Where Are We As Church - Crisis or Opportunity?
Margaret O’Brien Steinfels

We live in crisis as a church and as a country. All crisis, all the time. Without denying that those two crises may reciprocally affect us, may interact, it is the crisis in the church that we want to talk about today. Searching for opportunities will be your work later this morning. These ought to become clearer after you consider the givens, the situation and conditions in your particular setting (parish, community organizing, high school, college or university, social services or other specialized ministries) as it functions in the local church.

Are you a thriving island in a sea of indifference? Are you a marginal presence in a vital church? Are you working in a vigorous church doing vital things for it? Are you salt that has lost its flavor in a pot of tepid water? Local is the operative word here.

Local is hard to focus on, especially after the church’s national crisis, not only the sex abuse crisis, but the general drift that Peter talks about in his book, A People Adrift. The first sentence of his book is: “Today the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is on the verge of either an irreversible decline or a thoroughgoing transformation.” When Peter wrote that in the mid ‘90s as he was beginning the book, and read those words to me, I said: “that’s pretty dramatic, pretty radical for you. Are you sure you want to write that.” Well, time passed and they have become ever truer words.
We are all conscious of the bishops’ loss of credibility and their failure to call their own to account. In the loss of their authority, there is an erosion of a sense of authenticity, legitimacy, faithfulness that affects the whole church. How does that manifest itself? How does that loss affect your work and your understanding of the Eucharist, the Nicene Creed, the direction of the church’s mission, the option for the poor, the local Catholic community? These events are discouraging and infuriating at the same time.

There is another crisis as well: the crisis of leadership and loss of imagination at the Vatican, whose know-it-all stance is creating chaos. As important as these big crisis are, they are not are subject. Today we are meant to focus on and examine your specific circumstances. What are your opportunities to remain a Catholic church, steady and stable; vital and vigorous where you happen to find yourselves?

Let us recognize and acknowledge that we are inspired and supported by the work of others. We stand on the shoulder of Catholic giants. We have inherited from hundreds of thousands of women religious sturdy institutions, an educated laity, and a people who have made themselves more than at home in America. Jesuit communities have left us with strong institutions, good ideas, and a powerful memory of effective presence in society, in neighborhoods, in movements, in graduates. Do we have the same energy and creativity of those who have gone before us, our sisters and brothers in faith, to see what needs to be done and summon the imagination, the energy, and the resources to do it. For it is something new that needs to be done; we need, as Peter writes, a thoroughgoing transformation or we will suffer an irreversible decline.

I want to look at three interconnected and practical arenas that might help you think about your local situation:

• First, Mass attendance and church membership;
• Second, generational differences among Catholics, including gender differences;
• And third, identity. What is Catholic? How does it sound, how does it look, smell, feel, think, pray? And how should it sound, smell, feel, think in new circumstances and to coming generations.

In using statistics, or polls and charts, which I am about to do, I am shifting our attention temporarily from the local to the national, from the concrete to the abstract. I hope we can spend the time turning these national and abstract statistics to the local and concrete.

1. Mass attendance? Why is this important? It is a test of how the church is doing as theological enterprise and a sociological one…. Let’s just look at some charts.
Let’s begin by looking at the generational transition going on in the Catholic community

Slide 1 mid 90s data;

Slide 2 data from 2001: a new generation and a decline of an older generation.

Slide 3 shows mass attendance by generations.

Slide 4 shows the mass attendance of younger Catholics.

Slide 5 and with Mass attendance down, it is no surprise that parish registration is down; Here is a chart showing parish registration by generations.

What do we learn? This data tells us that we are not passing on the central tenet of Jesus’ teachings, his words at the Passover meal he shared with his friends and disciples. “Do this in memory of me.”
What does these statistics mean? Why are they important? In a recent article in America (June 7-14, 2004), Andrew Greeley asks “why are our Catholic churches half empty?” and concludes:

• Demographics: Catholics who went to church weekly in 1963 at the rate of 72 are a declining proportion of the Catholics population (they are dying out) and younger Catholics don’t go to Mass at the same rate as their elders; they never did.
• After 1968 and Humanae vitae, some Catholics simply stopped going to Mass.
• Changes in attitudes toward church authority wrought by Humanae vitae. Greeley’s over-all hypothesis is that once lay Catholics decided that using artificial contraception was not sinful, which many had done over the years, Paul VI’s enclyclical Humanae vitae, “had the unintended consequence of persuading [these Catholics] that the threat of mortal sin and the fear of hell, which were for many years the principal elements of the church’s popular authority, should not be controlling motivations for their lives.” They applied that thinking as well to Sunday Mass; their children have absorbed that lesson, at least in Greeley’s view.

