The Hidden Exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants

We all have heard stories about why people leave. Parents share stories about their children. Academics talk about their students. Everyone has a friend who has left.

While personal experience can be helpful, social science research forces us to look beyond our circle of acquaintances to see what is going on in the whole church.

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has put hard numbers on the anecdotal evidence: One out of every 10 Americans is an ex-Catholic. If they were a separate denomination, they would be the third-largest denomination in the United States, after Catholics and Baptists. One of three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic.

Any other institution that lost one-third of its members would want to know why. But the U.S. bishops have never devoted any time at their national meetings to discussing the exodus. Nor have they spent a dime trying to find out why it is happening.

Thankfully, although the U.S. bishops have not supported research on people who have left the church, the Pew Center has.

Pew’s data shows that those leaving the church are not homogenous. They can be divided into two major groups: those who become unaffiliated and those who become Protestant. Almost half of those leaving the church become unaffiliated and almost half become Protestant. Only about 10 percent of ex-Catholics join non-Christian religions. This article will focus on Catholics who have become Protestant. I am not saying that those who become unaffiliated are not important; I am leaving that discussion to another time.

Why do people leave the Catholic church to become Protestant? Liberal Catholics will tell you that Catholics are leaving because they disagree with the church’s teaching on birth control, women priests, divorce, the bishops’ interference in American politics, etc. Conservatives blame Vatican II, liberal priests and nuns, a permissive culture and the church’s social justice agenda.

One of the reasons there is such disagreement is that we tend to think that everyone leaves for the same reason our friends, relatives and acquaintances have left. We fail to recognize that different people leave for different reasons. People who leave to join Protestant churches do so for different reasons than those who become unaffiliated. People who become evangelicals are different from Catholics who become members of mainline churches.

The principal reasons given by people who leave the church to become Protestant are that their “spiritual needs were not being met” in the Catholic church (71 percent) and they “found a religion they like more” (70 percent). Eighty-one percent of respondents say they joined their new church because they enjoy the religious service and style of worship of their new faith.

In other words, the Catholic church has failed to deliver what people consider fundamental products of religion: spiritual sustenance and a good worship service. And before conservatives blame the new liturgy, only 11 percent of those leaving complained that Catholicism had drifted too far from traditional practices such as the Latin Mass.

Dissatisfaction with how the church deals with spiritual needs and worship services dwarfs any disagreements over specific doctrines. While half of those who became Protestants say they left because they stopped believing in Catholic teaching, specific questions get much lower responses. Only 23 percent said they left because of the church’s teaching on abortion and homosexuality; only 23 percent because of the church’s teaching on divorce; only 21 percent because of the rule that priests cannot marry; only 16 percent because of the church’s teaching on birth control; only 16 percent because of the way the church treats women; only 11 percent because they were unhappy with the teachings on poverty, war and the death penalty.

The data shows that disagreement over specific doctrines is not the main reason Catholics become Protestants. We also have lots of survey data showing that many Catholics who stay disagree with specific church teachings. Despite what theologians and bishops think, doctrine is not that important either to those who become Protestant or to those who stay Catholic.

People are not becoming Protestants because they disagree with specific Catholic teachings; people are leaving because the church does not meet their spiritual needs and they find Protestant worship service better.

Nor are the people becoming Protestants lazy or lax Christians. In fact, they attend worship services at a higher rate than those who remain Catholic. While 42 percent of Catholics who stay attend services weekly, 63 percent of Catholics who become Protestants go to church every week. That is a 21 percentage-point difference.

Catholics who became Protestant also claim to have a stronger faith now than when they were children or teenagers. Seventy-one percent say their faith is “very strong,” while only 35 percent and 22 percent reported that their faith was very strong when they were children and teenagers, respectively. On the other hand, only 46 percent of those who are still Catholic report their faith as “very strong” today as an adult.

Thus, both as believers and as worshipers, Catholics who become Protestants are statistically better Christians than those who stay Catholic. We are losing the best, not the worst.

