Why do Catholic leave the Church?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shakuhachi
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Shakuhachi

Guest
I just had a conversation with a man who was raised Catholic but no longer considers himself 'practicing"? I asked why and he talked about the sex abuse scandals. So Ialso Googled.

"When asked to say whether or not each of a number of specific items was a reason for leaving Catholicism, most former Catholics say they gradually drifted away from Catholicism.
Nearly three-quarters of former Catholics who are now unaffiliated (71%) say this,
as do more than half of those who have left Catholicism for Protestantism (54%).

"Majorities of former Catholics who are now unaffiliated also cite
having stopped believing in Catholicism’s teachings overall (65%)
or dissatisfaction with Catholic teachings about abortion and homosexuality (56%),
and almost half (48%) cite dissatisfaction with church teachings about birth control,
as reasons for leaving Catholicism. These reasons are cited less commonly by former Catholics who have become Protestant; 50% say they
stopped believing in Catholicism’s teachings, 23%
say they differed with the Catholic Church on issues such as abortion and homosexuality, and only 16% say they were unhappy with Catholic teachings on birth control.

 
Last edited:
A lot of the reason people leave is due to parish politics.

And, the fact that when enthusiastic newcomers wish to participate, they are often snubbed by the old-timers who want to do everything and hog all the projects and activities, and shut out anyone who isn’t in their little “clique”. I’ve seen it, experienced it, in my own parish.

It stems from a sense of not feeling welcome. Community and fellowship are important.
 
Last edited:

WHY are They Leaving?​

  • PRRI Survey (2016) – percentage of “nones” who said reason(s) below was an important reason they left religion
    • 60% – I stopped believing in the religion’s teachings
    • 32% – My family was never that religious growing up
    • 29% – Negative religious teachings about or treatment of gay and lesbian people
      • 40% for women, 20% for men
      • 39% for Millennials, 12% for seniors
      • 39% raised Catholic, 29% raised anything else
    • 19% – Clergy sex-abuse scandal
      • Interestingly, this was 26% for women and 13% for men
    • 18% – Traumatic event in my life
    • 16% – My church or congregation became too focused on politics.
  • Pew Survey – “Faith in Flux” (2009) – percentage of former Catholics who said reason(s) below played a role in their departure
    • 71% – Just gradually drifted away from the religion
    • 65% – Stopped believing in the religion’s teachings
    • 43% – Spiritual needs not being met
    • 29% – Unhappy with teachings about the Bible
    • 26% – Dissatisfaction with atmosphere at worship services
    • 18% – Dissatisfaction with clergy at congregation
    • 10% – Found a religion they liked more
  • Diocese of Springfield Exit Surveys (2014) – percentage of former Catholics who said reason(s) below played a role in their departure
    • 68% – Spiritual needs not met
    • 67% – Lost interest over time
    • 56% – Too many money requests
    • 48% – No longer believe
    • 47% – Dissatisfaction with atmosphere
    • 38% – Too ritualistic
    • 36% – Too formal
    • 36% – Music not enjoyable

Other Stats​

  • 66% of “nones” agree that “religion causes more problems than it solves”
 
I think for me, if I ever left, it would be because the Church lost credibility with how it handled sex abuse. If it cant get that right how could we trust it on anything? And yet I still do look to it for guidance. I guess there is a difference between what is taught and what is practiced.
 
Shakuhachi said:
…

"Majorities of former Catholics who are now unaffiliated also cite
having stopped believing in Catholicism’s teachings overall (65%) …
Click to expand...
People falling away are not willing to assent to dogmas and doctrines and then it progresses to no longer receiving the sacraments.

Catechism of the Catholic Church
2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. …
Click to expand...
It can be that baptism is not fruitful so that sanctifying grace is not obtained or retained, for a person must repent.
 
You also have to consider that we aren’t living in a vacuum.

It’s a pretty common phenomenon that when a society or culture is growing, they have to work hard and they realize they can’t do it alone, and that success is not guaranteed.
A lot of the values that religion teaches also contribute to secular success.

But at a certain level of prosperity and success, people take their riches for granted, and think they either “deserve” their comforts or did it all themselves.
This is around the time that atheism gains traction and the society goes into decline.
 
