Poll: Why is the Church losing its young people?

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Angela77

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I am intrigued by this question.

Having just finished my freshman year of college, I have seen great faith in so many of my friends from the campus Catholic Center. From my own experience and from seeing others in action, I know how applicable Catholicism is to my generation.

But…25% of the US is Catholic, and 25% of my college does NOT come to Mass every Sunday.

I think that there’s a combination of reasons, but which do you think is the most prominent reason that young people do not actively practice their faith?
 
I think this is too broad of a generalization. Statistically, even if 25% of the US is Catholic, that doesn’t mean that roughly 25% of any sample is Catholic. You could have some regions with a very small population and some with a much higher population.

Personally, I see it flourishing in my generation. If you need proof, look at my college. We’re renovating the Newman Center, and have daily Masses in the FOCUS chapel down the street. Except we have so many people come on Sundays (and HDOs, and Ash Wednesday, and Holy Thursday…) that we need to move those Masses into the union ballroom.

EDIT: And it’s a secular college
 
As a young person I can honestly say that there is a lot of misinformation out there about the Catholic church. I don’t blame this entirely on the media, There are a lot of hypocritical, uninformed, and insensitive Catholics who show the church in a bad light which is not appealing to young people.
 
I would say that it’s largely because young people are catechized far more strongly in the popular culture which is super hedonistic and ego-centered. The pursuit of pleasure and material things can be compelling for a time and will last many people all the way through their college years.

I attend the Campus Catholic Church at one of the state universities, and I think the statistic is that like 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 registered Catholic students is actually attending mass at all. And this is a campus that has at least 4 Focus missionaries on campus, which is an excellent start but still more action is needed. The Faith has to be put on view in some way and made to look attractive and compelling.
 
My Catholic high school treats religion like an “easy” class. It is treated like a small corner of one’s life, not the meaning of it.

If it weren’t for the Internet and CAF I can’t see how I could have grown in my faith through “catechesis” alone.

The culture is overpowering, and unless you have a strong sense of Catholicism you are going to lose much or even all of it.
 
Angela77 said:
I am intrigued by this question.

Having just finished my freshman year of college, I have seen great faith in so many of my friends from the campus Catholic Center. From my own experience and from seeing others in action, I know how applicable Catholicism is to my generation.

But…25% of the US is Catholic, and 25% of my college does NOT come to Mass every Sunday.

I think that there’s a combination of reasons, but which do you think is the most prominent reason that young people do not actively practice their faith?
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Not sure if multiple choice answers were allowed, so I only picked one, but it’s likely a combo of some or all of your choices. But is this even true (on a world wide basis)? Is it maybe a bit of a straw man? I know we hear about the empty churches in the many areas of the U.S. and especially Europe. But a quick glance at anything from World Youth Day or the like gives you the impression that youth are becoming, (or remaining?) quite energized by the Church. I attend a parish in Las Vegas, NV. The most sin laden city in the Western Hemisphere. And our parish is bursting at the seams. The mass I attend is the “youth mass”, (not really a different mass. It’s just the one that the CCD people go to). I’m sure many of them will get way laid temporarily in the college/military years, but I also have faith the a great many of them won’t, as you haven’t, since you yourself are AT mass, noticing that some percentage is missing. I think in the US, the college/military demographic is the one where the most emphasis probably needs to be for the New Evangelization. The Newman centers and chaplains have got a lot on their plates. It’s most vulnerable time of life, even when raised in the faith. It’s the first freedom from the home environment and religious reinforcement by family peer group.
 
Why haven’t you listed disillusionment or disappointment among of your reasons? As a young man, I would say this is a reason for myself and several of my friends who attended Catholic institutions. As an organization, we have seen its failures. And on personal levels, the pain is even more deeply felt.

You also haven’t listed the off-putting attitude modern religious have towards our global culture. You treat our music, our fiction, our tastes, our diverse viewpoints, and even our understanding of business as alien at best and Satanic worst. Oh and the persecution complex? Not cute.

The way I see it, secular culture isn’t what’s destroying the Church. The faithful are doing it themselves with their own, inconsistent attitudes.
 
The Catholic friends that I have left church because they like living in sin and I guess they are influenced by the ways of the world and think they don’t need the church to be saved.

But anyway, as a young person who regularly attends Mass and actually follows the teachings of the church, I hope to be a good example to others. (Even though I’m not that good)
 
Doubt.

The pressure of the modern secular word for them to fit in.
 
DaddyGirl said:
I didn’t vote because I didn’t see on your list the box i would check…

I have talked to many young people who are former/lapsed Catholics, and the reason they tell me they do not follow the faith is because after much studying of the faith, they don’t believe in or agree with the teachings…they don’t find them reasonable, logical.

Also, because their own investigations into religion (Catholic–and others, too) tells them that the scriptural stories and laws are myths created by humans.

This is what many, many tell me when I ask them why they left the faith.

But you do not have a box to check for this.

.
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Yes, this is true, I think. First, the culture at large pulls a person into its way of living and once you start to live that way, it follows that you will start believing what it believes and counting as myth, superstition, and man made rituals what don’t jive with the lifestyle that you’ve adopted which obviously has its perks else people wouldn’t stay where they are. How can people believe in the real presence of the Eucharist if they’re settling for worldly pleasures. Hopefully they will begin to see things for what they are, but many people continue the course- the wrong one- and never turn around.

