Behind the Catholic flight from pews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Early in Father William Byron's research into why millions of Americans are leaving Catholic pews, he heard about one woman's tense encounter with a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/04\/behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the Catholic flight from pews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Early in Father William Byron's research into why millions of Americans are leaving Catholic pews, he heard about one woman's tense encounter with a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/04\/behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-09T10:56:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/04\/behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/04\/behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews\/\",\"name\":\"Behind the Catholic flight from pews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-09T10:56:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-09T10:56:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"Early in Father William Byron's research into why millions of Americans are leaving Catholic pews, he heard about one woman's tense encounter with a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/04\/behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/04\/behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/04\/behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Behind the Catholic flight from pews\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":2518,"date":"2012-04-09T06:56:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T10:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2012-04-09T06:56:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T10:56:36","slug":"behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/04\/behind-the-catholic-flight-from-pews\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Catholic flight from pews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The woman wanted to tell a priest about her feelings that she had lost \u201cthe Catholic church I grew up with.\u201d However, she wasn\u2019t sure she wanted to share the details with the woman who answered the parish telephone \u2014 who kept pushing for specifics.<\/p>\n

The petitioner finally said, \u201cI\u2019d rather not discuss that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The receptionist responded: \u201cWell look, when you figure out what your problem is, call us back and we\u2019ll give you an appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audience groaned during a recent Catholic University of America forum to discuss findings from the \u201cEmpty Pews\u201d study conducted in the Diocese of Trenton, N.J.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not making this stuff up,\u201d stressed Byron, a Jesuit who teaches business at St. Joseph\u2019s University in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The Trenton study, he explained, grew out of his contacts with a corporate leader who, as a Catholic layman, thought it would be constructive for priests and bishops to start doing \u201cexit interviews\u201d<\/a> with former Catholics. Someone, Byron said, needed to ask why Catholics drop out or take their spiritual business elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The numbers are hard to avoid. A 2009 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life<\/a> found that one-in-10 American adults are former Catholics, with four exiting for every one that converts into the church. Meanwhile, weekly Mass attendance has fallen from 75 percent or higher in the 1950s to about 25 percent today.<\/p>\n

Researchers know that roughly 70 percent of Catholics who leave simply drift away, while others follow their convictions into liberal mainline Protestantism or into various evangelical flocks. The goal in the Trenton study was to find \u2014 through advertisements in secular and church media \u2014 former Catholics who would volunteer to answer a detailed \u201cexit interview\u201d survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese folks didn\u2019t drift away. They gave us reasons why they left,\u201d said researcher Charles Zech of Villanova University\u2019s Center for the Study of Church Management, which conducted the study.<\/p>\n

The result was what Zech and Byron called a non-random \u201cconvenience survey\u201d built on 298 usable surveys collected from Catholics who said they had left their local parishes, the Catholic faith or both. The typical respondent was a 53-year-old woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very critical demography for the church,\u201d said Zech. \u201cIf we are losing 53-year-old women, we are at risk of losing their children and their grandchildren. I think that it makes a lot of sense to listen to what they have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one was surprised, said Byron, that many of ex-Catholics \u2014 when asked to cite church doctrines that troubled them \u2014 complained about issues such as birth control, celibacy for priests, \u201cconservative haranguing\u201d about homosexuality and the ban on female priests. Several respondents said they had separated themselves from \u201cthe hierarchy,\u201d but not the church.<\/p>\n

Some complaints were harder to label, said Byron. Many complained that the church had hidden clergy who were guilty of sexually abusing young children and teen-agers. Some wanted to see local bishops make public apologies. Others said they wished they had a chance to personally tell their bishop to \u201cgo to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others simply complained about lousy music, inadequate youth programs, shallow Christian education classes, rude receptionists and frequent pulpit appeals for money. Some respondents said they wanted to find churches with better preaching and more enthusiastic worship services.<\/p>\n

The researchers were surprised that just as many participants praised their priests as complained about them. Nevertheless, any bishop would flinch when reading the words of an ex-Catholic who was convinced that the local priest had \u201ccrowned himself king and looks down on all.\u201d Another simply requested that the diocese \u201cgive us an outwardly loving, kind, Christian Catholic pastor.\u201d <\/p>\n

The research team hopes, in the near future, to be invited to so similar \u201cexit interview\u201d work in other dioceses. Two bishops have already submitted requests.<\/p>\n

It will be tempting for priests and bishops to glance at these results and simply said, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing new here,\u201d said Byron.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot that\u2019s new here and there\u2019s a lot that should be paid attention to. You can\u2019t let what is an internal denial crop up and say, \u2018We\u2019ve already heard it.\u2019 You\u2019ve got to listen. You\u2019ve got to respect it.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"