Here is another depressing statistic from the US: 79 per cent of Catholics who lapse, do so before the age of 23.

I learnt this from the blog of Brandon Vogt here.

Vogt is an eloquent and erudite young American who is actively trying to share his faith, challenge the dreary zeitgeist and bring back the lapsed . . . .

Vogt describes six different reasons why young Catholics leave the faith.

The first is that they are merely "cultural Catholics" who go under the label "Catholic" but who have no personal, meaningful faith whatsoever. They might go to Mass sometimes to please their parents, or at Christmas, but the label merely masks "a lifeless and decaying faith life".

Vogt thinks it is easier to talk to an atheist than a cultural Catholic, as the atheist at least knows he/she isn't a Catholic. According to Vogt, most US Catholics are in this category.

The second group are the "shruggers" - complacent people who simply shrug their shoulders at the big questions in life.

They are too mentally lazy to care about faith. They need to be convinced that knowing the purpose of our lives does matter and that responding with "whatever" is ducking their responsibility to engage with profound questions. I suspect this might be a hard category to reconvert.

The third group is "I am spiritual but not religious" - those who reject doctrine or religion but who still believe in a higher power and who still pray.

For this group, watching a sunset is a spiritual experience as valid as anything else; what you feel is all that matters. Continue reading

Sources

• Catholic Herald, by reviewer Francis Philips
• Image: OSV Newsweekly

Portsmouth diocese is working with St Mary's University on the scheme called "share your story".

The survey will be conducted between October 1 and January 1 and will ask questions such as whether people agree with Church doctrine or not and whether they felt welcome or not.

The survey takes 15 minutes and can be done anonymously.

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth said he hopes the survey will help enlighten priests and laity about the challenges the Church faces in the contemporary world.

Continue reading

I was instantly dismayed by the term and related monikers - inactive Catholics, lapsed Catholics, resting Catholics, non-practising Catholics - there are probably many more.

The labels are judgmental.

They point the accusing finger: 'You have failed." "You are remiss." "You are negligent." "You are missing out."

They are more a summons to the Principal's office than an invitation to develop a personal relationship with God.

These terms appear to be blatant, crass commercial terms, used to target a particular demographic with an advertorial message.

A bit like 'Push Play' to activate our exercise conscience, or 'Eat 5 a Day' to solve our health problems.

They push the 'guilt' button or the 'can't miss out' button but fail to dignify the individual, created in God's likeness.

The names used to describe Catholics who do not attend Mass regularly are narrow and, I think, bigoted.

For me, they reflect an attitude prevalent over 50 years ago, when the Catholic Church was the one, true Church, and everyone else was dammed.

These names reflect man-made rules and strictures which have propelled spiritual seekers and thinkers to find like-minded individuals in other places.

They also reflect our very human propensity to put people in boxes or categories. A power game perhaps? Or a strategy - identifying our friends and our foes? Who is 'in' and who is 'out'? The trouble with putting people in boxes is that we sometimes forget to re-open them - and people are neglected.

Good, honest, mature, spiritual seekers simply shrivel up in this containment. Where is the breath of the Spirit enlivening and inspiring them?

The labels we assign Catholics - inactive, returning, lapsed, daily Mass-goer, Sunday Catholic, Christmas Catholic - suggest that there is a right and a wrong way to encounter God - that these encounters are restricted to 'practising Catholics'.

Oh, how wrong they are! God's true nature is revealed everywhere, in every time, if we have the eyes and the ears and the mind and the heart to be open to these revelations.

Terms such as' Inactive Catholics' are exclusive, perpetuating an us-and-them mentality which the Second Vatican Council sought to eliminate. Would we use similar terms in our extended whanau -"lapsed cousin," "inactive father," "non-practising brother"? No.

We look first to the primary, life-giving relationships, acknowledge the inherent goodness of these relationships, and provide nurturing, enabling, empowering environments in which these relationships can grow and be restored.

We don't herd them together and lecture with a didactic, knowledge-based approach.

