Half of Catholics attending Mass 28 years ago no longer do
The above link is to Catholic Philly which is the archdiocese digital equivalent of a paper. It is not really "new" news but in two very well done graphics it summarizes the statistics collected each October on Mass attendance. Like many other dioceses a count is made on all Sundays of October.
Each graphic links to current events in the diocese. The first gives the total number, the second the percentage change from the previous year. Of course we must be weary of false correlations. The only uptick occurred in 2002. The diocese noted all the attention given to the previous jubilee year; of course they also acknowledge that 9/11 might have had something to do with it.
Besides the two clear graphics, they summarize the findings well:
“But the data suggest two significant factors: the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the closure of Catholic churches through parish mergers.
Regarding the former, even though the decline in attendance was well underway for years, the largest percentage declines from year to year occurred during significant episodes in the abuse crisis.”
They then describe: the scandal broke nationally in the spring of 2002 in Boston; September 2005 the first Philadelphia grand jury report; in the winter of 2011 the second Philadelphia grand jury report; a grand jury report on abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese was released in 2016; the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report and McCarrick in 2018. The first graphic shows the steeper declines after these events.
“The other significant factor in declining Mass attendance suggests a downward spiral in which fewer available Masses lead to fewer people attending Mass regularly, and fewer people in church lead to fewer Masses celebrated. That means more parishes consolidating, resulting in fewer people attending, and so on.”
The declines started before 2002, and are clearly linked in 1993 to the 70 parish closings. One of the reasons for these graphs is that Chaput has to resign in a few months. Rocco who pointed out this article says that Chaput told his priests to expect up to 100 new closings under his successor.
We all see these and similar statistics from time to time piecemeal. We need more brief dramatic presentations like this to focus everyone’s attention on this deep problem and its likely causes. It is notable that the presentation focuses upon two causes that are clearly the responsibility of the diocese. It does not spend time attributing them to the general culture or to the laxity of the laity.
Interesting article. The clergy abuse scandals have long been considered a major factor in the falling off of Mass attendance. But the parish closures, not so much. We just assume that people will attend somewhere else if their parish closes. Because unless it is a rural area, there are usually other options within easy traveling distance. But this article would seem to suggest that people's loyalty to a parish takes precedence over their commitment to the larger Catholic community.
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t surprised by the parish closings. I was a close observer of the parish closings here in Cleveland; they were ultimately reversed by Rome. There has been a film done by the Hungarian government focused upon the Hungarian parish. Demonstrates the traumatic effects of the closings on the lives of members,
ReplyDeleteSociologists have distinguished between cosmopolitans and locals when it comes to institutions. The idea came from academia where cosmopolitan professors are those whose identity comes from their colleagues in the same discipline across the country while the local professors identify in terms of their students, courses, and service to the local institution and community.
Most people in the parish do not identify with the bureaucracy in the chancery office; parish members would not recognize them. Parish staff many but not usually in a positive sense.
Now well educated people, especially those educated in Catholic institutions and readers of Commonweal are likely to identify with the larger church even though we participate in parish affairs. I actually participate in three parishes, my registered parish down the street, and a very liturgical parish about 20 miles away. My name regularly appears in their bulletin since I am the contact person for Cleveland Commonweal Community that meets there. We do because I have known the staff there for more than 20years. Then I am also considered an associate member of local Orthodox church since I celebrate vespers and some feast days with them. So we cosmopolitans can be very involved in local institutions but we don’t get our identity from them.
It's funny how different parishes have a different flavor, even in the same town. We have three in our town. The oldest is a venerable church with beautiful stained glass, and lovely statues. It is the largest congregation, some of the founding families of the community are members. Then there is the newest parish. They met in what is now their school gym originally. Now they built a beautiful new church. They have the youngest families, from the newer part of town. Then there is the one we belong to. It used to be the Polish language parish, but that was years ago. It is a working class parish, from the other side of the tracks. The church has been added on to a lot of times, and the parts don't always match. But it is a homey, comfortable parish. We call the parishes "old money, new money, and no money". We actually live in the precincts of the newer parish, but chose St. A's because it was a good fit. Also because the patron saint has the same name as one of our sons. But that isn't a very logical reason.
