"Vibrancy" and Discipleship: Milwaukee Style
Amy Welborn sent me this link to a blog called The Provincial Emails yesterday about a planning process going on in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
It seems that there has been an 18% drop in Mass attendance in the Archdiocese between 1999 and 2006 and Archbishop Dolan understandably wants to know why and what to do about it. (For more details, read this piece in the local Catholic Herald.)
The Archdiocese has requested that every parish come up with a way to increase attendance by 20% and has hired a priest consultant. In July, Fr. James Connell published and distributed to about 500 people a document called “Energizing Our Vibrancy” in which he posed what he termed “starter questions” about the present and future of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
The "vibrancy" in question is not just fewer people, but fewer young people.
Of course, the first thing that the report tries to scotch is the idea that the drop is a reaction to the Scandal. But, in fact, the statistics from CARA about national attendance can't tell us what is at work in a particular diocese which may differ significantly from the nation as a whole. And as The Provincial Emails points out, the people who left aren't being asked why. The 500 people to whom the document is being distributed are apparently all ecclesial insiders.
Listen folks. It is so much larger than the Scandal. We already know that only 20% of Gen X'ers (late 20's to early 40's adults) Catholics attend Mass nationally. That means 80% do not. And it didn't start in 2001.
The famed "JP II generation" only comprises 20% of their age cohort. Unless Milwaukee is uniquely immune, they should (along with nearly every diocese in the country) expect to see a huge drop in the attendance of younger people.
The sacraments aren't bringing them back. They aren't coming back to marry. Catholic marriages have dropped 50% nationally since 1970 even though our Catholic population has risen 350%. Out of wedlock births now make up 40% of all births in the US.
And now the final frontier has been reached: they aren't even baptizing their babies. The number of infant baptisms is starting to fall - down 60,000 from 1995. Cultural Catholicism among Gen Xer's is really and truly dead with the exception of recent immigrant groups (Vietnamese, Hispanic, etc.) and it is most unlikely that it will survive another generation in those groups.
The really startling thing is not that attendance is dropping. The really startling thing is that both the original post and the article in the Catholic Herald talk in vague terms about a crisis of "identity" and "commitment" to the institution.
“If fewer people are coming, we are falling down on our Eucharistic commitment,” Welte said. “Each of us who calls ourselves Catholic must first be critical of ourselves and ask what kind of a member am I and if I am not a good member, can I commit to being one? If I am a so-so member, what can I do to improve? Our whole community is impacted whenever someone doesn’t show up.”
“Our Catholic identity stays with us,” she said. “But when someone dies, will there be a church to provide a Christian burial? There are huge implications here.”
But neither post and article mention Jesus. They never use the word Christ. They never mention God. And that, gentle readers, is our real problem in 21st century America.
Christianity cannot survive without Christ. It is Christ who is the center, the head, the life, the Lord of his Church. The Church is his Body, not an independent end in herself. As the Council of Trent taught so clearly 5 centuries ago, the sacraments are not magic.
Without personal faith and response to God's mercy and grace, the sacraments do not save; do not justify. Without personal faith and response to God's grace, there is no living faith to hand on to the next generation. Without personal faith and response, loyalty, identity, and commitment vanish. Without living faith, catechesis, which is intended to foster the Christian maturity of those who are already disciples, is without effect.
Christian culture is not self-sustaining. Christian culture is the fruit of personal faith. Without the preaching of the kerygma and personal conversion which is the source of renewal in every generation, Christian culture ultimately withers away and dies.
The New Evangelization that Pope John Paul the Great spoke about so constantly and with such fervor is the only fruitful response. We have to realize that for this generation, we cannot assume anything. Gen Xer's are post-Christian and post-modern to their toes. It is the air they breathe.
The vast majority will not come to us. We will have to seek them out, gain their trust, articulate the kergyma, and challenge them to believe and to follow Christ in communion with his Church. In other words, we will have to be pioneer missionary evangelists in the midst of a "Christian" country. And then we may well see attendance grow, not because of "institutional" loyalty but because a whole new generation is seeking to follow Christ. They will be in our midst with love in their hearts and fire in their eyes.
This is exactly what we deal in our new seminar Making Disciples. How to call post-modern Americans to intentional discipleship in the midst of the Church. Our next MD will be November 4 -8 in Faulkner, Maryland. Come join us.
Or if summer works better for you, consider attending our June, 2008 seminar.
In the archdiocese of Milwaukee.
posted by Sherry W @ 5:52 AM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
Sherry, my observations would be these:
Many Catholics presume, so they don't mention God, Jesus, or the Church. I'm doubtful that not mentioning God in itself is a sign of the problem. More likely, is the sense of entitlement from the hierarchy and "churched" people: We've always had (fill in the blank: vocations, money, full churches, Catholic identity) so don't we still deserve to have them?
The New Evangelization is but one possible response, and depending on whom you talk to, you'll get differing definitions of it.
I think your effort at ID is a promising reply, but some of the rest of us have ideas, too; ideas that also work.