Declining Mass attendance figures are a sign that we are drifting or have drifted away from core Catholic practice; that affects what Catholics believe, and no matter how long the Catholic imagination may linger, at some point people will no longer be Catholics. This has implications for parishes, for the Catholic community, for the future of the church, and for the society in which we live. So if negative sanctions no longer function to govern behavior—it’s not a sin to miss Mass—what will inspire Catholics in a more positive way to re-embrace the core practice of their tradition?
We can canvas our own experience of going or not going to Mass. For some, it is a habit, for some a deeply theological need, part of who we are and what we believe. In addition, there are sociological reasons; part of our belonging to a community, a place where we see friends and strangers, it is the time and place that draws a community together, repeating and affirming beliefs, stating our convictions, and acknowledging responsibilities. Not going is also a habit.

2. Let’s look more carefully at this Generational shift: (slide 6 blank) slide 7, slide 8, slide 9 and slide 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15, more on civic engagement (slide 14 blank).

Coming Catholic generations (those born after 1960) have had a different formation and they exhibit a different outlook than those born and raised in the thick culture of ethnic Catholicism. There is an erosion of the kind of loyalty and attachment that is exhibited by older generations of Catholics. For example:

• Forty-nine percent of young adult Catholics almost never go to church at all: 51 percent do go to church, but only 21 percent go every week or more. The post-Vatican II generation is least involved in parish life and other religious activities.
• 48 percent have college or post-graduate degrees. They will eventually become the most educated group of Catholics in the history of the church making church teaching and governance, preaching and public advocacy in ever greater need of being cogent and persuasive.
• They are affluent: 19 percent have annual incomes exceeding $80,000; that percentage will increase over time.
• Young Catholics marry later and begin their families later than their parents or grandparents did; for many, that may be 10-15 years after finishing college; and they are increasingly marrying non-Catholics. Even those who marry other Catholics are increasingly not marrying in the Church. It was once thought that after a period of drift or absence from church-going, young people would return on marrying or on the birth of children. As this period stretches from a few years to more than a decade that return to church going is less and less likely to take place, especially with marriages in which the husband and wife have different religions.

The trajectory of these generational tendencies was summed up by political scientist, David Leege: succeeding generations of Catholics are less likely to expose themselves to religious information or cues about faith and life; in part, because Mass attendance is down. That means less exposure to the Church’s teaching and far less group reinforcement in church settings among the young adult generation that have moved so heavily in conservative directions on social issues (men) or became pro-choice on abortion (women especially). Catholicism, including Catholic social teaching, is likely to have less influence on how these young adults think about foreign aid, war and peace, racism, etc.

1. Half of them really seem to have little regular connection with Catholicism as it is measured by Mass attendance.

2. They do not get their political or cultural cues from the Catholic Community, from Catholicism as a set of beliefs, or from the Catholic church.

3. They seem to lack a connection to and the sense of community that has held Catholicism together in the United States; we might say they haven’t replaced the ethnic enclave.

4. The men are more conservative than their parents on social policy and taxation; the women are not.

5. They are the best educated and will probably be the most well-off Catholics in history.

A positive outlook on the potential contribution of young Catholics comes from Purdue sociologist, James Davidson: Rather than internalizing the traditional norms and values of external authorities as earlier generations did, today’s young adults are more inclined to create new ideas, new companies, new products, new ways of solving traditional problems, new forms of civic life, including new voluntary associations. They may be inclined to do the same with their religious practices, if they are challenged and given the chance.

We focus on the younger because they are the future, but all living generations are the future, and those born before 1960 continue to be invaluable resources for the local church; they have responded with generosity and enthusiasm to the chuch’s need: lay people Slide 16
Generation of parish-based lay ecclesial ministers
Pre-VII 33 percent
VII 47 percent
Post-VII 20 percent

But lay people, especially women have taken on new responsibilities and moved into new areas. Here are some statistics:

A 2002 survey of Catholic parishes asked, “who typically coordinates the following ministries?” (19,186 active parishes, 4700 responses); here is what CARA found (thanks to Mary Gautier for the data): slide 17

• Liturgy Planning: Lay women, 32 percent; Sisters, 8 percent; Priest/deacon, 74 percent. (women, 40 percent).

• Music: Lay women, 60 percent; Sisters, 5 percent; Lay men, 40 percent; Priest/deacon 11 percent. (women, 65 percent).

• Children’s Religious Education: Lay women, 74 percent, Sisters, 14 percent; Lay men, 12 percent; Priest/deacon, 10 percent. (women, 88 percent).

• Children’s Sacramental Preparation: Lay women, 74 percent; Sisters, 15 percent; Lay men, 11 percent; Priest/deacon, 17 percent. (women, 89 percent).

• RCIA: Lay women, 39 percent; Sister, 14 percent; Lay men, 18 percent; Priest/deacon, 39 percent (women 53 Percent).

• Adult Faith Formation: Lay women, 36 percent; Sister, 13 percent; Lay men, 16 percent; Priests/deacon, 41 percent. (women 49 percent);

• Youth ministry: Lay women 59 percent; Sisters, 4 percent; Lay men, 30 percent; Priests/deacon,12 percent (women 63 percent).

• Social Justice/social concerns: Lay women, 37 percent; Sisters, 7 percent; Lay men, 19 percent; Priest/deacon, 27 percent. (women, 44 percent).