DeleteThe Phillies ought to get some credit for caring about what's going on and sharing it with the folks in the pew. I have long thought that we make too much of numbers. Counting hosts distributed (like gum from the candy machine) and baptisms performed (as a result of social forces, not anyhing in particular the church has done) doesn't tell much about a parish or diocese. We rely on what we can quantify as if it were the key to holiness, which we can't measure. No reason to think it is.
ReplyDeleteFor as long as I can remember, Philadelphia archbishops have skewed quite conservative. Abp. Chaput was supposed to bring the diocese roaring back to vibrancy by coming, as he did, from Colorado where everything was wonderful ever since JPII stopped by. (I notice Francis didn't have much effect in Philadelphia.) But I wonder if there are other, non-sacral, reasons why being in Philadelphia isn't like being in Colorado anymore.
My father had nine surviving siblings. Except for one in the Army one in New Jersey and one in Texas, they (and my cousins) were all within walking distance when I grew up. My five kids are (from east to west) in Philadelphia, Fairless Hills (same diocese), PA., Brookfield, Wisconsin, Dallas and Los Angeles. Of the two in the Philadelphia diocese, one was born in Germany and the other in Kentucky. My family is nothing like my father's, and the binding ties are much different.
Yes this surprising coming from conservative Philadelphia and especially from Chaput. One might have expected condemnations of our godless liberal culture and/or laity. But no, the immediate take from the data suggests (at least to me) that the diocese might have made better decisions.
DeleteIn my years in the mental health system when I often presented data like this to our board, our agencies and the community, I liked to present data like this. Make the facts as clear as possible, organize them to suggest some pattern, but stop short of making any criticism, or suggesting any plan. When people suggested some criticism or plan, I would throw it out to everyone to see what others thought.
When I kept everything as clear, and organized, but without going much beyond the data, I found that data brought people together as a common framework. I have heard all the complaints about numbers, lies, damned lies, and statistics. But I found that graphs and tables could be icons (yes very two dimensional) but still icons that could take people beyond the past and the present. Seeing this presentation brought me back to those days.
My personal view is that some of this decline needs to be understood in light of sociologist Robert Putnam's thesis in "Bowling Alone": in recent decades, Americans of all stripes have been participating less in mediating institutions, which include churches and other types of community organizations such as Kiwanis and VFW, professional organizations, block clubs and more informal networks of relationship like poker nights or book clubs. In other words, not all of the decline can be explained by "intra-Catholic" reasons; some of it should be attributed to larger social forces, from which the Catholic church is not immune. At one time, Catholic leaders rather smugly thought that the Catholic church was more resistant to these larger forces than other denominations were; but I don't think more recent trends has borne out that point of view. Maybe Catholic antibodies resisted the disease a while longer than those of some other churches, but at this point, we have to conclude that the immune system has collapsed.
ReplyDeleteI would add that this trend of declining social engagement explains declines in church membership, but doesn't excuse it. Churches must evangelize, in season and out - i.e. regardless of the larger social situation in which they find themselves. Various Evangelical megachurches, and for a long time the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, illustrated that churches can grow, even dramatically, in the face of this anti-engagement social headwind.
The organizational dimension of the Catholic church certainly has shown a remarkable capacity to exacerbate this difficult social environment by shooting itself in the foot - multiple times and in multiple ways. That includes, not only mishandling abuse accusations and then (perhaps even worse, from this perspective) failing to adequately address the historical problem, but in other scandalous ways such as senior leader corruption and mismanagement of financial affairs. Regardless of the larger social circumstances, the church leadership is responsible for keeping its own house in order.
The closing and merging of parishes and schools is yet another difficulty. Sociologist Rev. Andrew Greeley was criticizing the American bishops as long ago as the 1970s (perhaps earlier) for failing to adequately invest in Catholic school systems; his research had demonstrated that parish schools were the "glue" that held parish communities together.
I also recall, in the 1990s, before the full scope and meaning of the abuse crisis had sunk in with the public, that sociologists were observing, again from their surveys and research, that American Catholics were loyal to their local parishes, much more so than to their dioceses or the universal church. When this is understood, it's not surprising that closing a parish, or merging it with other parishes and changing their identity, can be an important, even traumatic, event in parishioners' lives. To senior leadership, perhaps it appears to be a simple matter of moving squares around on an org chart, but it can be a life-shaking event for parishioners.
