The Church attracts a fair amount of what I think of as “cultural Catholics” — people who come from families who were historically Catholic and who go to church more for socialization and because it makes them feel good than because they’ve thought through the actual beliefs and agreed with them. It’s almost in the same realm as people who are Jewish by background, but not actually believers. They may go through the motions especially on the holidays and participate in the ceremonies, but if you actually questioned them, they often don’t know what they’re really doing, or don’t really believe any of what they’re professing. They’re just drawn to the externals and the memories they associate with them.
As a child of converts who was raised to take my faith seriously and who tries to know what we believe and why, I do find it frustrating. Especially when the media counts those people as real Catholics for poll purposes, thus giving the more rabid bashers in the religious forums ammunition. :-\
And you do get those types most anywhere. There’s always someone in the pews who just comes because that’s what Grandma did. It is annoying though to be following a car with a Kucinich bumpersticker all the way into the church parking lot.
That’s what my parents were, cultural Catholics. They were both raised in the faith but they didn’t really believe in it anymore, despite their claims otherwise.
I learned more about my faith after I became an adult, and wanted to know more. I taught a CCD class once, and these kids were getting ready to be confirmed. They kept complaining about having to take the classes, and I asked them why on earth they'd want to be confirmed into a Faith about which they knew nothing! I also told them NEVER to believe what anyone on ANY network news program said about what 'the Church teaches'. I told them if they had questions to never be afraid to ask the priest to get the real answer. Of course, that could be problematic if you got a priest who was kinda wishy-washy himself.
My b-i-l solved that problem in his parish, though, because he teaches the final year of Confirmation preparation class himself, using the new Catechism. The previous two years have been taught by others, concentrating on Scripture. When the kids are confirmed, he gives each one of them their own new copy of the Catechism. Now they'll have NO excuse not to know exactly what the Church teaches, about anything!