It wasn't important until...
Yeah! That's the ticket!!
Posted on 09/06/2016 3:57:16 PM PDT by NYer
.- Young Catholics are leaving the faith at an early age – sometimes before the age of 10 – and their reasons are deeper than being “bored at Mass,” the author of a new report claims.
“Those that are leaving for no religion – and a pretty big component of them saying they are atheist or agnostic – it turns out that when you probe a bit more deeply and you allow them to talk in their own words, that they are bringing up things that are related to science and a need for evidence and a need for proof,” said Dr. Mark Gray, a senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
“It’s almost a crisis in faith,” he told CNA. “In the whole concept of faith, this is a generation that is struggling with faith in ways that we haven’t seen in previous generations.”
Gray recently published the results of two national studies by CARA – which conducts social science research about the Church -- in the publication Our Sunday Visitor. One of the surveys was of those who were raised Catholic but no longer identified as Catholic, ages 15 to 25. The second survey was of self-identified Catholics age 18 and over.
In exploring why young Catholics were choosing to leave the faith, he noted “an emerging profile” of youth who say they find the faith “incompatible with what they are learning in high school or at the university level.” In a perceived battle between the Catholic Church and science, the Church is losing.
And it is losing Catholics at a young age. “The interviews with youth and young adults who had left the Catholic Faith revealed that the typical age for this decision to leave was made at 13,” Gray wrote. “Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed, 63 percent, said they stopped being Catholic between the ages of 10 and 17. Another 23 percent say they left the Faith before the age of 10.”
Of those who had left the faith, “only 13 percent said they were ever likely to return to the Catholic Church,” Gray wrote. And “absent any big changes in their life,” he said to CNA, they “are probably not coming back.”
The most common reason given for leaving the Catholic faith, by one in five respondents, was they stopped believing in God or religion. This was evidence of a “desire among some of them for proof, for evidence of what they’re learning about their religion and about God,” Gray said.
It’s a trend in the popular culture to see atheism as “smart” and the faith as “a fairy tale,” he said.
“And I think the Church needs to come to terms with this as an issue of popular culture,” he continued. “I think the Church perhaps needs to better address its history and its relationship to science.”
One reason for this might be the compartmentalization of faith and education, where youth may go to Mass once a week but spend the rest of their week learning how the faith is “dumb,” he noted.
In contrast, if students are taught evolution and the Big Bang theory at the same school where they learn religion, and they are taught by people with religious convictions, then “you’re kind of shown that there’s not conflicts between those, and you understand the Church and Church history and its relationship to science,” he said.
With previous generations who learned about both faith and science as part of a curriculum, that education “helped them a lot in dealing with these bigger questions,” he explained, “and not seeing conflict between religion and science.”
Fr. Matthew Schneider, LC, who worked in youth ministry for four years, emphasized that faith and science must be presented to young people in harmony with each other.
A challenge, he explained, is teaching how “faith and science relate” through philosophy and theology. While science deals only with “what is observable and measurable,” he said, “the world needs something non-physical as its origin, and that’s how to understand God along with science.”
“It was the Christian faith that was the birthplace of science,” he continued. “There’s not a contradiction” between faith and science, “but it’s understanding each one in their own realms.”
How can parents raise their children to stay in the faith? Fr. Schneider cited research by Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame, who concluded that a combination of three factors produces an 80 percent retention rate among young Catholics.
If they have a “weekly activity” like catechesis, Bible study or youth group; if they have adults at the parish who are not their parents and who they can talk to about the faith; and if they have “deep spiritual experiences,” they have a much higher likelihood of remaining Catholic, Fr. Schneider said.
More parents need to be aware of their children’s’ beliefs, Dr. Gray noted, as many parents don’t even know that their children may not profess to be Catholic.
The Church is “very open” to science, he emphasized, noting the affiliation of non-Catholic scientists with the Pontifical Academy of Science, including physicist Stephen Hawking.
There is “no real conflict” between faith and science, Gray said.
“The Church has been steadily balancing matters of faith and reason since St. Augustine’s work in the fifth century,” he wrote.
“Yet, the Church has a chance to keep more of the young Catholics being baptized now if it can do more to correct the historical myths about the Church in regards to science,” he added, “and continue to highlight its support for the sciences, which were, for the most part, an initial product of the work done in Catholic universities hundreds of years ago.”
Oh dear. Is there any way, any way at all you can go to a parish with a Latin Mass? I have found that young people (my own included) are far more satisfied when the Mass is not watered-down and the priests have no trouble answering questions such as the ones your son is asking.
Regards,
Point made. Mine was to say that forcing children into being part of ceremonies and traditions whether they chose to or not is why many children flee the church at the first opportunity and reject God. Better to teach children about a personal Savior who is understanding and forgiving and point them to His Word so they can choose this lifelong commitment. This is the role of parents to lead children to correct decisions rather than expect salvation by passing them through a checklist against their will.
