On February 11, 2011, the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) featured findings from the 2008 Pew Forum survey and asked researchers for more information about the Catholic ‘mass exodus’ in America.

I’m not clear on why this is still news three years after its appearance, but the interview does shed light on where disaffected Catholics go to worship after they leave Holy Mother Church.

John L Allen Jr spoke with Pew Forum Director Luis Lugo and Pew Senior Researcher Greg Smith. Before going into details of the interview, here’s what Allen had to say (emphases mine throughout):

… almost half of American adults have either switched religions or dropped their ties to religion altogether.

For Catholicism, the banner headline was that there are now 22 million ex-Catholics in America, by far the greatest net loss for any religious body. One in three Americans raised Catholic have left the church. Were it not for immigration, Catholicism in America would be contracting dramatically: for every one member the church adds, it loses four. On the other hand, the study also found that the Catholic church has a higher retention rate than other major Christian denominations, and that 2.6 percent of the adult population is composed of converts to Catholicism, representing a pool of nearly six million new Catholics.

Naturally, critics of various aspects of Catholic life, such as the sexual abuse crisis or what some see as an overly conservative ideological drift, see the defections as proof of malaise. (A prominent American theologian recently claimed the Pew data reveal a “mass exodus” from the church, which he linked to a preoccupation by some bishops with the culture wars.) Equally predictably, Catholics content with the status quo play up the good news …

Here’s the bottom line: In comparison with other religious groups in America, the Catholic church’s struggles aren’t really with pastoral care, but missionary muscle. Overall, Catholicism serves existing members fairly well, as measured by the share that chooses to stick around; what it doesn’t do nearly as well is to evangelize …

To put all that into crass capitalistic terms, in America’s highly competitive religious marketplace, the real Catholic problem isn’t customer service but new sales.

Speaking as one of those ex-Catholics, I would disagree and say that a major part of the problem is customer service.  We’ll see that in the comments later in the post.

But, first, excerpts from the interview.  Bold type, as in the original, indicates Allen’s questions.

What reactions do you get when you discuss these findings with Catholics?

Lugo: People are often a little befuddled when I present the full range of evidence … You have to compare it to retention rates of other religious groups, and see it in terms of retention plus recruitment. It’s the net relationship between those two factors that’s so crucial.

Everybody’s losing members in this country, some even more than Catholics … Protestants are losing lots of members too, but for every four Americans who are no longer Protestant, there are three who are Protestant today who were not raised that way. Protestantism is declining as a whole, but the recruitment rate is pretty good. Catholics are not replenishing their ranks through conversion in the same way.

There are two other key variables. One is immigration, and the other is higher-than-average fertility rates among Hispanic Catholics. If the only factor driving a religious group’s share of the population were conversion, the Catholic church would be declining.

Smith: One of the things I was struck by, especially with regard to the Catholic church, is the degree to which apparent stability masks enormous change just below the surface. If all you look at is the percentage of the population who told us they’re Catholic, it’s exactly what we’ve found for four decades, and you would think nothing much is going on. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In his recent Murray/Bacik Lecture at the University of Toledo, noted Catholic theologian Richard Gaillardetz said the Pew data confirm a “mass exodus from the church.” Is it accurate to talk about a “mass exodus”?

Lugo: In the context of American religion as a whole, it’s not really accurate. In fact, Catholic losses are right in line with what we see overall in terms of people changing affiliation in this country. Look at the fastest-growing religious group in America, the unaffiliated. Even there, half of all people who were raised without an affiliation have since joined a religion! …

What really strikes me about the Catholic numbers is on the recruitment side. The Jehovah’s Witnesses grow because they recruit even more than they lose, which is not the case for the Catholics.

Smith: It’s not fair to say there’s a “mass exodus” from Catholicism more than any other faith … But one of the points of the report is that to understand the dynamics of American religion, you have to see retention and recruitment together. It’s the churn, the ratio of leaving to joining, which matters. It’s the recruitment side that sets Catholics apart. Four people leave Catholicism for every one who joins, and there’s no other religious group where you see a similar ratio. Baptists, for example, also have more people leaving than joining, but their ratio of 2-1 is twice of what we see for Catholics.

Is the take-away not that Catholics have a problem serving existing members, but that Catholics need to ramp up their missionary efforts?