These programmes, no matter the good intent of the organisers, seem to ignore practices, such as spiritual companioning, which acknowledge and respect the intrinsic integrity of each individual and walk alongside, without judgement or coercion. They fail to acknowledge the maturity and accumulated life wisdom of attendees.

These labels ignore the personal narrative of each person created by God in God's likeness. They show a reluctance to walk in the shoes of the target audience; to ignore the richness of each person's story and how it reflects the nature of God.

There seems to be a lack of openness; of receptivity to the experience of the divine outside of the institutional church - God is shackled.

What could we use instead?

We need positive, enriching names. Names which would cause a viewer think, "You see that in me?" or "I always felt excluded because I thought outside the square." or "You think that too?"

Seeker.

Enquirer.

Pilgrim.

Traveller.

Pray-er.

Lover of God. Lover of people.

Fellow human being.

Neighbour.

Or perhaps we don't need to use any labels (and definitely no billboards).

Instead, we could reveal to each person we encounter the loving-kindness of God by becoming fully attentive and hospitable to the person we are with.

Liz Pearce, a mother of three adult children, loves story, writing, and dollmaking www.heartfeltdolls.weebly.com

The pope closed the three-week meeting of some 260 bishops with a solemn Mass in St Peter's Basilica.

The bishops discussed ways to stem what has been noted as the haemorrhaging of the faithful from the Church, especially in Europe, North America and Latin America.

"Besides traditional and perennially valid pastoral methods, the Church seeks to adopt new ones, developing a new language, attuned to the different world cultures," the pope said.

Reuters reported that one of the 58 proposals made by the bishops at the end of the meeting is for Catholic leaders to be better trained in the use of electronic communications.

In his homily, the pope said Church leaders had to work harder to turn around a situation "where the light of faith has grown dim and people have drifted away from God, no longer considering him relevant for their lives".

The synod's final message, issued on Friday, said the Roman Catholic faith in many advanced countries risked being "eclipsed" by an increasingly secularized and materialistic world.

The message, a synthesis of the topics discussed, said that while the gospel could not be "a product to be placed in the market of religions", the Church needed to find new ways of putting it "into practice in today's circumstances".

Friday's message took a dig at the United States and Canada, saying the countries of North America needed to "recognize the many expressions of the present culture in the countries of your world which are today far from the Gospel".

The pope will use the deliberations at the synod and the proposals to write his own document, known as a "apostolic exhortation" on the topic.

Sources

• Reuters
• ICN (Pope Benedict's homily)
• Catholic Herald (Synod Message)
• Image: Reuters

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, said he wants the Year of Faith to reach out to all baptised Catholics, including lapsed believers and those who "have the desire of God but cannot find signs of faith".

"We are not hiding the fact that there is a crisis of faith, but it is only when one becomes completely aware of a crisis that one can find ways to remedy it," the archbishop said.

The Year of Faith, intended to give momentum to a new evangelisation, will run from October 11, 2012, to November 24, 2013.

Among key events are:

• October 11 will see the opening liturgy in St Peter's Square, on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, with about 35 "Council fathers" expected to be present.
• On May 18, Catholic movements and lay associations, both old and new, will gather in Rome.
• On the feast of Corpus Christi, June 2, simultaneous adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is planned at sites all around the world.
• On June 22, Archbishop Fisichella promised a "huge concert" in St Peter's Square, led by a well-known (but unnamed) conductor.
• On July 7, seminarians and religious novices from around the world will arrive in Rome at the end of a pilgrimage.
• September 29 will be dedicated to catechists, and a multilingual pastoral guide to assist with catechesis will be published.

Sources:

• CNA
• CNS
• Year of Faith website
• Image: Scottish Catholic Observer

While the results themselves were not surprising, the researchers said, the study suggests new ways the church can approach Catholics who are dissatisfied with what the church teaches or how it acts — including those so dissatisfied that they have decided to leave.

One of their key recommendations was for pastors, bishops and other church officials to respond consistently to questioning or angry Catholics with constructive dialogue rather than a simple reiteration of church rules or policies.

