[NYer]

Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online and associate editor of National Review.

[NYer]

We all know at least someone. I would also suggest that the “smorgasbrod” of christian churches poses a temptation for others.

[Sudetenland]

I’d say that it’s a “hands off” problem . . . or is that hands on? LOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Salvation]

Good article!

[Judith Anne]

I see no point in making this an open thread. It will quickly become a cesspool. As I have no desire to hear what the crazed evangelicals have to say, I will not be participating.

[strider44]

For me it was pretty simple. I’m just not comfortable around homosexual priests. My father grew up in a strict Catholic family, went to Catholic school his entire life, and Boston College. He entered the seminary and was there less than 3 months because of one reason - he said 90% of the seminarians were gay. The culture was terrible. He left and never looked back (this was the mid 1960’s)

His own cousin is still a priest, but lives with another man and is pretty openly gay. This is not a small percentage of priests...

I will not raise my young sons in the church as I just don’t trust the priests. Sorry if that makes me a bigot.

[goodwithagun]

If we would leave the Church it would be because we are sick of being preached to about healthcare and immigration. We (I’m 30, husband is 32, son is 19 months) are constantly being told that healthcare is a basic human right and illegal immigration is not illegal.

[vpintheak]

"Evangelize at all times; when necessary, use words," St. Francis of Assisi is known to have said. What powerful and true words. People can see through the bologna of words, but when you are living it, it can't be disproven.

[Alex Murphy]

[Conservative radio talk-show host Hugh] Hewitt describes his move from Roman Catholicism to Presbyterianism as partly positive and partly negative. He considers himself an "ex-pat, obliged to move to a Protestant expression of faith because I experience God's presence more easily and more conclusively as a Presbyterian and began to do so over a dozen years ago." Presbyterianism works for him in ways Catholicism no longer did. "The Presbyterian confessions and order of worship are very left-brain and made me into a much better Christian," he says.

Ping!

[RnMomof7]

"Evangelize at all times; when necessary, use words," St. Francis of Assisi is known to have said

That is an urban legend.. He never said that ..and Than God for that because scripture tells us to go and TELL not go and DO

------------------This is a great quote, very Franciscan in its spirit, but not literally from St. Francis. The thought is his; this catchy phrasing is not in his writings or in the earliest biographies about him.
In Chapter XVII of his Rule of 1221, Francis told the friars not to preach unless they had received the proper permission to do so. Then he added, "Let all the brothers, however, preach by their deeds. link

Actually Francis was a great preacher and took the gospel out to the world

link

[0beron]

Hugh Hewitt left the Catholic Church because it was just too hard.

It’s so much easier to do and believe whatever your neighbors believe whether you live in Nazi Germany or pre-Columbian Central America, rather than be a sign of contradiction.

[MayfairFly]

Last year he left the Catholic Church in large part because of his homosexuality. But his decision should not be dismissed as a convenient act of self-justification.

BS. It's always about sex, whether it's homosexuals, unmarried hetero's who refuse to be chaste or married's who insist on practicing contraception. In order to justify our own sinful acts, many people refuse to condemn the sinful acts of others. No one wants to feel guilt or shame for their acts. It's much easier to justify themselves by refusing to recognize sin in others.

[Desdemona]

Frankly, it’s a matter of really bad catechesis as to why people wander away as late teens. If you really know the Faith, there is no leaving. Shifting worship and devotion style, maybe, but no leaving.

[mlizzy]

RoLE moDELs ... hOlY REaDiNgs of CHrIst & HiS saInTS ... RoSaRY ... Only a handful of kids will continue to attend the Catholic Church if their own parents aren't even attending (both *frequent* Mass AND Confession). The Church will ALWAYS have its problems. It's the Faith that is without flaw. There's no more immediate assistance/help one can receive today than through the Most Holy Eucharist Itself. You can sing praises to God 'til you're blue in the face through another denomination, but you'll NEVER consume the True Body of Christ, ever! And once He's gone in True Bodily Form, the door flings WIDE open for Satan ... to waltz right in.

[Nosterrex]

Roman Catholics are not the only denomination that is having problems keeping young people. It is a huge problem among all traditional denominations. They leave for all sorts of reasons, but many are enticed by nondenominational feel good, and high energy groups. Entertainment replaces commitment. Most will leave religion with its moral absolutes and become spiritual, which is a euphemism for egotist hedonism.

[Le Chien Rouge]

Issues in the Roman Catholic church that turn me off:

1) Liberation Theology adherers
2) Humanism supporters
3) The Pro-choice clergy
4) CINO politicians
5) Support for illegal immigration among many of the bishops
6) The refusal to remove homosexual priests
7) The bashing of Mother Theresa because she was PRO LIFE
8) Parishes more concerned with creating a ‘modern church’ rather than celebrating 2000 years of heritage

[mlizzy]

I have to ask you in all honesty, NYer, why do you put unprotected threads up like this about our beautiful young people being led away from the Church (who need help, not hindrance!), when you know the “crazed evangelicals” are going to burn it like a sun-exposed baby’s arm?

[marshmallow]

The reason why people leave the Catholic Church is simple and unchanging; they have ceased to believe (if they ever did) that it is the one, true Church, founded by Jesus Christ on the rock of Peter, teaching the one true Gospel, the path to salvation until the end of time and feeding its members with the true Body of Christ. That is the reason.

The catalyst, which is not to be confused with the reason but often is, is the event or events which triggered their exit. The catalysts are many and varied. In Hewitt's case it was the behavior of the pastors and the liturgy. In other cases it is scandal. In still others, it because they are "not getting something out of it". In others, it is simply indolence and apathy. Some cease their involvement in all organized religion. Others swap the unchanging truth of the Gospel for the doctrinal anarchy of Protestantism, usually in in the hope of "feeling something". However, in all these cases, the reason remains the same.

Since the time of Jesus it has been thus. Ever since a large number of Jesus' disciples stopped going with him after he preached the doctrine of the Eucharist, there have been those who fell away.

With regard to today's situation however, the Church itself is at least partly to blame. It has not taught, it has poorly catechized, it has trivialized the sacred liturgy so that people no longer have a sense of the sacred nor have a sense of being able to come close to God which is a desire innate to the human heart. In search of that sense, they look elsewhere.

You reap what you sow.

The Church will become smaller and the fire of persecution will purify it of its present illnesses but it will forever be the Mystical Body of Christ which Christ promised never to abandon.

[Antoninus]

This is an article by KJL and heavily cites Hugh Hewitt. Both of these two are homo politici and have never given me any indication that they have even the slightest insight into or even understanding of Catholicism. They should stick to politics.

[Antoninus]

Last year he left the Catholic Church in large part because of his homosexuality. But his decision should not be dismissed as a convenient act of self-justification.

No, of course not. [insert eye-roll]

[the invisib1e hand]

gee, i thought young people were staying in droves.