Todd
Hi Todd:
Very quickly because I have a staff meeting to go to:
Sometimes, Catholics don't mention Jesus because his centrality is assumed. Sometimes, many times, they do so because Jesus simply isn't at the center.
When unspoken assumptions become the functional norm, when the things we hold to be central are seldom talked about, it makes it nearly impossible to think about them fruitfully. And with amazing speed, they cease to be central and other things - the things we do talk about - loom largest in our hearts, minds, and priorities. It isn't necessarily intentional. It is most often subtle and gradual but just as real and damaging in its consequences.
Talking about the central things is a critical check - it reminds us what they are and helps us realize when we got off track.
I'm sure that many other people do have great ideas. I wasn't meaning for a minute that CSI has "the" answer.
But I am saying that whatever ideas any of us comes up with must be rooted in the essential mission of the Church: calling all of us to follow Christ.
FWIW, the non-mention of Christ may be related to the suspicion that a few very solid observers in Milwaukee have...that is that a good number of priests up here simply do not BELIEVE in what they're doing.
Maybe that's a bit shocking; but look at it this way: if there were a belief in Christ and all He said, then why a "market share" study?
The command was to "Go and preach," not "Obtain 30% market-share and hold it..."
Realistically, preaching the Word is rare; the Archbishop is consistent, and good at it. But if you want to hear moral instructions, or about the nexus of Faith and Reason, go elsewhere.
One quick example (and I realize that one example does not constitute a scientific study...)
Two or three weeks ago, a local Pastor simply stopped reading the Gospel about half-way through. He announced that 'he didn't like' the rest of the passage...which was "politically incorrect" and which was demanding.
It's hard for me,as a former Milwaukee native, to believe that the Archbishop *doesn't* understand the drop in attendance. The scandals hit hard and hit from the top. And they hit an already teetering Catholic community. Seminary formation in the Archdiocese had to be some of the worst in the country, and you saw it on display week after week. Add that to midwestern reticence, a strong Evangelical counter-presence, and a tendency to get stuck in the past and you've got a problem.
Reflecting on my upbringing in the Archdiocese, I realized that I had not once encountered Eucharistic adoration in 12 years of Catholic education and parish life (1982-1995). [Benediction, yes, but not Adoration.] I think things have changed a bit, but doesn't that seem odd? My parents, who left the Catholic church around 2000 for an Evangelical mega-church, do not know what the Stations of the Cross are.
Milwaukee needs lots of TLC. Please pray for the Church there.
Truly, I am living in some sort of Catholic La-La Land here at the University of Dallas. We have two daily Masses--pretty full, a Sunday vigil Mass--full, three Sunday Massess--all full to overflowing, then we have the Dominican priory daily Mass, the Cistercian abbey daily Mass, five to six hours of confession a week--we never see the end of the line, adoration, and overflowing service projects. I have a project this weekend to paint a house and we already have close to fifty volunteers signed up! Last week I had almost forty for the same house...
Preach Christ, his Church, the truth of the apostolic faith, and do so with some...errrmmm...guts and style and young people will come. Programs, studies, surveys, plans, mission statements, questioning sessions are all (excuse me for saying this but...) crap, little more than control-freak, Baby Boomer techniques for getting folks to tell them what they want to hear. Get food, fellowship, charitable work, solid preaching/teaching, faithful liturgy, and leaders (lay and ordained) who know their place and let the Spirit do his fiery work.
Fr. Philip, OP
Sherry, thanks for the reply. I do agree with your thrust at ID as part of a catholic whole, shall we say. I'm a little cautious about attributing too much to what people say. It's not as though modern society or even the Church offers much opportunity for people to be articulate. One need go no further than the blogosphere to find examples of that.
As long as we realize that mouthing the name of "Jesus" in a certain way is a tool, just like any other human-made endeavor, like Fr Philip's "crap," we should be fine. To be a Christian is to worship, and worship, the last time I checked, lacked for no mention of Christ.
Assuming the bishop, clergy, and people of Milwaukee are still going to Mass and praying it, I'm not going to begrudge them a project or program solely based on how well or ill certain individuals are able to articulate Christ by name. Ultimately, the fruits will tell the tale.
Todd
Preach on, Father Philip!
I think a huge problem with this focus on "vibrancy" (whatever that means) is that the recommendations to implement it are usually to bring the world into the church, rather than bring the church into the world.
BTW, Fr. Philip, very nice comment.
To add a further wrinkle, the fact that Gen X seems to be leaving in massive numbers may pale before the numbers of the Millennial youth who are likely to follow their older peers in abandoning the Church. (Millennial, sometimes referred to as Gen Y, the oldest Millennials are in their mid-twenties with the youngest in grade school, defined most by uncertainty, competition, and the Internet)
The "creative minority" mentioned by the Holy Father in his earlier writing may happen, not by choice, but by necessity: the remaining youth will be John Paul II generation.
In the end, God will provide. He never promised easy success, only hardship if we follow Him.
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