Lugo: In terms of sheer numbers, that’s right …

I know that all the RCIA people will probably be mad, because they’re already over-burdened, but your question nails it: The most striking thing about Catholicism in America isn’t that it’s losing people, but that it’s not recruiting them as successfully as other groups. I should add that … the 2.6 percent of American adults who are converts to Catholicism is a huge pool of folks, so it’s not like nothing is going on.

What do we know about why those 22 million ex-Catholics left the church?

Lugo: It’s very interesting, because we have to break it down between those who have joined the ranks of the unaffiliated and those who have become Protestants … it’s by no means clear … whether the church ought to become more liberal or more conservative! Bear in mind that among those becoming Protestants, a majority are Evangelicals. One out of ten Evangelicals in America today is a former Catholic, and many of those folks say the Catholic church isn’t conservative enough.

Smith: It’s impossible to say in broad strokes why people leave, because it depends on where they’re headed. Among former Catholics who are now unaffiliated, 65 percent say they just stopped believing the religion’s teachings … 58 percent say they were unhappy with the teaching on things like abortion and homosexuality, and 48 percent or so were unhappy with the teaching on birth control. However, even more say they just gradually drifted away. 71 percent of former Catholics who are now unaffiliated say that.

Lugo: For that group … Many were already fairly “secularized” before they stopped identifying as Catholics …

Smith: For those who have become Protestants, 71 percent say their spiritual needs weren’t being met … More than half of those who are now Evangelical cite Catholic teaching about the Bible as a factor … most say that the Catholic church does not view the Bible literally enough …

Lugo: We also find that where ex-Catholic Evangelicals tend to cite reasons of belief and theology, those in mainline Protestant churches tend to be influenced more by what we might call “life cycle” factors, such as marrying someone of a different faith, or they didn’t like the priest at their parish, and so on.

For those who leave the church, when do they do so?

Smith: In 2008 we did a follow-up survey, and we found that switching is something that usually happens early in life. Most who left Catholicism did so prior to reaching the age of 24 …

Catholic membership is being replenished largely through Hispanic immigration. Are those Hispanics likely to remain Catholic?

Smith: People often assume that fewer Latinos leave Catholicism as compared to non-Latinos. There’s something to that, although the difference is not as large as you might expect. Among non-Hispanics who were raised Catholic, 66 percent are still Catholic. Among Hispanics raised Catholic, it’s 73 percent …  Among those who have left, it’s just like the non-Hispanic Catholics — roughly half are now unaffiliated and half have become Protestants, mostly Evangelicals.

Now, to two of the comments, which really nail the issue.

First, from Mary Margaret Cannon (page 1 of the comments — sorry, no permalink — caps in the original):

… I believe: …

1. From a marketing perspective (as crude as that may sound) … Catholics literally threw off external “signs” of their Catholic identity at the time of Vatican II — Manifested chiefly by avowed religious who tossed aside habits and collars — at the very same time Americans were rushing to embrace “logos” and “brands”, in a pattern which has grown exponentially over these decades …

2. For the last dozen years or so, we’ve been most definitely moving into another age — not merely “collecting” things we like — but CONNECTING with those we identify with. Hence — the skyrocketing success of social networking places like Facebook …

3. The “problem” of Church membership isn’t as much about “conservative” vs. “liberal” — it’s about which experience — IF ANY — offers people the chance to connect with one another FIRST and foremost, so that they can then connect with God …

Having traveled all over America and having attended Catholic Masses in countless churches — contrast this push from Fundamentalist Churches to “reach out”, with the mumbled responses and lackluster welcomes (if any at all) as you walk in the door at a huge number of Catholic Churches. . . .Small wonder that younger people are slipping out the back door, in search for an experience of connection and joy, belonging and promise.

If we really REALLY want to turn around the numbers — however anyone interprets them — the answer is clear: …

Instead of concentrating on rewriting the Roman Missal (sorry — not a segue or a rant — just an observation) — it’s a huge pity that the following 3 SIMPLE elements are not added to every Sunday Mass (at least), at every single Catholic church in America:

1. Take 1 minute (literally) of every homily to EXPLAIN the origins of Catholic rituals like genuflecting (a fascinating story) — or the origins of the 12 Days of Christmas Song — or why bells were/are rung during the Consecration. People DON”T KNOW this stuff any more — But it’s fun, it’s trivia and it INFORMS the congregation — AND it helps the congregation CONNECT to 20 centuries of Christians before us. It helps Catholics understand that there IS a reason for everything we do — that it’s not just because “father said so”.

