So according to you, what should the Silent generation have done?
No idea. I didn’t provide a personal opinion. I simply stated that I heard that the baby boomers were not 100% at fault.
I’ve also been reading this book from the Ignatius Press that states that a major part of the problem was that by the 1960s massive immigration from Catholic nations had dried up. Without new blood from the “old countries” American Catholics became more susceptible to the anti-Catholic lies being told in culture around them.
Also a lot of people in the Silent Generation were Catechized, but didn’t understand a lot of the theology behind Church teachings. This was because back then, people didn’t publicly question the Church as much. So devout Catholics were not practiced apologists, and often never learned the reasons because the “Church says so” reason was good enough for them. So when their Baby Boomer children started asking questions and challenging the Church’s teachings, the Silent Generation didn’t have answers or could not explain it well enough.
Also, a lot of members of the Silent Generation (who were 2nd or 3rd generation) and the Baby Boomers, wanted to assimilate into American culture (which was protestant based). We were proud that we just had our first Catholic President, then he was killed. A lot of the Silent Generation remembered the laws which prevented their parents and/or grandparents from holding public office, etc. No one wanted to go back to that. We wanted to fit into American society.
We seized that opportunity to become part of mainstream America, but lost part of our identify at the sometime. This loss of identity lead to confusion with the Baby Boomers and that confusion lead to the Baby Boomer’s children and grandchildren to become unchurched.
God Bless.