I'd add, from personal observation in Chicago, where we're in the midst of a period of mergers, that there is an air that there are "winners" and "losers". Some parishes are left alone to continue while others are designated for merging (which often means closing). It's hard for parishioners, and especially for parish leadership, to conclude anything other than, "We've failed". People don't want to associate with a failing entity.
I agree that we've become a gas of people. When my generation of colleagues went out for pizza, we bought a single pizza and shared it. In my second incarnation as a consultant, I went to the pizzeria with millenials. They all ordered their own slices. Overall, I think they're "nicer" than my generation but community isn't written into their code.
DeleteSo now we have people bowling alone next to lanes where others are bowling alone, and people eating pizza alone at tables where other people are eating pizza alone. It's warm, here in my bubble. But boring as all get-out.
DeleteYeah, I think Jim channeling Robert Putnam and Andy Greeley is so much righter than the simple sexual abuse = attendance decline. The hierarchical horse is still balking a bit at the first jump (admitting a reporting/punishment/atonement problem), and it has to clear the second (doing something about it) before it can get to a whole lot of other jumps it would prefer not to know about.
When my parish closed its school (and some day we should talking about the genius financial stupidity involved), we lost about half of the photo pages of families in the 50th anniversary book. Some went to a parish with a school; others went to newer churches closer to home even though they'll never have a school. A few went to The Church of the I'm OK-You're OK. The loss, however, was almost totally made up by changing demographics. We went from 80-20 Anglo to Hispanic to 50-50. Trouble is, all those new Hispanic families have children, and we don't have a school.
About people not joining organizations and clubs, part of it is just being too busy and too tired. When I was still working I didn't do much outside of work, taking care of things at home, and church on Sunday. Now I joined a book club and art club. Most of my working life took place when the kids were older. I can only imagine how exhausted the working parents with very young children must get. Particularly if they're single parents. Especially given all the activities that kids are expected to be in now. Our boys were only in one activity apiece, that's all they wanted to be in.
DeleteJust another thought, maybe the kids now get so burned out by all the activities and homework they have to do, that they don't want to do any group things as adults.
"part of it is just being too busy and too tired."
DeleteSure. But on the other hand, people carve out time for things that are important to them.
Putnam, in "Bowling Alone", discovered that time that Americans used to use for socializing with neighbors, attending community organization meetings, and so on, was largely being consumed watching television. I talk to an awful lot of people who find hours upon hours to "catch up" on series that acquire some sort of social cachet, e.g. "Breaking Bad" a few years ago.
"..people carve out time for things that are important to them." You're right, Jim. I seemed to find time for messing around on the internet and reading.
DeleteI really like what Jack said about presenting data as a framework for group analysis. I see that happening here.
ReplyDeleteJim said, "...Catholic school systems; his research had demonstrated that parish schools were the 'glue' that held parish communities together."
I think this is true. A good Catholic school can also be a way to evangelize if the parish has the right attitude. I've seen Catholic schools that were welcoming and clearly articulated their academic strengths. A great Catholic school can also model the Church's attitudes about the value of community, family, and human life.
Sadly, the loss of the nuns pretty much killed Catholic education for kids across the socio-economic spectrum, and too many Catholic schools look more like snooty private academies.
If I wanted a church like that, I would have stayed with the rich Republicans in ECUSA.
"Sadly, the loss of the nuns pretty much killed Catholic education for kids across the socio-economic spectrum, and too many Catholic schools look more like snooty private academies."
DeleteYeah, that's the case around here. As I mentioned in one of these recent threads, we couldn't afford to send four children to one of those schools on a single income.
Similarly, my kids could go to college, or they could go to a Catholic high school, but we're not able to afford to send them to both.
Our income, to be frank, is higher than average. By a lot of measures, we're reasonably well-off. But Catholic education is beyond us.
we had Jim's problem with four children bunched -- Catholic high school OR college, but not both. We did what Jim did. The tail-ender, 13 years younger than his nearest sib, went to a Catholic high school, where kids (but not ours) get BMWs for their 16th birthday. He is very alienated from the Church. Can't think why.
