A recent poll, which Fr Lucie-Smith has blogged about [recently], suggests that 40 per cent of the British don’t believe that Jesus was a real historical figure. Here is another depressing statistic from the US: 79 per cent of Catholics who lapse, do so before the age of 23. I learnt this from the blog Read more
An English diocese has launched an online survey aimed at finding out reasons why baptised Catholics have drifted away from the faith. Portsmouth diocese is working with St Mary’s University on the scheme called “share your story”. The survey will be conducted between October 1 and January 1 and will ask questions such as whether Read more
Driving into the city, I passed a billboard advertising a programme for ‘Returning Catholics’. I was instantly dismayed by the term and related monikers – inactive Catholics, lapsed Catholics, resting Catholics, non-practising Catholics – there are probably many more. The labels are judgmental. They point the accusing finger: ‘You have failed.” “You are remiss.” “You Read more
Pope Benedict XVI closed the Synod of Bishops on Sunday with an exhortation to develop new ways of reaching out to those who had drifted from the faith. The pope closed the three-week meeting of some 260 bishops with a solemn Mass in St Peter’s Basilica. The bishops discussed ways to stem what has been Read more
Key events for the forthcoming Year of Faith have been announced at a Vatican press conference which also unveiled the official logo depicting a boat as the sign of the Church. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, said he wants the Year of Faith to reach out to all Read more
WASHINGTON — In an unusual study whose main results were released at a Catholic University of America conference in Washington Thursday, Villanova University in Philadelphia asked former Catholics in the Trenton, N.J., diocese why they left the church. While the results themselves were not surprising, the researchers said, the study suggests new ways the church can Read more
In an unusual study whose main results were released at a Catholic University of America conference in Washington Thursday, Villanova University in Philadelphia asked former Catholics in the Trenton, N.J., diocese why they left the church.
While the results themselves were not surprising, the researchers said, the study suggests new ways the church can approach Catholics who are dissatisfied with what the church teaches or how it acts — including those so dissatisfied that they have decided to leave.
One of their key recommendations was for pastors, bishops and other church officials to respond consistently to questioning or angry Catholics with constructive dialogue rather than a simple reiteration of church rules or policies.
Jesuit Fr. William J. Byron, a professor of business at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia — who collaborated in the study with Charles Zech, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Church Management of Villanova’s School of Business — several times cited a response of one disaffiliated Catholic who complained, “Ask a question of any priest and you get a rule; you don’t get a ‘Let’s sit down and talk about it’ response.”
Byron and Zech told conference participants at The Catholic University of America that many of the responses from lapsed or disaffiliated Catholics in the Trenton diocese matched what researchers have known from other surveys: They object to what they see as the church’s unwelcoming attitude toward gays and lesbians or toward the divorced and remarried, they find homilies uninspiring, the parish unwelcoming, the pastor arrogant or parish staff uncaring, or they have suffered terrible personal experiences with a priest or other church official, such as rejection for being divorced.
Some of the former Catholics complained of priests being too liberal, while others cited “the extreme conservative haranguing” they heard in homilies – reflecting the intra-Catholic political divisions that reflect similar divisions in the broader U.S. society
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As Christmas approaches, there is one thing we can be as sure of seeing as Santa Claus and incessant ads for holiday deals: full Catholic churches. As predictable as the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano, Catholics of all stripes return to their parish every Christmas, many visiting for the first time since the previous Read more
Church reform will not bring back those who left the Catholic Church, says Bob Stewart. He believes so-called “lapsed” Catholics, “continue to be people of faith and have never abandoned their faith; they are simply no longer practicing Catholics.” “As for bringing these folks back to the Catholic Church, I believe what is required is much more Read more