Poll: Catholics embrace faith, not Mass

[thomasf]

Thank you for replying, that is really very sad, I didn’t realize how negligent some CCD programs were!

Oh I could go on. How about this. I never knew that the epistles that were read in mass were in the bible. I used to complain that catholics didn’t read the bible, they were too busy reading old letters from saints! We never cracked a bible during my entire 12 years in ccd. I dind’t know/understand the idea of the real presence. Didn’t know about sacraments being the conduits of God’s grace. Couldn’t explain HOW Jesus dyinng on the cross saved us from our sins. My sister’s kids went to the same program and they were allowed to be confirmed without ever going to confession; still today they’ve never been.

To be honest, most of what I know about my faith came from learning about it when I came back to the church by listening to catholic radio. CCD did pretty much nothing for me.

 

[Neil_Anthony]

The source and summit of our faith is not important? Why wouldn’t you want to go to Mass? I wonder what their reasons are for not wanting to go and worship God and receive Him in the Eucharist. “Good Roman Catholics” should WANT to go to Mass!

This is just a guess, but I suspect they see Catholicism as a set of moral principles to follow, like “be nice to people” “don’t steal” etc. And what they’re saying is that they follow those rules without attending mass.

I don’t know whose fault it is that they would interpret Catholicism in that way.

 

[Nordar]

Oh I could go on. How about this. I never knew that the epistles that were read in mass were in the bible. I used to complain that catholics didn’t read the bible, they were too busy reading old letters from saints! We never cracked a bible during my entire 12 years in ccd. I dind’t know/understand the idea of the real presence. Didn’t know about sacraments being the conduits of God’s grace. Couldn’t explain HOW Jesus dyinng on the cross saved us from our sins. My sister’s kids went to the same program and they were allowed to be confirmed without ever going to confession; still today they’ve never been.

To be honest, most of what I know about my faith came from learning about it when I came back to the church by listening to catholic radio. CCD did pretty much nothing for me.

Are you saying that your sister’s kids never recieved the Sacrament of Reconciliation? So do they recieve The Eucharist?

 

[frommi]

You know, I can see some positive light in this…

The idea that the Catholic church is shrinking might be a misnomer…

Yes, mass attendance is down…but is the number of people who consider themselves “Catholic” really down?

(yes, I know the two go hand in hand, but please bear with me)

If somehow we could reach those folks who still find it important to get ashes on ash Wednesday and attend mass on Easter and Christmas…we might find the church isn’t in as much of a bind as we think.

I do believe that if we cling to “If they don’t go to mass, they aren’t Catholic…forget em” then we’ll have problems.

Not saying we need to compromise…but just suggesting there is a way to make lemonade out of the attendance lemons.

 

[Nordar]

I do believe that if we cling to “If they don’t go to mass, they aren’t Catholic…forget em” then we’ll have problems.

Who clings to that kind of thinking?

Most active Catholics I know ( who atteneded Mass) myself included pray for ALL lapsed Catholics. To just say “forget them” is contradictory to Our faith.

 

[Maureen_Fiore]

The essential part of our Catholic faith is attending mass, because without going to mass you are missing a huge part of what it means to be Catholic.

 

[Nordar]

The essential part of our Catholic faith is attending mass, because without going to mass you are missing a huge part of what it means to be Catholic.

Exactly, but unfortunately it seems that there are many many Catholics who do not know that, and that is very very sad

 

[Dale_M]

Q&A with Archbishop Donald Wuerl

Another [survey] states that 76 percent of Americans believe you can be a good Catholic without going to church on Sunday.

It’s one of the reasons why the number one priority of the Conference of Bishops in the U.S., when we were asked, all of us together, what would you highlight as the number one priority of the church in the United States for the next five years, we said faith formation.

And what does that mean?

Educating people in the faith, faith formation particularly around the sacraments. It means helping people understand better what the faith actually means and how we live it. We come to mass, for example, because we believe in the mass, in the Eucharist. We’re not only hearing the proclamation of the faith, but we’re being changed, transformed by it. Now that’s not an easy concept for our culture to deal with, because it brings us into the whole world of sacraments, of supernatural or spiritual world that you can’t measure in a quantifiable way. There’s a lot of Catholics who don’t understand the faith because of that, and for that reason don’t live it in all the aspects.

newsweek.com/id/132073/page/2

 

[Darnok]

The poll found that Catholics born before 1960 — among the most faithful parishioners — and those born since the 1980s have similar outlooks.

I found this encouraging.

For Catholics who attend Mass at least once a month, an overwhelming majority of the young and older generation believe Christ is present in the Eucharist.

Even more, the younger, regular Mass-goers surpass their elders in observing Lent, with nearly all saying they abstain from meat on Fridays and receive ashes on Ash Wednesday. The young people are also more likely to consider devotion to saints very important to their faith.

This is unusual, however, cool.

However, the study found that only 36 percent of the younger Catholics attend Mass at least once a month, compared with 64 percent of the older generation.

…and the other shoe drops. However, I just wonder if the younger generation will evangelize the others.

 

[thomasf]

Are you saying that your sister’s kids never recieved the Sacrament of Reconciliation? So do they recieve The Eucharist?

Yes that’s exactly what I’m saying. No confession, but they’ve both been confirmed. And yes, when my sister feels like going to mass, the whole family goes, without confession or regard to the state of their souls. And the kids don’t even know they are doing something wrong. And yes I’ve explained this, and my sister refuses to listen.

 

[mdgspencer]

For good reason such polls should be disregarded. They poll anyone who say they are Catholics. Many of those who have fallen away still call themselves Catholics. This is why for example polls of “Catholics” show that many of them believe in abortion. But many haven’t been in church in decades.
This and other such polls reflect a great tragedy of the Church in the United States. Half of those who went to mass in the 1960s have fallen away. I recall lthe 1960 going to churches that were full, in fact crowded. Now the parishes in my town have sparsely filled pews. In fact, the only reason Catholicism hasn’t undergone a serious decline in numbers in recent years is that millions and millions of immigrants are Catholic.
This represents a failure in religious education and other failures others on this thread have rightly spoken about.