DeleteBefore we closed our parish school, the Finance Committee and Pastoral Council had a joint meeting at which it was proposed that we should match the tuition of the nearby private Christian academy, for which (rich) people were happy, it was said, to pay a lot. I shot that down by pointing out the choice had become between a Catholic school and a school for wealthy folks, and there wasn't a whole lot of overlap in the parish.
What I couldn't shoot down was the pastor's certainty that the $200,000 a year subsidy the parish was paying for the school would migrate back to the collection baskets it came from. Of course, it didn't. It went with the parents who went with their children to the parish that had a school. To this day, that pastor, now our ex-, can't understand what happened.
About the $200,000 a year subsidy that didn't migrate back, that seems to be the belief of a few pastors and bishops. They have a hard time making their budget stretch, and think it would be so much easier if they didn't have to support a school. In the short term they were right, in the long term it cost the church members. We had a bishop in the '70s in my home diocese who didn't think we needed parochial schools, and closed a bunch of them. Guess what, when they're gone, they're gone. You don't get them back. Schools or members.
DeleteA side note about the nuns who used to work for peanuts in the schools. Sometimes lay people did, too. My mom was the unpaid music teacher in the parochial school I attended as a child. Another mom who had an art degree taught art, also as a volunteer. Both of them thought the 4 Rs weren't enough, that kids needed the arts, too.
Jean: If I wanted a church like that, I would have stayed with the rich Republicans in ECUSA.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how many years it has been since you attended an EC church. I have limited experience - about 10 years - very familiar with one parish, somewhat familiar with two others, and quite familiar with the diocese of Washington.
Your experience is not the same as mine. Most Episcopalians I know are not Republicans. However, since we live in an affluent suburb, most Episcopalians in the local churches are fairly affluent - as are the Catholics in the local parishes. The two "wealthiest" Catholic parishes in ADW are in my community and I was a member of both of them at one time or another..
I have yet to meet an Episcopalian who is a snob. Not even the bishop. I do know several Catholics who are - some in the old-fashioned, triumphalist mode especially, but more than a few who are just plain old-fashioned snobs, anxious to be admitted to the exclusive country clubs in the area. Of course, I know a lot more Catholics from a lifetime I than do Episcopalians.
However, in our EC parish, only a small number of the members are cradle episcopalians - that includes our retired rector (once Quaker), our soon to depart asst. rector (Baptist), and the new rector (RC). Our former rector once commented to me that if I wanted to see a non-boring committee meeting I should come to a vestry meeting. He noted that everyone came from a different religious background, and that their "formation" impacts how they see church, their visions for the parish, etc, etc. and makes for extremely lively discussions.
I am familiar with at least two EC parishes a bit farther away that have a primarily immigrant population - Latino, Caribbean, and African. There are more Africans and African Americans at our small EC parish on Sunday (about 100 people in the pews at that service) than in my former RC parish (maybe 500 people in the pews). A number of EC parishes now have services in Spanish also.
However, what I see is local, in a large metro area. Nationally, the ECUSA is still overwhelmingly white (90%). The RCC is 59% white and 34% Latino. Neither denomination has more than a tiny percentage of Asians and blacks. Not surprisingly, the members of the EC have far higher incomes on average than the RCC, as well as much higher numbers with college and advanced degrees. This would be due to the large and growing percentage of Latinos in RCC congregations.
So, I think the demographics of the EC are changing. I confirmed the political change at Pew Research - 49% are Dem, 39% are Republican, 12% are "other'.
I was briefly involved with a multicultural Franciscan parish with a large number of Latinos, Haitians and Africans, and a Bengladeshi community, as well as the "founding" whites. The archdiocese would sometimes subsidize tuition at the school, but not for undocumented Latinos. As a result, there were very few Latinos in the school - they couldn't afford the tuition, which is the lowest of al the parochial schools in the DC archdiocese.
I'm sure ECUSA demographics have changed overall since the election of women and gay archbishops. I
DeleteWhat I see mostly when I attend (Ash Wednesday, usually) are dwindling numbers, as in most mainline denominations.
"The archdiocese would sometimes subsidize tuition at the school, but not for undocumented Latinos."