Some of the common explanations of why people leave do not pan out in the data. For example, only 21 percent of those becoming Protestant mention the sex abuse scandal as a reason for leaving. Only 3 percent say they left because they became separated or divorced.

If you believed liberals, most Catholics who leave the church would be joining mainline churches, like the Episcopal church. In fact, almost two-thirds of former Catholics who join a Protestant church join an evangelical church. Catholics who become evangelicals and Catholics who join mainline churches are two very distinct groups. We need to take a closer look at why each leaves the church.

Fifty-four percent of both groups say that they just gradually drifted away from Catholicism. Both groups also had almost equal numbers (82 percent evangelicals, 80 percent mainline) saying they joined their new church because they enjoyed the worship service. But compared to those who became mainline Protestants, a higher percentage of those becoming evangelicals said they left because their spiritual needs were not being met (78 percent versus 57 percent) and that they had stopped believing in Catholic teaching (62 percent versus 20 percent). They also cited the church’s teaching on the Bible (55 percent versus 16 percent) more frequently as a reason for leaving. Forty-six percent of these new evangelicals felt the Catholic church did not view the Bible literally enough. Thus, for those leaving to become evangelicals, spiritual sustenance, worship services and the Bible were key. Only 11 percent were unhappy with the church’s teachings on poverty, war, and the death penalty Ñ the same percentage as said they were unhappy with the church’s treatment of women. Contrary to what conservatives say, ex-Catholics are not flocking to the evangelicals because they think the Catholic church is politically too liberal. They are leaving to get spiritual nourishment from worship services and the Bible.

Looking at the responses of those who join mainline churches also provides some surprising results. For example, few (20 percent) say they left because they stopped believing in Catholic teachings. However, when specific issues were mentioned in the questionnaire, more of those joining mainline churches agreed that these issues influenced their decision to leave the Catholic church. Thirty-one percent cited unhappiness with the church’s teaching on abortion and homosexuality, women, and divorce and remarriage, and 26 percent mentioned birth control as a reason for leaving. Although these numbers are higher than for Catholics who become evangelicals, they are still dwarfed by the number (57 percent) who said their spiritual needs were not met in the Catholic church.

Thus, those becoming evangelicals were more generically unhappy than specifically unhappy with church teaching, while those who became mainline Protestant tended to be more specifically unhappy than generically unhappy with church teaching. The unhappiness with the church’s teaching on poverty, war and the death penalty was equally low for both groups (11 percent for evangelicals; 10 percent for mainline).

What stands out in the data on Catholics who join mainline churches is that they tend to cite personal or familiar reasons for leaving more frequently than do those who become evangelicals. Forty-four percent of the Catholics who join mainline churches say that they married someone of the faith they joined, a number that trumps all doctrinal issues. Only 22 percent of those who join the evangelicals cite this reason.

Perhaps after marrying a mainline Christian and attending his or her church’s services, the Catholic found the mainline services more fulfilling than the Catholic service. And even if they were equally attractive, perhaps the exclusion of the Protestant spouse from Catholic Communion makes the more welcoming mainline church attractive to an ecumenical couple.

Those joining mainline communities also were more likely to cite dissatisfaction of the Catholic clergy (39 percent) than were those who became evangelical (23 percent). Those who join mainline churches are looking for a less clerically dominated church.

There are many lessons that we can learn from the Pew data, but I will focus on only three.

First, those who are leaving the church for Protestant churches are more interested in spiritual nourishment than doctrinal issues. Tinkering with the wording of the creed at Mass is not going to help. No one except the Vatican and the bishops cares whether Jesus is “one in being” with the Father or “consubstantial” with the Father. That the hierarchy thinks this is important shows how out of it they are.

While the hierarchy worries about literal translations of the Latin text, people are longing for liturgies that touch the heart and emotions. More creativity with the liturgy is needed, and that means more flexibility must be allowed. If you build it, they will come; if you do not, they will find it elsewhere. The changes that will go into effect this Advent will make matters worse, not better.

