.
So…how do you counteract a vaccine? If you wanted to infect a person with a virus, you’d have to have a markedly different strain from the one they’ve been given in their vaccinations. Perhaps that’s why the Extraordinary Form of the Mass is making such a difference. It is markedly different from the Ordinary Form so many youth are used to.
What we need now is a markedly different method of catechesis. When I stand at the front of the classroom and say anything about Catholicism, many of my students shut down or resist. The whole method needs to be turned into something very different from what they’re used to. Perhaps it’s time for Pope Benedict to start pushing for dioceses to have departments to catechize parents (who aren’t quite as vaccinated) and teach them how to catechize their children. Catechesis in the home would definitely be markedly different from what these kids are used to.
Pope Benedict is thinking like a doctor. I hope it continues to work.
Arnold:
The 15.6% are included within the 30% who attend at at least once a month.
A smaller group is actually there every weekend than attends irregularly.
Re: the attendance figures:
First of all, the numbers that Fr. Dwight quoted are of all who were raised Catholic, that is baptized as children (which is the vast majority) as well as those who are converts (about 2.6% of American adults) It is important to includes those who have slipped off our radar because they now answer "no" when asked "Are you a Catholic?"
The difference between the number who were raised Catholic and the number of Catholics who actually register at a parish is vast. Cause 32% of those who were raised Catholic have dropped the ID altogether, and roughly 33% of those who retain the identity don't bother to register in a parish. (that's a national average, not a local one - obviously this can vary from place to place)
So the truth is on average, a diocese is probably only aware of a little over 45% of all those within it's boundaries who were baptized at some point. And of course, a much smaller number actually attend Mass than are registered in the vast majority of parishes around the country.
(My parish in Seattle was an exception because it was a magnet parish that had more attendees than registered families. But this is rare.)
I don't think we grasp our situation unless we know when watching that baby being baptized at Mass that there is only a 1 in 6 chance that he or she will be regularly attending Mass in 20 years.
A couple of things come to mind when reading this. First, if we want people to come to mass, we priests need to do a much better job of giving people a reason to come. Such things as a) starting on time, b) having a well-prepared, practical homily that doesn't drag on and on, and c) concluding mass within an hour will all go a long way in getting people enthusiastic about coming to mass. Also, eliminating all the extra-liturgical fluff like announcing peoples’ birthdays and having everyone shake hands with each other before mass will help immensely. Things like that really just turn off a whole lot of people. Simply put, there is nothing wrong with the new mass. What is wrong is how we priests often preside at it. Keep it simple, stick to the rubrics and have respect for your congregation’s time and intelligence, and all will be well. I've been a priest for 14 years and I’m yet to see these guidelines fail. Masses I preside at are full of people of all ages, and plenty of money gets put in the basket.
Our church leaders and a bunch of loud laypeople wanted Roman Protestantism and they got it. Now we all have to live with it.
Padre Pio once said, "If men were to understand the value of the Holy Mass, for every Mass such crowds would come to church that police would be needed to keep order." This, I believe, is at the heart of the problem addressed in this article, for if people truly believed that that little host was indeed our beloved and merciful Jesus Christ, why would they stay away? This has nothing to do with homilies, music, dancing, or any other silly, superficial thing, for it is not those things that bring people to Mass, nor should it be. (Though I admit I am quite fond of very good music and homilies!) What really matters is that Jesus Christ Himself truly comes down onto our altars every day, multiple times a day, just to love us, hoping to be loved in return.
While I was in Africa this summer, I attended some of the most simple, joyful Masses I have ever experienced. They get it there. It is we spiritually impoverished Americans who are too distracted by the noise of the world to acknowledge what is right in front of our faces at every Mass. Encouraging awareness of the Real Presence and a deep love for Him in the Eucharist will solve many, many of our problems, I think.
Janelaine gets it. Thanks!
What will it take for us to wake up?
1. A nice Depression would help, so we're in pretty good shape there. It's coming.
2. It would really help if our bishops and priests "went to extremes." Our cultural enemies do. Father hauling his TV out to the parking lot and demolishing it with a sledge hammer might get some attention. The point is, "Let's stop the de-evangelization first of all."