Jesuit Fr. William J. Byron, a professor of business at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia — who collaborated in the study with Charles Zech, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Church Management of Villanova's School of Business — several times cited a response of one disaffiliated Catholic who complained, "Ask a question of any priest and you get a rule; you don't get a ‘Let's sit down and talk about it' response."

Byron and Zech told conference participants at The Catholic University of America that many of the responses from lapsed or disaffiliated Catholics in the Trenton diocese matched what researchers have known from other surveys: They object to what they see as the church's unwelcoming attitude toward gays and lesbians or toward the divorced and remarried, they find homilies uninspiring, the parish unwelcoming, the pastor arrogant or parish staff uncaring, or they have suffered terrible personal experiences with a priest or other church official, such as rejection for being divorced.

Some of the former Catholics complained of priests being too liberal, while others cited "the extreme conservative haranguing" they heard in homilies - reflecting the intra-Catholic political divisions that reflect similar divisions in the broader U.S. society.

Surprisingly, Byron said, although all those who responded to the survey left the church for various reasons of dissatisfaction, "only half the respondents were pointedly negative" in their assessment of their most recent pastor. There were "many enthusiastic, positive responses" to most recent pastors, he reported. Continue reading

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: The Rhode Island Catholic

While the results themselves were not surprising, the researchers said, the study suggests new ways the church can approach Catholics who are dissatisfied with what the church teaches or how it acts — including those so dissatisfied that they have decided to leave.

One of their key recommendations was for pastors, bishops and other church officials to respond consistently to questioning or angry Catholics with constructive dialogue rather than a simple reiteration of church rules or policies.

Jesuit Fr. William J. Byron, a professor of business at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia — who collaborated in the study with Charles Zech, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Church Management of Villanova's School of Business — several times cited a response of one disaffiliated Catholic who complained, "Ask a question of any priest and you get a rule; you don't get a 'Let's sit down and talk about it' response."

Byron and Zech told conference participants at The Catholic University of America that many of the responses from lapsed or disaffiliated Catholics in the Trenton diocese matched what researchers have known from other surveys: They object to what they see as the church's unwelcoming attitude toward gays and lesbians or toward the divorced and remarried, they find homilies uninspiring, the parish unwelcoming, the pastor arrogant or parish staff uncaring, or they have suffered terrible personal experiences with a priest or other church official, such as rejection for being divorced.

Some of the former Catholics complained of priests being too liberal, while others cited "the extreme conservative haranguing" they heard in homilies - reflecting the intra-Catholic political divisions that reflect similar divisions in the broader U.S. society

As practicing Catholics, what can we and our parishes do to reach out to those who are estranged from or perhaps just uninterested in the Catholic Church? While this question has many possible answers, it will be helpful to review some basic principles that should form the foundation of any outreach to lapsed Catholics.

Continue reading Eric Sammons's suggestions: "How to welcome the faithful back into the fold"

• How to welcome the faithful back into the fold
• Image: Six:11 Ministries

"As for bringing these folks back to the Catholic Church, I believe what is required is much more than 'reform.' Unless there is a genuine spiritual renewal of the Church, i.e., real metanoia that reflects a radical change of heart and mind, I do not see much happening with respect to slowing the exodus from the Catholic Church. Incredibly, the bishops have not spent any time in discussing the exodus!"

Read Bob Stewart's piece in GoodPeople 2 GoodPriests

Bob Stewart works as an Ignatian Volunteer for the Center of Concern-Education for Justice Project in Washington DC and Social Action Linking Together in Northern Virginia. He has been married for over forty years, and he and his spouse, Charlene, are parents of four children; they have 9 (soon to be 10) grandchildren.

He has written articles regarding Catholic social teaching (CST) for publication on the web site for the Center of Concern—Education for Justice Project and a number of diocesan newspapers. Bob holds graduate degrees in industrial relations and pastoral theology, and an undergraduate degree in philosophy.