My friends were raised catholic educated in school catholic and 50% now non catholic. why are catholics . fallen away?

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Not only this, but most Evangelical churches are creedal. Usually, you can’t get away with being a member of their church and NOT knowing any doctrine. For them, understanding and affirming a Nicene interpretation of the faith is the defining criterion of Christianity; belonging to a church is wholly incidental. (For too many lazily reared Catholics, it seems to be the other way around.) So, score one for the Evangelicals.

Me, I don’t think it’s being crypto-Lutheran to insist on catechesis as crucial in more than one sense, and not to treat poor catechesis as a mere foible when it occurs … or as something less than the full-blown emergency scandal it is. Souls depend on it.
 
I think the education system might not be the best. The faith is something you need to pursue and make a priority and most youth don’t do these sorts of things.
 
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A lot of them don’t have good parental examples to follow at home that would show them how to be a good Catholic in daily life.

Some of them have bad relationships with the parent who’s pushing them to be Catholic.

Some of them decide it’s too hard to abide by the Church rules regarding sex, so they drift away.

Some of them get interested in other religions because their boyfriend/ girlfriend/ other friends steer them that way.

Some of them just get busy with a lot of other stuff and Catholicism goes on the back burner.

And, when some of them experience a real loss or tragedy or find themselves looking death in the face, all of a sudden they might find the Catholic Church again.
 
Maybe because the faith is not for them despite being born into it?
 
Just a few statistics from CARA:

Mass attendance weekly:

Born before 1943: 48%
Born 1943 - 1960: 27%
Born 1961 - 1981: 21%
Born 1982 - later: 15%

It is simplistic to simply blame “Vatican 2”. There were, and are, a number of matters which have impacted Mass attendance (which was not all that good in the 1950’s, to begin with).

Secularism didn’t start with Vatican 2; it started with the Enlightenment and the French revolution, and with changes in philosophy starting several hundred years ago. and it continues to grow today. And coupled with secularism over the last 75 years has been a gradual decrease in social mores.

Pre Vatican 2, religious education was largely from the Baltimore Catechism. That taught you religion, but it did not teach faith. And where is faith taught? Faith is taught in the family. And therein lies the issue and the problem.

In the last 6 months, I have had several (as in more than 2) conversations concerning parents and what they teach (by example) their children. My parish has the first grade school built in a 40 year period in our Archdiocese (Oregon). The kids are well supported by the parish; we have had for a number of years fund raising drives so the kids who wished to could go to the Steubenville West conferences presented by Life Teen. But back to the grade school: we have way too many families in which a parent will go to the weekday children’s Mass, but don’t show up on Sunday. The same goes for kids in religious ed. (except they don’t have the weekday Mass, as they are in Public school); parents will drop them off for the religious ed and they may, or may not, make it to Mass on Sunday.

And what are those parents teaching their children?

Mass attendance, born 1961 - 1981 is 21% weekly; 28% at least once a month; 30% at least once a year; and 20% less often or never. And the kids are being taught… what?
 
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I wonder if it’s the rise of youth culture making it harder for parents to be a more direct influence.
 
Plenty of nonCatholic Christians who were raised in one faith and now have chosen another–and many have chosen none.

So. . . by no means a “Catholic phenomenon” A lot has to do not just with the times they are a’changing, or the particular school, but also the particular place. Are some areas in the U.S. more prone to have youth ‘leave’ the faith they were born and raised in? Why might that be?
 
redbetta said:
Freshman year high school, our religion class consisted of watching family flicks and filling out worksheets on how they demonstrated love and being a good person and yadda yadda.
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Exactly. That’s what I mean by an “emotional” approach.
 
ConfusedLucy said:
I wonder if it’s the rise of youth culture making it harder for parents to be a more direct influence.
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I think parents are more of an influence on kids nowadays,than they were when I was a kid in the 1960’s/70’s.

My parents were pretty much Free-Range and they were average in that regards. During my school boy years, I spent most of my time working.
 
Sin is fun.
Self control is hard.
And the rewards aren’t always obvious and my seem remote.
 
But as they become teenagers and young adults it seems many want to forge their own lives. This often doesn’t seem to include Catholicism.
 
Let’s not forget that many who fall away from a specific religion do so because they have studied and object, morally, to some or all of the teachings. I don’t think it is accurate to paint with a broad brush and assume lack of education or motivation are the reasons people leave.
 
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I agree, the word Catholic means universal, meaning “for every human being”.
 
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stpurl said:
Plenty of nonCatholic Christians who were raised in one faith and now have chosen another–and many have chosen none.
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True in my wife’s case, she grew up Presbyterian but desired to become Catholic and did 5 years ago.
 
QwertyGirl said:
Let’s not forget that many who fall away from a specific religion do so because they have studied and object, morally, to some or all of the teachings. I don’t think it is accurate to paint with a broad brush and assume lack of education or motivation are the reasons people leave.
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Perhaps. But judging from comments on this forum (not this particular thread, necessarily), by Youtube videos, and by various stories in the press (esp. regarding Pope Francis and his occasional comments), it’s clear to me that the majority of those who condemn certain teachings actually don’t know what the actual teachings are. They have not read basic documents (Vatican II reports, encyclicals, USCCB bulletins, the Catechism, etc. etc.) and they have formed their opinions based on…I’m not sure. TV? What their friends say?
 
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