I find something unsatisfactory in Pew’s approach to this question. At least in the way it is presented here, the survey doesn’t draw a clear enough distinction between Catholics who remain Christians but have joined other churches, and Catholics who have simply lost their faith in God or in religion itself.

In the case of the first group, Catholics who have become Protestants or Orthodox, it would be important to show the broader picture of worshipers moving from one church to another, including, for example, Protestants who have become Orthodox, Orthodox who have become Catholics, and Protestants who have become Catholics.

Similarly, in the case of the general drift away from religion into irreligion, how does the impact of that trend on the Catholic Church compare with the impact on other churches?
 
And I wonder ow many went to Catholic schools, got a Catholic education.
 
It seems the most predominant reason is no longer believing…in the religion or in specific parts of the religion.

How on earth can anyone fix that?
 
Pattylt said:
It seems the most predominant reason is no longer believing…in the religion or in specific parts of the religion.
Click to expand...
Yes, that struck me, too.
I wish it wasn’t so general a statement.
I mean, is it that they don’t believe in any form of God? Or the Judeo-Christian belief? What teaching do they object to? We’re they raised as Young Earth Creationsist and then got disillusioned?
 
the family members of mine that left were all to get remarried after divorce. apparently they couldn’t get an annulment.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
I mean, is it that they don’t believe in any form of God? Or the Judeo-Christian belief? What teaching do they object to? We’re they raised as Young Earth Creationsist and then got disillusioned?
Click to expand...
It’s probably all those things and more. I know a lot of atheist/agnostics so for these people it was a loss in belief in God. I also know some “Nones” that still believe in some type of God and just think all religions are control mechanisms and not Truth in themselves. I will say that when a fundamentalist leaves their faith, they often tend to eventually go all the way to atheism. They feel very lied to by their fundamentalist faith. They usually progress to a more liberal church then leave it all behind…feeling that none of them really knows what their talking about. LGBT’s leave due to their treatment and the teachings that they just can’t accept. Too many faiths try to tell them why they are LGBT and it never seems to align with their own lived experiences.

I’m not sure what part of societal change also caused the loss of faith or continuing membership with churches. I do know the young’s are leaving in even greater numbers. They just don’t believe the message. They aren’t necessarily opposed to Christianity and actually agree with many of Jesus’s ideals, they just don’t acceptHim as God and risen from the dead…too much logic and science? Beats me…we’ve been Enlightened for about 200 years now and it’s only recently that this has become a problem. Most were raised in a faith. Now, we are starting to see the next generations of non faith raised children and even though I would think they would be a good target for evangelization, but they don’t seem to accept it, either. We may very well have a generation of kids in 30 more years that don’t even know the gospels at all…will they listen? Will they accept it in any large numbers? Again, beats me!
 
Shakuhachi said:
I think for me, if I ever left, it would be because the Church lost credibility with how it handled sex abuse. If it cant get that right how could we trust it on anything? And yet I still do look to it for guidance. I guess there is a difference between what is taught and what is practiced.
Click to expand...
I look at it this way: if they had invented our faith, then it would certainly cast doubt on our faith–I certainly don’t trust many clergy these days when it comes to things resting on human wisdom. But they did not invent the Catholic faith–it precedes them, it will last after them, and they will be judged by it. The Catholic Church, which is by its nature a visible, organized society, is all of us, not just the clergy, and especially not just the bad clergy of recent decades. It is our community which Christ gave us for our salvation and which He endowed with what we need to save our souls. Just because this society also has criminals and evil people does not mean we should abandon what is rightfully ours–in fact, it should motivate us to be on guard even more that they’re bad example doesn’t deprive us of that treasure.

I think this is also why Jesus told us “many are called, but few are chosen”–not to scare us, but to reassure us when it looks like the wicked are abounding more than the good even in the Church. He said they might, but regardless, the way of salvation remains the same.
 
Last edited:
I’m a Catholic who married into an Evangelical family.

I wonder if a lot of Catholics leave the Church because it’s just not fun to be Catholic.

To so many, attending Mass is a chore. Evangelical services are fun rock concerts. People leave feeling energized.

Western society seems to place little to no emphasis on holiness and sacrifice anymore. You have to want to go to Mass. Mass is more than just a fun experience. It’s a personal commitment to Christ. It’s a devotion and a commitment to personal holiness. Many of my in-laws believe the Catholic Church just makes up a bunch of rules.

They don’t see the personal relationship with Christ that we experience. They don’t see the personal devotion to Christ in the Eucharist or how we experience solemn humility in the Sacrament of Penance.

Catholicism is a living breathing testimony to Christ’s humanity and to his divinity. Somehow, our schools and churches don’t teach this anymore. Instead, too many people view the Church as an ancient, out-of-touch, and monolithic institution

It’s even more depressing that our church is being pulled into the political maelstrom. Nothing good will come of this. It will only serve to divide our church even more.

The Catholic Church used to be the lifeblood for so many communities. Now, the internet, streaming services, and social media occupy our time.

I really think people are starving for God. Recently, the Church and a lot of Catholics just haven’t done a very good job of living Christ’s values.

Everyone is so tired of our pretend reality. We’re starving for the real deal. The Church has been wobbling for a while now. It’s time to find its balance in the 21st century.
 
I just thought of another societal change that happened in the late 60’s and 70’s. Whether it’s a large or small change, I don’t know but society had always been comfortable with authoritarianism. Between Vietnam, Nixon’s presidency and the discovery of how much we were being lied to, that generation began to question authorities. They learned that distrust in what you’re told is the smart thing to do. So, they spread their distrust of authorities beyond government and included teachers, parents, preachers and priests. They learned they weren’t always being lied to but that distrust was warranted often enough!

This led to my generation being the first to really ask tough question and seek justification for actions taken. Bush and his WMD’s just continued to mount evidence. Cigarette companies faking studies? Priest scandals and the coverups? More reasons. If you no longer trust authority figures, who can you trust? We became a much more skeptical society with very few able to live up to scrutiny!

How do we regain trust in the authorities in our lives these days? Should we?
 
Pattylt said:
Beats me…we’ve been Enlightened for about 200 years now and it’s only recently that this has become a problem.
Click to expand...
My theory is that it’s connected to where we are in the cycle of civilization.

The enlightenment happened just before the American Revolution, and then we had the Great Awakening alongside the Scientific and Industiral revolutions.
So you had Religion and Technology working side by side, lots of prosperity, but also a lot of hard work .

As life got easier and more prosperous, it became easier for people to imagine that mankind did it all by themselves, plus, the boring values of delayed gratification seems too hard when everything else around you is instant.

Western Civilization is simply in decline. I don’t think it’s coming back. And the decay will increase.

Will society figure it out again?
Like you said “beats me”!🙂
 
But what does that have to do with Church dogma? That hasn’t changed much, and if you are here now, how does the abuse change what you believe? The Church is not the abusers or the people that handled it. The Church is what we believe. The Holy Eucharist, the sacraments. The abuse does not change those things.

I think the statistics are very telling. Highest percentages are that they no longer believe what the Church teaches. Why that happened is the real question.
 
Last edited:
I think that plays a big part in it. And once they see other people doing it, they follow like sheep.
 
I don’t think the options in the poll are very good. I think the people who answered are just picking which one suits them best.

Most people that I know who don’t practice Catholicism anymore still believe in God or their own concept of God. They don’t go back to the Church because for them there is no reason to go to the Church. Many seem to be dissatisfied with the structure of the Church (Bishops covering up).

Pretty much everyone I know who left did so for the same reason that the prodigal son left.
 
Last edited:
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
You also have to consider that we aren’t living in a vacuum.

It’s a pretty common phenomenon that when a society or culture is growing, they have to work hard and they realize they can’t do it alone, and that success is not guaranteed.
A lot of the values that religion teaches also contribute to secular success.

But at a certain level of prosperity and success, people take their riches for granted, and think they either “deserve” their comforts or did it all themselves.
This is around the time that atheism gains traction and the society goes into decline.
Click to expand...
Like our society is going, today. “To hell in a hand basket”.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top