DeleteAnne- that's very interesting. In Chicago, I'm certain that Cardinal Cupich wouldn't want to make a distinction between citizens/green card holders on the one hand and indocumentados on the other. But maybe there is some reason of government compliance or some such that dictates this policy, e.g. maybe it's required to qualify for something like special-ed assistance?
Jim: In Chicago, I'm certain that Cardinal Cupich wouldn't want to make a distinction between citizens/green card holders on the one hand and indocumentados on the other. But maybe there is some reason of government compliance or some such that dictates this policy,
DeleteYes, it had to do with the legal requirements of the govt, but I don't remember the details. I had some experience writing grant applications for several non-profits, mostly as a volunteer. I was attempting to help them find opportunities for grants (science lab, or playground equipment or whatever) that could free up some of their own funds for the undocumented kids. The archdiocese would only give tuition help to those with papers, apparently due to worries about what the feds might do. This was during Wuerl's tenure.
Interesting. The impact of parish closings is greater than I had realized.
ReplyDeleteKatherine: But this article would seem to suggest that people's loyalty to a parish takes precedence over their commitment to the larger Catholic community.
It does seem as if being Catholic has far more to do with identity factors than with doctrinal factors. Tribalism. Loyalty to the tribe can be good - or bad. We see this tribalism in the white supremacist movement here and in the white nationalist movement in Europe. Both often call themselves "christian", but seem to discount what Jesus actually taught in favor their racial/cultural identity.
Re pizza: My husband wants plain cheese pizza. I like veggies. And the sons like lots of spice and meat. So, we either buy a mixed pizza or our own slices. Or individual small pizzas. Not sure if this is one more sign of the end of civilization or not.
Jim, although the Catholics have lost more members than other christian groups (both in absolute numbers and in percentage of the total), the others are having their own problems.
A selection of articles I've read recently - does misery love company?
Mormon growth slows dramatically, though still growing
https://religionnews.com/2018/04/13/mormon-growth-continues-to-slow-especially-in-the-u-s/
Southern Baptists are experiencing large losses
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/may/southern-baptists-acp-membership-baptism-decline-2018.html
https://baptistnews.com/article/southern-baptists-lost-million-members-10-years/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9t7plJrE5AIVDlmGCh10tQovEAAYASAAEgI_APD_BwE#.XXaD3WYpBPY
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/may/southern-baptist-sbc-decline-conversion-retention-gss.html
Evangelicals in general are also losing members, especially in the younger generations
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/1010/Amid-Evangelical-decline-growing-split-between-young-Christians-and-church-elders
Anne - right. I haven't had time yet to read the articles you've linked to, but the trends you're citing regarding Evangelicals, Mormons et al illustrate the "Bowling Alone" thesis.
DeleteSupposedly, the mainline Protestant churches have been hit earlier and harder than the other types of Christianity. That may be because their members, historically, are the most 'Americanized'. Those statistics you presented in an earlier comment about the changing face of the Episcopal Church may bear that out as well - the original members have, for whatever reasons, fallen away, but the church may be renewing itself with a different membership.
As you note regarding the large and growing Spanish-speaking side of Catholicism in the US, that sort of renewal is happening within Catholicism, although I think the white 'establishment' members in suburbia haven't figured it out yet :-).
"So, we either buy a mixed pizza or our own slices. Or individual small pizzas. Not sure if this is one more sign of the end of civilization or not."
DeleteOf course it's a sign of the end. Nobody you mention orders anchovies.
Jim, from the many articles I have read on the subject of the non-mainline Protestant (Baptist/evangelical) churches losing members, and the fewer articles I have read about the Mormons seeing a slowing growth, I don't see the "bowling alone" syndrome. Most of the loss is among young adults, as is true of mainline Protestantism and RCism.
DeleteI have read dozens of articles, read many studies, many analyses about the declining participation in formal religion in America. I have a collection of both online bookmarked articles/studies and hardcopy going back for years. I could do my own meta-analysis at this point. In article after article, study after study, whether based on polls, or interviews, or other sampling methods, the same themes come through.
