More Evidence that Cultural Catholicism is Dead
From a disturbing article on Catholic online:
"Two recent sociological studies focus on important generational differences among Catholics.
They indicate that younger Catholics are more individualistic, more tolerant of religious diversity and far less committed to the practices of their faith than older Catholics. Based on their findings, researchers speculate that the future Catholic Church in the
In the longitudinal study, four generations were identified. The youngest is the “Millennial generation” born between 1979 and 1987, now 20 to 28 years old. The oldest generation is the pre-Vatican II Catholics, born before 1941, now ages 66 and older. The middle two generations constituting three-quarters of current adult laity are today’s Baby Boomers who were teenagers when the Second Vatican Council was first convened in 1962, and the slightly younger generation, now 29 to 46, who have taken Vatican II for granted.
Both authors are concerned with the direction of these changes. The trend is troublesome, they say, for if the youngest generation – including Catholic college students – have established habits that move the church and the sacraments far from the center of their lives, it’s unlikely that this will change significantly as they age. “Once a generation has established a pattern of Mass attendance, evidence suggests that it does not change much throughout their lives. If we follow the present pattern, the church of 2050 may well be a fraction of its present size,” the authors said."
Unless, of course, we evangelize.
And what of the "JP II" generation" of orthodox younger Catholics that we've heard so much about?
They do exist (We've met many!) but they are simply a much smaller portion of their generation than the church-going segment of their parents' and grand-parents' generation.
The issue is how to reach the 85% who are unchurched. Our earlier strategy of evangelizing by running them through Catholic institutions has clearly failed. Increasingly, they are not coming back when they get married and when their children are born. Increasingly, they are just not coming back - period.
We are going to have to get outside our institutional mindset and begin to think apostolically. We are going to have to seek them out and evangelize them rather than expect them to come back to us on our terms. We are going to have to focus on making intentional disciples rather than assume that "Catholic identity" is going to carry people through life.
posted by Sherry W @ 3:23 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
The underlying challenge is that this is the first global generation that has been taught that to believe in anything absolutely is a wrong thing to do. Evangelizing, like the scattered seed, requires good earth upon which to fall. The good earth in this case would be the ability to recognize and possess a moral code and high ground. In addition to evangelizing, Catholics need to counter secular relativism and teach children/young people and others that it is OK to firmly and arbitrarily believe in something. So I agree the Catholic identity has been dissolved away, but we are not alone in that. This generation has been taught (and to quite an extent, brainwashed) into believing that having an identity and belief is somehow oppressive, socially unacceptable, and immature. One only needs to look at the abortion question to see that. There's tremendous social pressure (reinforced by the schools) to not have a firm belief and boundaries on behavior. I think this is one reason our Christian Evangelist brethran are more successful than Catholics in some sectors at this time, because they promote and self confidence and spine stiffening message to our youngsters, which is much needed, in order to accept the word of Christ.
Well, all the 50 and 60 year olds filling our pews are the hippies of yesteryear. The same articles were coming out then. There will be no one in the church when these hippies grow up. But low and behold, they are here. So the great exodus is not necessarily true.
The biggest thing that can be done to counter this is to improve Young Adult, Catholic Campus and High School ministries. Most importantly, these ministries have to help folks know Jesus better not replicate secular culture in the Church. As one person from a successful young adult group said so well in a deanery meeting, "If you give them Jesus, they will come."
I know too many campus ministries that have no money to do anything for the students. I remember reading that Los Angelos balanced their books partly by defunding most of their campus ministries at colleges.
"Our earlier strategy of evangelizing by running them through Catholic institutions has clearly failed."
The "strategy" has been used successfully for centuries. It is not the stragegy itself that failed and needs to be changed, but the content and delivery of the evangelization/catechesis on the part of the Catholic institutions that are charged with so doing. Dissent from Church teaching and secular relativism were commmonplace in many Catholic institutions. Comprehensive, authentic catechesis was, and sometimes still is, sorely lacking.
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