Church leakage : personal & institutional failures

A recent report by the Pew Foundation says that one in three Catholic school graduates have left the Church and that 10% of the members of Protestant churches are former Catholics. Somehow I doubt that 10% of Catholics are former Protestants. The leakage figures are alarming and exceed my own experience in Florida, but they may be true nationally. If 30% of a school’s enrolment each year dropped out before graduation we would demand a shake-up in the school’s staffing. But that is what these figures tell us about the Church. Either the staff or the system is at fault  (or  both)..

The Pew report on “:Leaving Catholicism” shows that half of those who left the Catholic Church joined other churches. Of these “ 71% said that they left the Church because their spiritual needs were not being met.” Richard Gaillardetz, professor of theology at Toledo University, explains this as “because the quality of Church life is poor and church leadership is inattentive to their real pastoral concerns.” By “quality” he seems to refer to
teaching, preaching or community life and liturgy.

However, he further points out that our hierarchy seems to focus its recent teaching on abortion, same-sex marriage and artificial birth control – all serious issues but indicative of an emphasis on human sexuality while ignoring other issues including clerical pedophilia, which is disturbing to many. Twenty years ago the Church dealt with human life as a “seamless garment” that included issues of war and peace, capital punishment and social justice, which are still critical but no longer a priority from the bishops’ perspective.

Many of those who leave cite specific issues  ranging from personal difficulties with Church law, such as divorce and remarriage, birth control, rigid and legalistic exercise of church authority or lack of pastoral concern for the moral or doctrinal struggles of the individual, inadequate spiritual formation or plain lack of relevance of the Sunday sermons. Simply put: the Church does not meet their needs and they see no indication that it cares or tries to do so. Sometimes it is just a statement that the community was cold and unwelcoming to strangers.

Of course individual Catholics should do more than wait for direction from their pastor or bishop. How many newcomers in your parish church have you introduced yourself to or welcomed to mass in the past year? When have you told a priest that you liked his sermon (or at least the topic) or simply thanked him for presiding at the liturgy?