I think we have some ability to change that obviously through our witness, our prayer, and our actions.
 
I voted for the catholic education in the family. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying parents are more guilty then friends or media, but once the seed is planted, you can go on. By going on I mean both yourself, and with the help of others, because the basis are strong.
And it is very true that when it is done later, the ground may be already very dry.
 
Lost_Wanderer said:
As a lapsed, oh-so-secular black sheep, I actually have to wonder if you’re all doing enough.
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It is true that some could do more. BUT
What do you mean by enough? We try to do our best, when and where we can (and when we can’t we wipe off the dust from our…shoes). There cannot be only Catholics because of our witness, or forced Catholics 😛
 
I checked everyone. :o

If i had to pick one it would be sexual sin. A mind clouded by sin is not going to recognize the logical incoherency of the atheistic worldview in the first place. Of course young atheists will point to “something they read on the internet” or make some vague reference to some fallacious atheistic argument like “If you were born in India you’d be a Hindu!”, or “Jesus is just a re-cap of a pagan deity myth”, or the favorite catchphrase, repeated again and again as if that makes something true “There’s no evidence for God!”. But this is just, IMO, an intellectual guise for the true reason, the death of the life of grace in the soul through sin, which is not intellectually respectable to state publicly.

Of course the only thing to do is to return to boldly preaching the faith and rejecting anything of worldliness that is not tied to or recaptured for Christ.

And becoming saints. 👍

I’m a young person, btw, and statistically speaking I ought be a part of the non-religious crowd.
 
Actually all of those reasons listed.

Maybe boredom should also be listed.

And personally I don’t read into these megachurches either. It wasn’t that long ago Dr. Schuller was drawing in over 2500 people and had a vast TV audience to boot every Sunday. Yes, I’m talking about Crystal Cathedral missions, which recently went bankrupt.

If, where you live, you find seven packed Masses every Sunday, consider yourself lucky. From one pastor in my area, most kids right after their first Communion, never step into a church again.

And the bad habit (of not going to Mass every Sunday) doesn’t just suddenly get reversed either. Poor catechises begets poor catechises.
 
MarcoPG said:
It is true that some could do more. BUT
What do you mean by enough? We try to do our best, when and where we can (and when we can’t we wipe off the dust from our…shoes). There cannot be only Catholics because of our witness, or forced Catholics 😛
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I’m not talking about preaching. You know it’s funny that recently the Pope just ‘excommunicated’ the mafia because I’m about to explain what I mean using The Godfather.

These are the disillusioned CINOs:
Bonasera: The judge sentenced them to three years in prison, and suspended the sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool, and those two bastards, they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, “For justice, we must go to Don Corleone.”
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The Church is the institution that suspended the sentence. Don Corleone represents all the alternatives you’re all now claiming is destroying society/morals/whatever. You think the sex abuse scandals are the only cases that parallel this analogy? No. I’m talking every instance which this religion has failed its believers. That includes everything from its members to its very own principles and ideals.

You’re not going to convert us again by casting pearls that’s true but neither will shaking dust do you any good. Like Bonasera, we ask for justice. Give us that justice if you want so much as our friendship back.

Sadly, the spiritual pride I see on these boards and in other religious authorities always cripples their capacity to compromise.
 
Lost_Wanderer said:
As a lapsed, oh-so-secular black sheep, I actually have to wonder if you’re all doing enough.
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That would be a resounding, No! We are not (yet) doing enough.

But I’m not so sure your fleece is as dark as you let on, I see a few patches of white peeking through that dark coat.

:bigyikes:
 
There are far too many non-practicing Catholic parents. They need to set the Catholic example at home. To simply have their children receive their sacraments (baptism/confirmation) and leave it at that is not enough. I’m sure there are other reasons why young Catholics don’t practice their faith or just abandon it all together.
 
I think I still qualify as a “young person,” being only 26 (turning 27 in less than two weeks.) What I see, being a new convert and having first hand experience with the lost, is that my generation has been told their entire lives that they can do what they want, when they want and there are no repercussions for it. They see organized religion of any kind as hampering their freedom and firmly believe that the joys of this world are the only good to be sought. A way to fix it? Emphasize the otherworldly, emphasize the things that make us different. The more a church (I see this so much in Protestant circles) tries to change to accommodate the culture, ironically, the less relevant it becomes. Exactly what we don’t need is another institution that promotes the world’s culture to line the seats. What we do need is to show an entirely different lifestyle, one that shows how things really are different, how one person’s life can be radically better than gilded but ultimately destructive and hollow life that the world offers. We need to reach into our vast and beautiful history and put on display our saints, even more so we ourselves need to be saints, living examples of holiness. Above all though, we need to show that the love of the world is finite and conditional, but the love of God is infinite and unconditional.
 
mexolic said:
There are far too many non-practicing Catholic parents. They need to set the Catholic example at home. To simply have their children receive their sacraments (baptism/confirmation) and leave it at that is not enough. I’m sure there are other reasons why young Catholics don’t practice their faith or just abandon it all together.
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I vote for this!😉
 
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