By the age of 10, young Catholics are losing their faith
Nearly two-thirds (63%) said they no longer identify themselves as Catholics by the age 17, and another 23% said they stopped regarding themselves as Catholic by the age 10.
Of those who had left the faith, only 13% said they were ever likely to return to the Catholic Church.
The reason most often given is the tension young people perceive between faith and religion. While this factor is highest among students at public school, it is also remarkably high among students at Catholic schools.
There is an emerging profile of youth who say their religious formation is incompatible with what they are learning in public high school or university.
Dr. Mark Gray, a senior researcher with CARA, speaks of an unprecedented “crisis of faith” among youth. “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.” There is a severe compartmentalization between education in faith and in science. The fundamental problem is that youth may go to Mass once a week but spend the rest of the week learning “how dumb” their faith is.
On a positive note, Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at Notre Dame University, states that there are three factors that yield a high retention rate among young Catholics. The first is that the young people have a “weekly activity” like catechesis, Bible study, or youth group. The second is the availability of adults (not their parents) with whom they can discuss their faith. The third is the possibility of providing “deep spiritual experiences.”
I am no sociologist of religion, least of all of that which deals with youth. But my own experience tells me that besides the three factors mentioned here, there are the three additional factors: There is daily prayer in the home, parents and children talking about their faith, and some kind of weekly charitable service made possible for the young people.
Some (like me!) worry about the quality of religious formation of children and youth. Things have improved a lot since the horrid days of religious formation in the 70s and 80s. But, having kept an eye on the kind of texts being used, even the better ones are inadequate. If you want your child to be well informed in the faith, then don’t look at the typical text available. We have a long way to go in this area. For one thing, we need to bring back a thoroughly updated question-and-answer catechism.
There is also the question of parish religious education teachers and Catholic school teachers. Would you be surprised to know that many of them do not go to Sunday Mass regularly and have “difficulties” with the Church? Surely this has to have a disastrous effect on the students for whom they have responsibility. I have seen no data on this, so I am basing what I say on what I have observed and read over the years and what other pastors tell me.
Finally, there are the parents, who rarely if ever talk to their children about the faith and the necessity of growing strong in it. And do parents, even of Catholic school children, go to Mass on Sundays? The vast majority, I fear, do not.
By Msgr. M. Francis Mannion
Tom, then can we agree that Science cannot prove that anything exists beyond the material world?
Tom, then can we agree that Science cannot prove that anything exists beyond the material world?
And to you Mr Patrick all this you mentioned is for the weak of mind and soul you can confuse all of the people some of the time but you can’t convince all of the people all of the time we all know there is a God and there is the devil is now left for you to choose as for me I choose good over evil
And to you Mr Patrick all this you mentioned is for the weak of mind and soul you can confuse all of the people some of the time but you can’t convince all of the people all of the time we all know there is a God and there is the devil is now left for you to choose as for me I choose good over evil
I would respond to Thomm and Patrick by recommending that they read JH Newman’s Aid to a Grammar of Assent. Their objections were adequately addressed by Newman in the 19th century.
Christian Smith also makes the point that in their research, no estranged emerging adult had a father who was a practicing Catholic and in their book Young Catholic America (pg. 124) makes the summary point that while the faith of mothers is important, the fathers is in most cases necessary. “Committed Catholic fathers are not a sufficient condition for producing children who will be committed Catholics down the road. However, in most cases, having a committed Catholic father seems to be a necessary condition.” “In short, the faith of Catholic fathers is powerfully determinative of the future faith of their children.”
Your experience and that of other atheists does nothing of the sort. It is not a badge of honor to claim that you don’t understand metaphysics and a reality greater than the material universe.
Tom, the most important decisions we make are not done scientifically. No healthy person looks to science to decide who they will marry. Science has its place but it is not the only way to see reality, including that which is beyond the material. A color blind person does not prove there is no color. An atheist does not prove there is no God.
I would respond to Thomm and Patrick by recommending that they read JH Newman’s Aid to a Grammar of Assent. Their objections were adequately addressed by Newman in the 19th century.
Christian Smith also makes the point that in their research, no estranged emerging adult had a father who was a practicing Catholic and in their book Young Catholic America (pg. 124) makes the summary point that while the faith of mothers is important, the fathers is in most cases necessary. “Committed Catholic fathers are not a sufficient condition for producing children who will be committed Catholics down the road. However, in most cases, having a committed Catholic father seems to be a necessary condition.” “In short, the faith of Catholic fathers is powerfully determinative of the future faith of their children.”
And also, the people in the picture are NOT SUPPOSE TO BE HOLDING THEIR HANDS OUT LIKE THAT. The Church has said you’re not suppose to be imitating the priest, lay people do not concentrate with the priest. Why don’t priests correct error anymore?
And also, the people in the picture are NOT SUPPOSE TO BE HOLDING THEIR HANDS OUT LIKE THAT. The Church has said you’re not suppose to be imitating the priest, lay people do not concentrate with the priest. Why don’t priests correct error anymore?
Poor catechesis, Patrick, does not prove that God is debunked.
You are making the (extraordinary and false) claim – science has debunked your God – go on then, show me the proof that God does not exist. Show me how science has debunked God.
Job chapter 38 says it all really: Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.
16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
19 “What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
26 to water a land where no one lives,
an uninhabited desert,
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
30 when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
31 “Can you bind the chains[b] of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons[c]
or lead out the Bear[d] with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s[e] dominion over the earth?
34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who gives the ibis wisdom[f]
or gives the rooster understanding?[g]
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
38 when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together?
39 “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions
40 when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket?
41 Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
Poor catechesis, Patrick, does not prove that God is debunked.
Please note that all of the “solutions” to this problem involve indoctrination. In today’s world of information, that is like putting a finger in a breaking dike and expecting it to hold.
Please note that all of the “solutions” to this problem involve indoctrination. In today’s world of information, that is like putting a finger in a breaking dike and expecting it to hold.