Weekly MESSAGE for March 25, 2007: The Bookend Generations

March 25, 2007

Topic: The Bookend Generations

Dear Friend,

Last evening I was reading a report entitled “The Bookend Generations.” It is a study that shows important differences between youngest and oldest Catholics. While proclamations abound about the unchanging nature of religious truth, the study shows that the beliefs and practices of our Catholic people continue to evolve. Two studies focus on significant generational differences among our Catholic people. Younger Catholics are more individualistic, seem more tolerant of religious diversity, and are far less committed to the practices of their faith than are older Catholics. Based on these findings, researchers speculate that the future Catholic Church in the US may be a fraction of the size it is now.

The two studies compare college students with Catholics who were born before 1941, twenty years before the Second Vatican Council. The researchers claim that, while changes in religious expression between parents and children are often sharp, the differences are even more dramatic when comparing Catholics with 40 or more years between them. For example, for young Catholics, missing Mass is an option, not a sure sign of “going to Hell.” For the older Catholics, it was a grave sin, confession was expected before Communion, and bishops were unquestioned authorities. Vincent Bolduc, one of the researchers, said that 80% of the college students disagreed with the statement: “Catholicism contains a greater share of truth than other religions.” “The college students take religious tolerance as a moral obligation and respect diversity of beliefs and behavior,” he claimed. Young Catholics seem steeped in a national culture that often regards the Catholic sexual prohibitions against premarital sex, artificial birth control, abortion, divorce, women priests and homosexual behavior as anachronistic.

The following are the percentages to questions to which respondents were asked to agree with or disagree:
1. How a person lives is more important than whether or not he/she is Catholic. (87% older Catholics; 85% Catholic students.)
2. Catholicism contains a greater share of truth than other religions do. (61% to 19%.)
3. Being Catholic is a very important part of who I am. (92% to 59%.) (4) It is very important that future members of my family grow up Catholic. (78% to 59%)

The oldest group of Catholics shows the highest rate of Mass attendance at 60% with each successive generation having a lower percentage: that is, 40%, 30%, and 15% for the college students. The researchers say that the trend is troublesome for it moves the Church and sacraments of the youngest farther and farther from the center of their lives and it is unlikely that this will change as they age, since evidence does not suggest the contrary. And it is with the data the researchers have accumulated that they claim that the Church of 2050 may well be a fraction of its present size. These are critical data that need to be considered in our efforts to evangelize and draw our people to worshipping as Catholics.

These findings are borne out each year when a meet with our Confirmation Candidates, who are Sophomores in high school, for an evening of questions and answers.

Fondly,
Father Nick Amato