2. Devote 3 minutes (literally) during every Communion meditation to the “personal testimony” of a Catholic-in-the-pews, to tell a quick story of how Jesus is working in his/her life. (Take a look at the denominations attracting ex-Catholics: they all celebrate personal testimony/witness — enabling people to lift one another up in encouragement, enabling people to get to know one another, lessening a sense of “embarrassment” that faith should somehow be “private”, enabling people to connect with one another AND with the Church as a whole. THIS IS EVANGELIZATION and Catholics need to do it first and foremost in our own houses of worship — then, we can spread the Good News more effectively than ever.

3. I’m 56 years old, with several fabulous relatives who are avowed religious & I’ve had friends my whole life who are priests and nuns. I cannot ever remember a time when a priest gave a homily where he shared his own faith journey — where he openly shared his own desert experience and how God walked him through the desert. But, Why????? …

At the end of the day, this isn’t a perplexing problem of stemming the tide of defections. It’s not about the scandals (as much as I abhor them) or about whether the Church is “conservative” or “liberal”.

All we have to do is incorporate new ways to connect, to share, to “see” Jesus in our daily lives — and if we build that Church, they will come at a run …

And, from page 2 of the comments, Patrick Buckley:

… I was in the seminary when Vatican II started up, and I was there when Pope Paul VI gave his famous encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (of Human Life) … Nonetheless, many priests had been expecting the opposite decision, and rebelled and in the privacy of confession told many Catholics that is was okay to use the pill.

Next: mortification by abstaining from meat on Fridays was abolished and people were told to do their own mortification privately. Guess what? Nobody did. I certainly didn’t and happily ate hamburger and steak on Fridays from then on. Also, full abstinence and fasting were dropped to almost nothing in Lent. No penance to remind us that we are sinful beings who need to regularly practice the rites of self-control …

Next: the Church dropped it’s emphasis on the Rosary during the months of October and May (the month of Mary). Soon, nobody was praying the Rosary …

Next: the change of Confession to Reconciliation. One could go to Confession in the 50’s and early 60’s, spend some time before confession reviewing our sins, confess them, and receive some sort of penance. The whole time spent was not much, and therefore, I was much more inclined to attend confession regularly. But……….after Vatican II “reconciliation” greatly lengthened the time in the confessional from an average of 2 minutes to 15 minutes … Four people per hour, and there were no longer 2 priests to hear confession but only 1 priest in a parish with 4000 people! It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that it was impossible to hear even 1 confession per year for each of the parishioners. So, general confession had to take place, and pretty [soon] individual confession dropped even more.

Finally, sermons became bland; we had one priest for 10 years who spent most of his sermon making light jokes and entertaining us. My kids despised him, and all 7 dropped away from the church for many of the above reasons. I have had 3 that have come back partway, but that’s no consolation. All difficult topics were avoided from the altar. The priests explained to me that their sermons had to confine their topics to the 3 readings, but they no introduced none or very little relevant matter regarding the moral dissolution of our society during that period …

They could have preached that Catholicism is and has been under attack since year one. They never gave any historical background to why our faith is so important. They never mentioned the anti-[C]atholic[is]m of Napoleon, Mao, Stalin-Lenin, Planned Parenthood, and indicated that if we fell morally, the forces of anti-God authortarianism would take the place of the Church.

Next: the rol[e] of CCD—Confraternity of Catholic Doctrine or the teaching of the Faith to our children has been another disaster. While it’s fine and dandy to tell 1st-4th graders that Jesus loves us, it ‘s a qualitatively different matter when you then fail to instruct the children about Catholic Doctrine in detail and give reasons “why” it is truthful and divinely inspired. Instead, right up thru 12th grade, the main intent is to “entertain” the youth first during the first 20 minutes with games …

Our current and best priest at our Parish in the last 35 years is our current priest– a convert from Presbyterianism, whose father is indeed a pastor in that faith … He includes Church history from the first 2 centuries of our Church that explain many of our Doctrines, and he uses Latin words and then defines them into English for purposes of clarity …

Kent/Renton Washington locale

My purpose in compiling this post is less a call to or criticism of Catholicism than it is a warning to Christians around the world: if we don’t bring up children properly in the faith or have appropriate pastors willing to preach Scripture and doctrine from the pulpit, then we must accept the consequences.

Regardless of what we think about Catholicism, we have been warned about being lax and lukewarm.