3. Another startling thing would be to mail parishioners copies of the Baltimore catechism and suggest they go over it with their children and grandchildren. That would be novel.
4. With everyone having thrown out their TVs in response to Father's leadership (all we need is a little leadership), parishioners might be open to reading the lives of the saints and the Chronicles of Narnia, etc. to their kids. Family Evenings Together. The Mormons do it one night a week. Ergo, more Mormons.
5. We need a complete volte-face in the homilies. Audiosancto furnishes hundreds of examples of bracing, content-filled homilies for which people are hungering and which would thrill them to the core.
One thing is sure, if we keep doing what we're doing we will continue to lose Catholics.
Sure wouldn't hurt if the church fired bishops who covered up sexual abuse and moved priests around. Also wouldn't hurt if the church sent Cardinal Law back to Boston so he could face the law (since he managed to flee to Rome a few days before he was to be deposed in a civil suit). Also wouldn't hurt if Pope Benedict could admit he messed up big time in the way he handled the case of Fr. Peter Hullermann while archbishop of Munich (instead of letting his then-lieutenant take the blame, and simultaneously taking the Irish bishops to task for their inaction in dealing with predator priests).
No, the sexual abuse scandal is not the only thing that has resulted in a falling-off of mass attendance. But can anyone here claim it hasn't played a significant role in what many Catholics feel about the church, particularly as they think about their own children? And please, folks, don't say it's all the fault of the New York Times. The NYT did not rape any children; it did not cover up the rape of children.
Lee Gilbert
refreshing to see someone proposing positive changes to existing problems
as the good Padre may concur one goes stark raving bonkers mad in Britain because they DEFINE THEMSELVES in terms of their problems
If the USA goes that route we are well and truly scuppered I reckon, and still maintain that some thought given to the word 'supranatural' rather than 'supernatural' is in order
The Holy Archangel Gabriel brought the Holy Mother the Rosary in a supranatural way- not 'Superman' or any type of ubermensche but an holy one and celestial being in the service of the Triune God
"one goes stark raving bonkers mad in Britain because they DEFINE THEMSELVES in terms of their problems"
Is that ALL of us? :)
the Padre's comments are totally correct and really quite urgent for everyone
in terms of the 'recession' look around and see how much extraneous stuff you hve ALL OVER YOUR HOUSE GARAGE BARN ETC
how is it justifiable for us to keep these things hidden away to gather dust til they are auctioned off or thrown away at our deaths
The Pope of Rome just said last week no one should be hungry, hopefully meaning beyond the church as well- so when and where like good old Fr. Bryce of St Andrews Greenville are y'all starting in - rollin up the sleeves
doing 'small things with great love' as Mother Teresa put it
my Mother as one of her endeavors packs food packages for young people to take home over the weekend from their schools- because otherwise they would have no or little food... bet you have one or two in Greenville like that.
I am very happy to say the Padre is still prepared to call em like he sees em- when Jesus says what you did or didn't do to the least of these He seems terribly serious to my mind and reading- like everything centers on our behaviour really re the weak and poor and hungry and hurting- all those in need at whatever level of existance
Much of the malaise in society was caused , I reckon, and is caused by conflating 'judgement' with 'discernment'- as another good Priest Fr. Nick Papedo once told me
we all have to learn right from wrong and develop discernment for oursleves and to varying degrees others
the 'west' has become so libertine -as opposed to Liberal which is not in fact a dirty word in political economy and is what we need at the mo- we refuse to point out the 'error of our and others ways' for fear of 'passing judgement'- what a load of old cobblers
hence, we are sociologically largely pagan as the Padre says, and actually unravelling the mess most people are( of some religious heritage here ususally their grandparents generation) virulently militant atheism in schools and the 'national state' and touchey-feeley pop psycho-babble 'psychology' is quite difficult. libertinsism has become nihilsm and now we see the rise of the violence that is the logical extreme of such behaviour, as C.S. Lewis wrote and used to be conventional wisdom in UK /USA. After all the variations of carnality imaginable the drift is toward violence to continue the degradation of society as the raison d'etre
And may the Padre forgive me but he and many good Roman Catholic priests know how I find Thomism very overrated- especially nowadays since how are we to 'synthesis' or 'reconcile' our thought to the atrocities in the world... they simply have to be opposed by all means humanly and legally possible
shame there is no longer an Holy Roman Emperor to appeal to on our behalves.