Second, thanks to Pope Pius XII, Catholic scripture scholars have had decades to produce the best thinking on scripture in the world. That Catholics are leaving to join evangelical churches because of the church teaching on the Bible is a disgrace. Too few homilists explain the scriptures to their people. Few Catholics read the Bible.

The church needs a massive Bible education program. The church needs to acknowledge that understanding the Bible is more important than memorizing the catechism. If we could get Catholics to read the Sunday scripture readings each week before they come to Mass, it would be revolutionary. If you do not read and pray the scriptures, you are not an adult Christian. Catholics who become evangelicals understand this.

Finally, the Pew data shows that two-thirds of Catholics who become Protestants do so before they reach the age of 24. The church must make a preferential option for teenagers and young adults or it will continue to bleed. Programs and liturgies that cater to their needs must take precedence over the complaints of fuddy-duddies and rubrical purists.

Current religious education programs and teen groups appear to have little effect on keeping these folks Catholic, according to the Pew data, although those who attend a Catholic high school do appear to stay at a higher rate. More research is needed to find out what works and what does not.

The Catholic church is hemorrhaging members. It needs to acknowledge this and do more to understand why. Only if we acknowledge the exodus and understand it will we be in a position to do something about it.

[Jesuit Fr. Thomas J. Reese, former editor in chief of America, is a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington. He is working on a new book: Survival Guide for Thinking Catholics.]

I graduated from Loyola High School in Los Angeles. Reese graduated in 1962 and taught there as a scholastic (Jesuits must teach before they can become ordained). Mr Reese SJ was called Peewee because he had the same last name as the famous baseball player. Reese came from a rich family. There were a lot of rich kids there, including sons of movie stars. Michael Reagan flunked out.

I looked through the article and nowhere did I see any mention of "doing what God requires of me" or anything about "serving God" or "fulfilling my obligations towards the Almighty". There's a fundamental difference in the way these people see religion and the way I see it. I see God in the center and me kneeling at His feet saying "here am I Lord, I come to do your will".

Those mentioned in the survey are talking about "my needs"......., "my likes.........".

Reese actually uses the word "product".

That's religion totally backwards, as far as I'm concerned. It's not about me.

It seems fairly clear (if we accept this at face value); those leaving are dissatisfied customers and Reese is parroting the old cliche that the "customer is always right" and we're not satisfying the customer.

When it comes to religion, he's not always right. The Church is right because it was founded by Jesus Christ. We're the sinners.

That concept appears to be entirely absent from his essay.

If you mean that the Catholic church isn't teaching to the Bible

The church is teaching fine, but not at the parish level, where (in many parishes) you won't hear anything about what the church actually teaches.

But it's more than just teaching; it's the liturgy, too. Lex orandi, lex credendi ("The law of praying is the law of believing", or more loosely: "how you pray reflects what you believe".)

If the orandi is vapid, childish mush, the credendi will follow obediently along.

But isn't that what the article is saying, too?

Yeah, in about three sentences, before going on to talk about how we need more liturgies catering to teenagers. Uh, no, actually, that's what we don't need.

JenB:

That is precisely the problem, the We are the Church is a stupid hym and has no place in Catholic worship.

As for prayers, the entire Liturgy is a prayer and contains beautiful prayers, Kyrie, Gloria, Creed, Agnus Dei along with the entire Canon of the Mass, the Lords Prayer. If the Homily is 15 minutes of nothing, then that is the problem with the Priest and I am sorry that is what you had to deal with.

And yes, I do believe the partaking of the Eucharist is communion with the Body and Blood of the Lord and it is a sacrament of his Body and Blodd that is, it is a visible sign of an invisible reality, i.e. Grace.

BTW, just wrote something very similar to what you said ~ but different ~ but the point is the same.

A lesson ~ John Wesley, et al, must have written a gazillion sermons. Methodist ministers are given fairly reasonable latitude in USING them.

They almost always pick the worst of the lot.

Fellow I used to work with had been a Methodist minister. He agreed it was a problem ~ he tried to resist ~ then BOOM ~ same old boring stuff.

