Posted on 04/19/2012 11:58:25 AM PDT by NYer
I saw an advance copy of a survey by William J. Byron and Charles Zech, which will appear in the April 30th edition of America magazine.
It was conducted at the request of David OConnell, the bishop of Trenton, and its focus was very simple: it endeavored to discover why Catholics have left the church. No one denies that a rather substantive number of Catholics have taken their leave during the past 20 years, and Byron and Zech wanted to find out why. They did so in the most direct way possible and asked those who had quit.
The answers they got were, in many ways, predictable. Lots of people cited the churchs teachings on divorce and re-marriage, gay marriage, contraception, and the ordination of women. These matters, of course, have been exhaustively discussed in the years following Vatican II, and Id be willing to bet that anyone, even those vaguely connected to the Church, could rehearse the arguments on both sides of those issues. But there just isnt a lot that the church can do about them. No bishop or pastor could make a policy adjustment and announce that divorced and re-married people can receive communion or that a gay couple can come to the altar to be married or a woman present herself for ordination.
What struck me about the survey, however, was that many of the issues that led people to leave the church are indeed matters that can be addressed. Many of the respondents commented that they left because of bad customer relations. One woman said that she felt undervalued by the church and found no mentors. Many more said that their pastors were arrogant, distant, aloof, and insensitive, and still others said that their experiences over the phone with parish staffers were distinctly negative. Now I fully understand that parish priests and lay ministers are on the front lines and hence are the ones who often have to say no when a parishioner asks for something that just cant be granted. Sometimes the recipient of that no can all too facilely accuse the one who says it as arrogant or indifferent. Nevertheless, the survey can and should be a wake-up call to church leadersboth clerical and non-clericalthat simple kindness, compassion, and attention go a rather long way. I distinctly remember the advice that my first pastora wonderful and pastorally skillful priestgave to the parish secretary: for many people, you are the first contact they have with the Catholic Church; you exercise, therefore, an indispensable ministry. One respondent to the survey observed that whenever he asked a priest about a controversial issue, he got rules, and not an invitation to sit down and talk. Unfair? Perhaps. But every priest, even when ultimately he has to say no, can do so in the context of a relationship predicated upon love and respect.
A second major concern that can and should be addressed is that of bad preaching. Again and again, people said that they left the church because homilies were boring, irrelevant, poorly prepared, or delivered in an impenetrable accent. Again, speaking as someone who is called upon to give sermons all the time, I realize how terribly difficult it is to preach, how it involves skill in public speaking, attention to the culture, expertise in biblical interpretation, and sensitivity to the needs and interests of an incredibly diverse audience. That said, homilists can make a great leap forward by being attentive to one fact: sermons become boring in the measure that they dont propose something like answers to real questions. All of the biblical exegesis and oratorical skill in the world will be met with a massive so what? if the preacher has not endeavored to correlate the answers he provides with the questions that beguile the hearts of the people to whom he speaks. Practically every Gospel involves an encounter between Jesus and a personPeter, Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, etc.who is questioning, wondering, suffering, or seeking. An interesting homily identifies that longing and demonstrates, concretely, how Jesus fulfills it. When the homily both reminds people how thirsty they are and provides water to quench the thirst, people will listen.
A third eminently correctable problem is one that I will admit I had never thought about before reading this survey. Many of the respondents commented that, after they left the church, no one from the parish contacted them or reached out to them in any way. Now again, I can anticipate and fully understand the objections from pastoral people: many Catholic parishes are hugeupwards of three or four thousand familiesand staffs are small. Yet, just as major corporations, serving millions of people, attend carefully to lost customers, so Catholic parishes should prioritize an outreach to those who have drifted (or stormed) away. A phone call, a note, an e-mail, a pastoral visitanything that would say, Weve noticed youre not coming to Mass anymore. Can we help? Can you tell us what, if anything, weve done wrong? Wed love to see you back with us.
The problem of Catholics leaving the church is, obviously, serious and complex, and anyone who would suggest an easy solution is naïve. However, having listened to a representative sample of those who have left, parishes, priests, and church administrators might take some relatively simple and direct steps that would go a long way toward ameliorating the situation.
A unitarian saying that? Unitarians believe it is a fantasy to believe that Jesus Christ is God, but they believe in Obama...
May I remind you of a thread you participated in?
Of course there are always some who are too stupid to recognize the difference.
May I remind you of a thread you participated in?
Of course there are always some who are too stupid to recognize the difference.
What are we arguing about now? Is it important?
No, it is very unimportant and not worthy of further consideration. For several years now Cronos has thought it necessary to hound me with scores of "Unitarian" insults despite the fact I have made it clear that, though I have a Unitarian philosophy, I am not a member of the Unitarian Church.
I copied you as a courtesy because I had linked to a post of yours last year which had made the distinction of membership vs philosophy clear.
Perhaps I hoped the link might be beneficial in disabusing Cronos of "his" mistaken idea and to stop wasting valuable band width with unnecessary posts.
Interesting, why do follow the unitarian philosophy?
A gay-marriage loving,anti-Christian philosophy? sheesh... leave FR
Let's see what is a Unitarian philosophy:
What a fantastic philosophy -- basically anything is fine except Christianity...
If you can’t mug people for heresy, what CAN you mug them for.
Dear Cronos, Old Reggie has a knack for getting my goat like that of few others here. But disagreeing about Three Persons in One God, while perilous, is not the same as being a member of the Eew-Eew church with its nonsensical profession that somehow one can believe anything or nothing and still have a good reason for gathering in a building set apart for that purpose and engaging in cultic behavior, however resolutely boring and shallow.
And, forgive me if I am insufferably self-righteous here, it seems to me our interactions with the heresiarch (ONLY kidding, sort of) would be more useful to all if we backed off the Subaru-driving, liberal-endorsing, libertine gnosticism of that peculiar group and spent time,in an Ignatian way, trying to understand why O.R. thinks as he does.
Speaking of Subarus, (we were, weren’t we?) I rolled mine on 3/26. I know get to say, “... and I crawled out from under the wreckage,” with a straight face! I’m fine. Car, not so much.
It was FUN! If it didn’t cost so much, I’d do it more often!
(Isn’t anybody going to ask me about my new tag-line?)
No, it doesn't make your butt look fat ;o)
LOL! Okay, THAT’s more LIKE it!
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