Paul
I would love nothing better than to see a real
William Gladstone arise
no offense my friend.
is fairly dire if you read the papers I would have thought
we could always repent... worth a try
"I would love nothing better than to see a real William Gladstone arise": Well, become one then... :)
It's easy to be utopian or prescriptive - the 'magic bullet'.
Fr talks about the supernatural, and that was my point about the Israelites. Was the golden calf incident a deliberate act by each individual, or the result of the accretion of four centuries of ingrained bad habits by the whole nation?
In a sense, it doesn't matter, because God dealt with it how he saw fit, and surely he will again, despite our stupidity?
I would like to suggest that making Catholicism more difficult, demanding, and challenging is the way to go!
I am a 31 yr old woman who converted at 19, and have grown up surrounded by 2 groups of peers--nonpracticing, nonreligious Catholics, and serious, committed, earnest evangelical Protestants. I think people want Catholicism to MAEN SOMETHING--not be full of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.
Incidentally, I converted because I really thought I wanted to be a nun, like the women who taught me in high school! Well, as it turns out, I am married with a new baby son, but I just want to make the point that what drew me to Catholicism was seeing women who had committed their hearts, souls, and lives to Christ and his Church.
@Lee Gilbert
You don't need to do all that just do one thing. Turn the Priest around have him face the Tabernacle instead of the people and I will guarantee you they will start paying attention.
Make it mandatory around the world after a certain date.
Paul
thank you for the political confidence... I'm an USA citizen I'm afraid
to be very honest... the Padre knows I am not a good liar
i loved nothing better than
'the Tory Party at prayer' with sherry on the lawn thereafter
my eldest son asked me:
What is true religion? (you know how auld Anglicans got that adjective in first on Rome)
I said:
true religion is we believe Jesus was the Son of God. He came to this world despite our having sinned and failed miserably and even when He came we killed him because of 'the mystery of iniquity'
but still he and His Father and the Holy Spirit want us to be happy now and someday live with them in a place of brightness and verdure forever*
until that time we go to the Liturgy to get a little foretaste of Paradise, we give as much money as we can to the poor and missions
and
until He comes back someday we can have a sherry after the service
*being a simple soul I simply believe the Athanasian Creed- I do not claim to know or understand how the three are one in three and all that- as St Paul recommended a priori. However, my old friend the Doge of Durham Bede Professor of Theology at Durham (who once not unlike St Nicholas actually smacked me for suggesting- in jest I hasten to add-that St Augustine should be rather more Sainted thean 'blessed' at Uni)has happily seen the error of his ways and wrote an extensive new book:
'Augustine and the Trinity'
Droppin the Saint I suspect less to prove me unmistakably right and orthodox but to be kinda palsy-walsy like Rowen and Co like to be. Me and Anselm or Augustino or whatever their names were, kinda thing... well, sells books poor thing.
I don't know where you are located, but in my parish we have a huge population of young people--by which I mean, families with young children; young adults, etc. I agree that we haven't been teaching Catholicism, but I don't think it's limited to the last 40 years. In my experience, too many people stop digging deeper into their faith about the time of Confirmation. And too many people--both now and in previous generations--never got to an adult understanding of their faith in the first place. I agree that it needs to be addressed, but in no parish that I have attended around the country have I seen any indication that the crowd is getting older b/c the young people are leaving.
"In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught."
This was said my Baba Dioum about environmental issues but it is true for many other issues as well. If we want to conserve the mass we have to love, understand and be taught about the mass. We are not going to see an increase in mass attendance until we start teaching people about the mass.
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