The unchurched young adults are not OK with the anti-gay, anti-women doctrines of their respective churches. There are specific problems with some - Mormonism is a pretty unusual religion, and almost cult-like, given that so many Mormons live in the same geographic area. The sexual abuse crisis turning them away issue is mostly in the RC church. But ALL of the studies indicate
1) dislike of the doctrines that isolate or marginalize gays and women
2) dislike of the judgmentalism very often shown to those on the margins, especially to gays
3) hypocrisy - preaching about the sins of others (especially gays and divorced) and ignoring their own. Very often these involve sexual harassment or abuse of adults (especially in the Protestant denominations), kids (the RC especially, but it seems that young priests and seminarians and aides to bishops may be victims more often than was realized), the emotional abuse of many, especially women and divorced, or dissenters from teachings, and general mismanagement/outright theft of the church's money to benefit the pastor. The most egregious recent example of this in the RC is the (now-former bishop) in WVA.
4) the feeling that the institutional churches are not only coming up short as moral guides (hypocrisy is a word that comes up a lot in these analyses), they aren't offering a spirituality that many look for and aren't finding - except maybe in eastern religion, or Kabbalah, or Sufism and other non-christian traditions.
Yes, some of it may be at least partly due to the general "bowling alone" syndrome, but not all of it. Many of the studies I allude to also include the information that many of those who are unchurched, disillusioned with organized religion, also hunger for community. So very often they are forming their own, which may be Crossfit, or yoga classes, or other fitness/"wellness" efforts, or small groups that meet to pray and discuss together, joining groups that do social justice work as volunteers, or meditation groups (including Centering Prayer), etc.
Since I have also read dozens of articles from those who are worried about the trend to losing members, trying out one gimmick after another to attract folk to the pews, I can't help but wonder why the professional religionists in the pulpits and pews still aren't listening to those who have left. They dismiss them as shallow, or hedonistic or whatever. The SBNRs come in for a lot of trash talk by the officials in religion-world, who think that a lot of intelligent people are not able to read the bible by themselves, pray by themselves, do spiritual reading by themselves and that they have to go to church so that someone else can tell them what the bible says, what it means, how to pray, which spiritual writers are worth reading and who to stay away from because he/she is a heretic. They walk because they are not being engaged in the ways they are seeking.
So, why do the pros ignore the tons of information out there? Perhaps it's because those reasons don't lend themselves to quick fixes, so they just keep doing the same things over and over and wondering why they see so much more white hair in the pews, and have so much quieter services (fewer kids).
"Yes, some of it may be at least partly due to the general "bowling alone" syndrome, but not all of it."
DeleteYes, that's all I'm claiming (and all I said in my original comment on this topic) - it's part of the reason. Jack's original post, referencing the graphs in the Chicago Philly article, show that there is a noticeable 'uptick' in people leaving when the sex-abuse scandal rises to the front pages.
The reasons that people leave churches are many.
"3) hypocrisy - preaching about the sins of others (especially gays and divorced) and ignoring their own."
DeleteFWIW, I have never heard the sins of gays and divorced people preached from the pulpit. Ever. I don't doubt that there are priests who do it, and that those who do are pretty well hung up on it. I remember one who preached monthly on going to Hell if your kids were in public school But I never heard gays and divorced from the pulpit in 14 different parishes over eight decades.
Tom, I have never heard any homilies against any sins from the pulpit. Catholic norms are more often preached at meetings and coffee hours where the faithful get out the knives and talk about the Smiths' gay son or the fact that the Joneses only have two kids or the Browns got divorced and go to the Episcopal Church or the Bumsteads only come to church on Christmas and Easter or that the Rabers have never once gone to the pro-life rallies.
DeleteIt is a kind of oblique fraternal correction in which expectations and norms are made crystal clear.
Tom, the studies on the unchurched that so frequently bring up hypocrisy are not comments about the RCC only. They are comments about the institutional churches in general, especially Christian churches. Plenty of talk of the sins of gays and divorced from evangelical pulpits apparently. In the RC parish I belonged to, the pastor often spoke of the sins committed by cohabiting couples, and had it put n the bulletin that couples who were living together would not be allowed to marry in the parish if they were living together. Which applies to at least 80% of the couples whose weddings we have attended during the last 20 years. There were also homilies on the evils of modern birth control methods. Don't remember any on gays, but a lot of people in the pews hid smiles each year when the pastor talked about his great summer vacations. Each year was a different location, but included Provincetown MA., Fire Island, NY, Key West and other spots popular with the gay community.