As a practicing Catholic, I really dont understand how Catholics can be happy switching to a Protestant church.

To figure this out, you need to make a distinction between protestant churches (think of the large mainline denominations) and evangelical churchs (Baptist, independent, and fundamentalist denominations).

The truth is mainline protestant churches are also losing members at a huge rate. Evangelcal chruches, on the other hand, have been growing at a rapid pace. The serious churches are gowing, while the lukewarm churches are shrinking.

I suspect if you apply that same logic to the Catholic church, you'll find that the churches that are preaching a lukewarm message are shrinking, while those that are standing firm on doctrine are growing.

In other words, this isn't a protestant vs. Catholic issue, it is a liberal vs. conservative issue. The liberal wings of both protestants and Catholics is shrinking, while the conservative wing of both is growing.

Given that assumption, it's easy to see how someone attending a liberal (lukewarm) Catholic church could be attracted to a conservative evangelical church, or that someone attending a liberal (lukewarm) protestant church could be attracted to a conservative Catholic church.

That is a bogus quote, if they were really the best then they’d have understood that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ our Savior and they couldn’t have been pulled away by a team of horses.

That false doctrine is what holds Catholics in the church.. they think that is the ONLY place they can actually eat Jesus and get holier because of it..

The truth is there is no apostolic succession taught in the NT church.. and no priesthood in the NT church of Christ.. so IF it a real doctrine.. then every ordained pastor actually would have that gift..

This has been my experience as well. Sadly the Liberal USSCB does not realize this and at this time I don't think they would care if they did realize it.

It seems to me that about a third of the bishops in the US are solid, a third are cowards, and a third are knowingly or unknowingly working for the enemy. I may be over-estimating the "solid" category.

Under these circumstances, I am surprised that they approved the new liturgical texts. On the other hand, I think they were basically ordered to approve them from Rome. However it happened, I'm grateful and am looking forward to Advent 2011.

Just saying, there’s more reasons to not be spiritually filled in a Catholic mass than just that there aren’t enough pyrotechnics.

And not to get too specific about doctrines because that’s not on this thread but as a Reformed Christian I believe in partaking the body and blood through communion as well; I have a disagreement with your theology about the mechanics involved as well as the sacrifice aspects but don’t think that you’re the only ones who consider communion a sacrament.

"While half of those who became Protestants say they left because they stopped believing in Catholic teaching, specific questions get much lower responses. Only 23 percent said they left because of the church’s teaching on abortion and homosexuality; only 23 percent because of the church’s teaching on divorce; only 21 percent because of the rule that priests cannot marry; only 16 percent because of the church’s teaching on birth control; only 16 percent because of the way the church treats women; only 11 percent because they were unhappy with the teachings on poverty, war and the death penalty......."The data shows that disagreement over specific doctrines is not the main reason Catholics become Protestants."

My problem with the analysis in the last statement above is that it ignores what I suspect was the likely manner in which the question was asked, and therefor how the scope of the answers were predetermined and limited, concerning the specific categories of belief some said were part of the cause for which they "stopped believing in Catholic teaching".

While no single category of Catholic teaching, whether "abortion and homosexuality" or any other was given as the cause by a majority of the respondents, it was likely not possible for people to pick more than one category as part of "the reason".

I suspect that most likely they were only able to select one category, though more than one possibly concerned them. They were likely forced to pick one as if it was the priority, even though in their mind they held more than one with the same priority.

If there were five categories and the respondents were allowed to select each and every one of the categories that concerned them, or none, then one of the categories may have emerged with a clear majority. I suspect that was not done with the survey in the report.

Isn’t the National Catholic Reporter on the verge of bankruptcy as the 60’s hippies fade away? Happy Easter, by the way, Campion. We’ll both enjoy the gorgeous Liturgy on Easter morning. [forehead slap] Dang! We have a Liturgy!

;-o)

BTW, pick up the book on Ignatius by Brad Pitre. It is awesome.

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The hidden exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants