Richard McBrien on Disaffected Catholics and "Bad Catholics"

The following is excerpted from Richard McBrien’s latest column in the National Catholic Reporter. (Thanks to my friend Rick for bringing it to my attention.) From my perspective, this particular essay contains statistics and insights that are worth sharing.

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In late February 2008, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a major survey that found that nearly a third of U.S. Catholics have left the [Roman] Catholic church. Some have joined other churches, but most have simply slipped from active membership in the Catholic church to become part of a group once described as “lapsed Catholics.”

This means that about 10 percent of all Americans today are former Catholics. It has been estimated that, if these ex-Catholics were to constitute a denomination unto themselves, they would be the second largest religious body in the United States – after the Catholic church itself.

It should be noted in passing that the major losses suffered by the Catholic church in recent years have been largely offset by the new immigrant population, mostly from Latin America. In addition, over two percent of the population has joined the Catholic church within the same time-period.

But how has the pastoral leadership of the Catholic church responded to this acutely serious problem?

To the extent that the bishops have reacted at all, they seem to believe that disaffected Catholics are simply “bad Catholics,” who cannot accept the morally demanding teachings of their church.

Some bishops convey the impression that the church’s official teachings on contraception, divorce-and-remarriage, homosexuality, the ordination of women, and obligatory celibacy for priests are so clear and compelling that only a person of bad will could possibly disagree with them.

And yet there are many committed, well-educated, still-practicing Catholics, including many priests and religious women, who do disagree with these teachings, in whole or in part.

And how does the church’s pastoral leadership respond to those with questions? In the case of priests, they are ruled ineligible for appointment as diocesan bishops. In the case of nuns, they are subjected to a “visitation” that is a thinly veiled investigation, and the leadership of 95 percent of their communities is subjected to a “doctrinal assessment.”

The Pew study also found that young Catholics, ages 18-29, are much more likely than older Catholics to say that they are not affiliated with any particular religion. If these generational patterns persist, the survey warns, recent declines in the numbers of native-born Catholics and growth in the size of the unaffiliated population are likely to continue.

Whatever the case, the situation calls for bolder and more imaginative pastoral initiatives than have heretofore been proposed or tried.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
What It Means to Be Catholic
The “Underground Church”
The Shrinking Catholic Tent
Hans Küng: “We Are Facing a Structural Problem”
A Smaller, Purer Vision of the Church – and Why It Won’t Work
Of Mustard Seeds and Walled Gardens
“Uncle Vince” is At It Again
The Two-Sided Catholic Crisis
Our Catholic “Stonewall Moment”
A Catholic Understanding of “Faithful Dissent” (Part 1)
A Catholic Understanding of “Faithful Dissent” (Part 2)
To Whom the Future of the Catholic Church Belongs
Beyond Papalism
Rome Falling
Staying On Board
The “Complex Reality” of Catholicism
Tips for Thinking Catholics
A Declaration for Reform and Renewal

Recommended Off-site Links:
Disaffected Catholics: It’s About the Feeling Not the Reasons - Colleen Kochivar (Enlightened Catholicism, January 13, 2010).
“Falling Away” - Mary Lynn Murphy (The Progressive Catholic Voice, January 4, 2009).
Essays in Theology - Brien McBrien’s official website.

In the News

Along with author Brian McNaught and New Ways Ministry director Frank DeBarnardo, I'm quoted in an article in today’s Star Tribune about New Ways Ministry’s upcoming National Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality.

The symposium represents the largest gathering of Catholic theologians, retired bishops, academicians, and nationally renowned pastoral professionals and advocates dedicated to LGBT issues ever assembled in the Twin Cities area. It is the sixth such symposium - and the first ever for the Upper Midwest - that New Ways has hosted every five years in various areas of the US.

As I noted in a previous post, I’m looking forward to co-facilitating a workshop, entitled “Breaking Bread: Gay and Lesbian Parish Ministry,” at the New Ways’ symposium, scheduled to take place next weekend at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel in Minneapolis.

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Conference Seeks Warmer Welcome for Gay Catholics

The archdiocese doesn’t approve, but those attending a weekend
symposium say the church is defined by worshipers,
not Vatican pronouncements.

By Pamela Miller

Star Tribune
March 09, 2007

For Michael Bayly, having a national conference on gay Catholics come to town triggers joy and frustration.

“It’s wonderful, but at the same time, the speakers at the conference will be preaching to the choir,” said Bayly, executive coordinator of the Minneapolis-based Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities. “The challenge is, how do we get this discussion out to the great middle ground?”

The gathering, “Outward Signs: Lesbian/Gay Catholics in a Sacramental Church,” will take place next weekend at the Sheraton Bloomington. More than 500 Catholic “decision-makers” – gay and straight – are expected, said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, the event’s sponsor.

Speakers and workshop facilitators will include Sister Helen Prejean, who wrote Dead Man Walking; the Rev. Richard McBrien, a University of Notre Dame theology professor; Margaret Farley, a Yale University theological ethics professor; author and corporate diversity consultant Brian McNaught; Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, on which the Broadway musical was based, and three retired bishops – Leroy Matthiesen of Amarillo, Texas; Francis Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska, and Joseph Sullivan of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis issued this statement about the conference: “We do not endorse or encourage attendance. . . . Our position on the pastoral care of homosexual persons is completely in accord with that of the teachings and policies of the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

The Twin Cities were chosen for the sixth annual conference because of growing Midwestern interest in the issue and because a number of Minneapolis parishes – including St. Joan of Arc, St. Frances Cabrini and St. Stephen – welcome gay worshipers, DeBernardo said.

“The Catholic church is a hierarchical institution with rules, but the music of the people who identify themselves as Catholic is more powerful in defining the church,” McNaught said.

“I’m not going to tell people trying to live within the rules that they’re wrong,” he said. “But we all know there are gay Catholics hungering for a sense of belonging and community. The question is, will we participate in their liberation or their further imprisonment?”

Bayly said he often wonders if it’s worth it to stay in a church whose central authority and doctrine disapprove of a quality that he and other gay Christians see as central to their humanity.

“Then I remember that the church is so much more than the Vatican; it’s the people of God,” he said. “That heartens me. At the local, grass-roots level, there is so much that can be done to embody the compassion and justice that I think is at the heart of the Catholic faith.”


For more information about New Ways Ministry's Sixth National Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality, click here.