DeleteI haven't heard anything in sermons, either, except maybe some oblique references. People have short attention spans for preaching, anyway. Where they pay way more attention is actions. For instance, think about the Brebuef High debacle. And all the muscle brought to bear against gay civil marriage. I guarantee you that has said more to the younger generation (and some of their elders) than bazillion sermons.
DeleteI'd like to think that when I preach, the only context in which I mention sins is that they are forgivable; that forgiveness is a wonderful thing; and all of us should both forgive those who have sinned against us, and avail ourselves of the church's healing sacraments.
DeleteAll that said, I've spoken over the years about abortion (once or twice), racism, the spiritual dangers of being wealthy, and probably other sins that I'm not thinking of right now.
Katherine Nielsen September 9, 2019 at 10:24 AM
ReplyDeleteOf course, Katherine is right on with this observation. The world has changed dramatically, and belonging to multiple community groups has become a luxury for most people due to their other time commitments.
I was very active in my RC parish for years - but only after the kids were old enough to stay home alone until their dad got home - usually about 8 pm, and my meetings were often around 7 pm. Since I worked from home most of the time, I did the after-school stuff with our boys. I don't know how families with two full-time working parents in locations away from home could possibly manage also going to Garden Club or Rotary Club meetings.
Will the last practicing Catholic please turn out the lights on the last functioning parish? I'm not talking about cultural Catholics or those who are habitual pious agnostic attendees. Look around in the typical Sunday mass anywhere: a sea of white hair. Give it another 20 years and you'll see a sea of even emptier pews, presided over by a non-ordained presider. Folks: you are witnessing the ever-increasing demise of a dead-from-within denomination that continues to claim to be the One True Church. If that really is true, why can't it convince people born to it that it is indeed so and worthy of their belief, attendance and support?
ReplyDelete"...sea of white hair..." yeah, at daily Mass. A lot of young families on Sunday here. We had every seat taken for two Masses yesterday.
DeleteI think our experience is somewhere between Jim McCrea's and Katherine's. We have young families and children, but on the whole our congregations tend to skew a bit older. To some extent, so does the town I live in - but we can't use that as an excuse; in the real estate market, there is turnover, with retirees moving out and families with kids moving in. But when the latter move in, they don't join the parish.
DeleteThe solution is one that makes Catholics exceedingly uncomfortable: evangelize. Proclaim the Good News. People badly need it. All the despondency and despair and nihilism in our culture - it needs Jesus.
I should clarify that that our town is 60% Catholic. A lot of those are nominal, but it still is enough to keep 3 parishes going.
DeleteOf course our archdiocese has a clergy shortage, same as everywhere else. At various times they have brought in consultants to try and address the problem. One of the suggestions has always been to consolidate multiple parishes into larger ones. Such as making one parish out of our three. Of course that met with vehement resistance. I am convinced that that would be a fatal mistake as far as preserving people's Catholic identity.
Delete"sea of white hair"? I resemble that remark.
DeleteWe have standing room only parents who speak only Spanish and their bilingual kids at the three Latin Masses and one bi- Mass. Music is better, too. That's where this parish is going.
DeleteTom, are your Latin Masses all the EF variety?
DeleteWhoops. My boo-boo. I should have said Spanish.I was thinking Latino. We don't do Latin. We had one parochial vicar who was very popular for busting into Latin, unannounced, in the middle of the Canon from time to time. Of course, that was a violation of what he thought he was fixing. (Whenever he did, I whipped out my rosary and rattled it against the pew. Just like 1950.) But no, we have three Masses in Spanish and one bilingual each weekend.
Delete" (Whenever he did, I whipped out my rosary and rattled it against the pew. Just like 1950.)"
DeleteYou're really a troublemaker, aren't you? :-) I bet the nuns paddled you regularly when you were in 4th grade.
Tom: Of course it's a sign of the end. Nobody you mention orders anchovies.
ReplyDelete;)
Putnam’s more recent American Grace is far more relevant than Bowling Alone.
ReplyDeleteWhat he found was that people who go to church regularly AND have RELIGIOUS SOCIAL NETWORKS, defined as family, friends and small groups who regularly discuss religious matters have better health, are happier, and more likely to give of their time, talent, and treasure not only to religious organizations but also civic organizations.
Those who attend church regularly without religious social networks (the equivalent of bowling alone) receive none of these benefits. There was no relation of any faith content to these benefits. And it did not matter whether your religious network was composed of same or different religions. Nonreligious networks have some similar benefits but far less powerful that religious networks.
This has powerful implications for the role of clerics and clericalism. Across all denominations it is religious social networks that make the difference. Unfortunately much other research indicates that pastors and pastoral staff think the purpose of religious congregations is to transmit religious culture even though its content seems to have no detectable benefits.
While most people are unaware of these results, I suspect many people intuit them from their experience. Of course they may also believe that the specific content they experience matters, when in fact it does not as long as the social networks are religious. It is not the preaching of love of God and others that matters but the concrete experience of love of God and others
When parishes close religious social networks are threatened and many likely dissolve; for many it is a traumatic experience.
Interesting. My sense is that people move around so much now that church and extended family ties are pretty thin.
DeleteI wonder if it's really the social networks that make people happier/healthier ... or the type of personality that seeks out social networks that tends to be happier/healthier to begin with.
Also wonder if it's the spiritual aspect of community that makes people healthier and happier. Or if there is some tangible physical benefit. For example, people with community are more likely to be able to rely on friends for transpo, meals, and financial help.
For ex, when my Baptist sister-in-law was dying, their apartment was crammed with food, visitors doing housework and personal care, and someone was always available to take up a collection for expenses and drive them to the cancer center. These are services that most people have to arrange on their own.
"I wonder if it is the social networks ..or type of family"
DeleteThe research design included a replication in which people were followed up to look at what happened when things changed. The findings supported the social rather than personality explanation.
Is it really the spiritual? Well not completely because we know similar but lesser effects occur for non religious social networks. There seems to be something special about religious networks. The researchers were unable to specify what that was, and speculated that there might be other networks out there that were equally effective, but did not speculate what they were.
I would think that some strong ethic groups might do the same thing without much involvement of religion.
As I've written a couple of times before, I believe that Christian discipleship is meant to be lived out communally.*
DeleteThe social or psychological benefits of communal discipleship can be measured and tabulated by sociologists or psychologists. But I am not certain that those benefits (such as a sense of belonging, or mental well- being) get to the core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If we must put it it in cost/benefit terms, the core benefit is life in Christ, with even more intimate life in Christ to come in the future. Perhaps that core benefit brings with it some of the ancillary benefits that the sociologists can detect and measure. But just want to call out that those measurable benefits are just that - ancillary.
I don't doubt, too, that some of those same benefits can come from being in a yoga class, or a Rotary Club. But they don't offer the core thing - life in Christ.
* In fact, I worry that the priesthood, which during my childhood and earlier was conceived of as communal living in a rectory, has become an isolated way of life.
It oftentimes takes those who have been away for sometime to see the woods:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/ncr-today/your-thoughts-2020-election-napa-institute-synod-women-and-more
I recently re-joined the church after an absence of 30 years.
I knew it was a sick church; what I have since realized is that it is a dying church.
• Daily Mass attendance in our 400-seat church is 12-15 elderly regulars.
• The priest has recently been given charge of two more parishes, with a new priest to help.
• The bishop is requesting parishes find ways to revitalize their congregations.
• Many have left due to the ongoing revelations of scandals within the larger church.
I am told these issues are playing out similarly in parishes across the country. It seems time to institute both ordination of women and voluntary celibacy for clergy.
The crisis in the church is significant, and needs a radical response. I am in hopes that the bishops will give prayerful consideration to how best to ensure the future of this glorious institution, which could truly become vibrant, dynamic, and a light to all people.
JUDITH BALDWIN
Montpelier, Vermont
The only thing preventing me from having a head of white hair is the fact that there isn't much hair left! Sic transit gloria hair.
ReplyDeleteLOL! The only thing preventing me from it is L'Oreal!
DeleteBelatedly, I did a count this (Wednesday) morning. Of 52 heads in the congregation, nine were white. (I wouldn't rule our L'Oreal for three more, so 12/52 max). Of three altar servers, we had two whites and one none.
Delete