• Accounting and business: Lay women, 64 percent; Sisters, 2 percent; Lay men, 27 percent; Priest/deacon, 20 percent. (women 66 percent).

At the diocesan level, there are lay women and men dotted in various executive positions in education departments, social services and in a few places they serve as chancellors. On a national level, the direction has been toward greater lay direction. For example in 1999, CRS had 175 diocesan directors: 41.7 percent were priests; 13 percent were sisters; 24.5 percent were lay men; 20.5 percent were lay women. The USCCB, the bishops’ conference in Washington, also has a large lay staff, many of them women some of whom serve in executive positions. The Catholic Theological Society, the ACCU, and other professional organizations have or have had lay presidents and executives, including women. More recently, some bishops have attempted to reassert clerical control at the diocesan and national level by replacing lay people with priests, but demographics are moving in the opposite direction: Without lay men and women, the work of the church could hardly be carried out.

There is a then generation or two that can help renovate, reinvent the church, can work to transform the church with these younger generations of Catholics. In fact, the pre Vatican II and Vatican II generations are a rich source of faith and steadfastness. Why? Let me briefly point to a book some of you may know Albert O. Hirschman’s, Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and State (Harvard University Press, 1970). Hirschman’s 1970 study examined the interaction between institutions and individuals in leaving or staying, and speaking up during periods of dissatisfaction. [His research analyzed consumer and business issues; he applied it as well to U.S. government officials and their critics during Vietnam.] His findings explain at least one reason why women (and men) remain active in the Catholic church. From some institutions “exit is ordinarily unthinkable: family, tribe, church, and state.” Traditionally these primordial institutions were more like to expel or excommunicate a dissident individual than listen to their criticisms. Today, an individual who is dissatisfied usually has some mechanism for making his or her voice heard, even in the Catholic church. What encourages Catholic to voice that dissatisfaction? Loyalty. “As a rule, …loyalty holds exit at bay and activates voice.” Woman (and men) remain active in the Catholic church because for some of them it is unthinkable to exit. They stay and complain. While Church authorities may seem unresponsive to certain dissatisfactions (though not others), the church on the ground, at the local level does offer many women (and men) a chance to express their voice and their commitment. And insofar, as the church at the local (and sometimes the diocesan and national) level is open to those voices and that commitment, lay men and women may conclude that they have a say and can genuinely influence the future. They may conclude that over-all it will be better for the church, if they stay and try to “improve” it, rather than leave and have it become worse.

You might say that older generations of Catholics may be better placed to put up with the intellectual and cultural dissonance that is currently swamping the Catholic church, more so than younger Catholics.

3. Identity: Theologically the Eucharist is at the core of Catholic identity, and so it should remain. The ethnic enclave was a major vehicle of Catholic identity. Being Irish, German, Polish, etc. Sociologically ethnicity has been the carrier of Catholic identity, and it is fast disappearing for Anglos and pre-World War II immigrants. Here was one of its manifestations, Catholic schools for as many Catholic children as could be crammed in the class room (and we all learned to read, add, subtract, and recite the Baltimore Catechism). (slide 18) Ethnicity may continue as a vehicle for Hispanics and Vietnamese, over another generation or two although that has been disputed about Hispanics by Dean Hoge et al in their book on Young Adult Catholics. Catholicism has been and will continue to be loosened from that ethnic embeddedness.

What does that mean? Where will identity come from? The current effort on the part of some, let’s call them blue birds, to reassert discipline by imposing sanctions on politicians or drawing lines in the sand for Catholic voters or imposing litmus tests on who may become a bishop, or who is a good Catholic is one response to the identity question. Bring back a sense of sin!
Another strategy by, let’s call them the red birds, is a tendency to merge religious views into the givens of modernity, especially its expression in American culture—here, for example, the liberating effects of sexual knowledge and birth regulation are counterposed to traditional church teaching about sex and then extended to approval of abortion and stem cell research, which are morally speaking different kettles of fish. Let’s have more assimilation and accommodation to the larger culture.

Both strategies have the unfortunate effect of seeming to make Catholicism a political party with a political platform rather than a faith community with a religious mission. And I believe it is that which we need both to recover and to reinvent.
Catholicism needs to reinvent itself, any way its sociological self. It needs new places and vehicles for embedding itself. And it needs to reappropriate old forms and practices for new purposes.

What vehicles will carry the beliefs and stories? In many ways the institutions and ideas that made the Catholic Church in the United States a vigorous presence are still with us. Catholic schools. Altar persons. Liturgies that lift people’s hearts and minds. Catholic studies programs are making their mark in colleges and universities. Religious communities are passing on to lay collaborators their religious charisms and traditions: “ora et labora,” “Ad majorem Dei gloriam.” The Catholic tradition is a tradition with a brain and a heart, and a practical sense of how to get things done. Do we have the energy and imagination to undertake this work of transformation? It is both a crisis and an opportunity. Now it is time for you to talk, to look at your local church; to see what is there, what is going on; to analyze and judge what is there; and after careful study, conversation, consideration to devise a plan of action that will renovate and renew your local church. And just remember, it’s a big church! Slide 19