My post to Erik was in sympathy, not criticism other than his tone. He seems to differentiate between Christianity and Catholicism which was all I was hoping for. He’s far better off than the children who passed through the checklist without ever understanding there is a personal Savior to trust and believe in.
The man in the picture is from medieval Edinburgh, Scotland, isn’t he? Red hair, blue eyes. Who is this man?
Mind control; simple as that. Pouring water on any one's head makes them a part of nothing. There is no authority for it. It is a creation of men who seek to keep other men in bondage.
So Jesus’s sacrifice means nothing? Splash some holy water on every baby born and they are all Catholic. Got it. No wonder the church has a membership problem.
You would think the Scriptures would mention that... hmmmmm.
Ain't it wunnerful that ROME doesn't act this way!!??
It wasn't important until...
Yeah! That's the ticket!!
The story was about 10 year olds leaving your church. All I did was describe my victimization at age 10 in your church. If my story inspires just one person to realize they are a victim of the church and encourages them to seek out the truth, then it will have been worth it.
My rabidly catholic BIL and SIL vote straight line Democrat. When I asked how this was reconciled with their anti abortion stance, the response was that Republicans don't do enough to overturn abortion laws. How do I have a rational conversation with someone like that? We don't even talk politics because he and his wife go full-blown emotional every time. There is no rational discourse with people like that.
“How do I have a rational conversation with someone like that? We don’t even talk politics because he and his wife go full-blown emotional every time. There is no rational discourse with people like that.”
Allow me to quote Bubba :
“I feel your pain.”
I have a sister, (who I love dearly) who has ALWAYS voted straight line Dem. I have not discussed politics with her since the Harmonica Lewinsky scandal, I learned long ago you can’t have a reasonable discourse with those people.
I have often wondered how a person of nearly the same age, from the same era, in the same neighborhood who attended the same school, born of the same parents could possibly see the world through a leftists prism.
I don’t ecpect to ever find an answer to this riddle...
I have to admit when I first read your comments about being a victim I thought you were speaking tongue in cheek and joking. Now I realize you are serious and I have come to two possible conclusions: 1).You are totally NUTS or 2).You are an attention seeker. A lot of people that claim they are victims fall into this category.
I think it’s Jared Leto...
Typical catholic in denial response. I suppose you think a woman that gets raped isn't a victim either because she wore a short skirt. You don't foist this kind of crap on a 10 year old. Hell yes I was a victim. But I had it easy. At least I wasn't molested by some pedophile priest like so many catholic boys were.
Hello Finatic - two resources that may help your son - Handbook of Catholic Apologetics by Peter Kreeft - it may be above his reading level but it sounds like it might not be, judging from his eagerness to engage others and seek the truth of things. If he works through it with a knowledgeable adult advisor (catechist? parish priest?) he may come away with a deep and strong appreciation of the faith that will stand up to any serious intellectual challenge.
A second resource has to do with faith and science, specifically aimed at high school students: the Faith and Reason series (Fr. Robert Spitzer SJ) which examines evidence for God from physics and philosophy. I was a volunteer with the project several years ago and I have shown the 5-DVD series to my class with thoughtful results. The series was based on Fr. Spitzer’s book, New Proofs for the Existence of God, a highly compelling, if intellectual, read.
Here is the link for the Kreeft book:
https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Catholic-Apologetics-Reasoned-Questions/dp/1586172794
and here is the link to the Reason Series program:
http://www.magisreasonfaith.org/the_reason_series.html
Adolescence is such a time of fierce spiritual battle - I teach in a grade 7-12 Catholic school - and the stakes are so high. I applaud you so much for being so involved in helping your son in his honest search for the highest truth there is.
Seriously, I hope you get the mental help you need.
I don’t know if you’re a traveler or not but you might want to put a card in your wallet stating that if you’re ever in need of emergency hospital care that you refuse to be taken to a Catholic hospital, since 20-30% of America’s hospitals are run by the Catholic Church (in my area it’s 50%) and you would rather die. The doctor might take your temperature in your mouth and you would become a victim again.
Seriously? That's all you can come up with? Do you tell that to everyone who doesn't want to be a catholic? My mental health is just fine. The ones with the mental health issues are the ones who vociferously defend a corrupt and immoral institution with a sordid history, run by an idiot. The Vatican is no different than the two party system in America. Conservatives vs liberals, each interpreting the bible in their own way. And it looks like the liberals are winning this one. Just wait and see what your precious church looks like in a few decades.
Ha! They’ve been saying that for 2,000 years. I’ll defer to Scripture on this one. Jesus told St. Peter he would be with him until the end of the age. And I’ll leave it at that.
Good luck with your mental health.
I've come to the conclusion that many people have had bad religious experiences as children.
In their minds there is such a close connection between God and religion that they don't discern the difference. As a result, in reaction to the bad religious experiences they rightly reject the religion, but inadvertently reject God in the process.
I think those are the people who can be reached with the simple presentation of the gospel message.
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