Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, and many other religious groups make up segments of our American population. Then, of course , we have the “Nones.” These are the people who answer surveys of religious affiliation by checking the box next to the word “None.” The last group is unaffiliated with any formal religious organization and these unaffiliated people are unlikely to ever join an organized religion.
I remember starting a group in a parish where I served and asked them to make phone calls to those who were in my non-active file. (I should mention that I had an active members file, a non-active file and a “prospect” file.) The active file was list of current parish members, the people who come to Mass on Sundays regularly. The prospects were people that I or other members of he church needed to contact to see if they would like to join us. But, back to the non-active file. We used to call them “the fallen-aways.” These people once identified with the Catholic Church.
When we began contacting the inactives by phone to tell them that we missed seeing them in church, often the answer went something like: “It didn’t seem to make a difference to anyone at church whether we attended or not so we just lost interest.” Or: “We just couldn’t find an incentive to attend.” These last individuals are saying they reached a stage in their lives where they felt that they didn’t need Him. Inactives generally do not reject the church but just have lost interest in it. Often, these people say something like “Hey, I do believe in God, just don’t want to go to church these days.”
A recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute asked fallen-a-ways why they no longer went to church or identified with their childhood religion.
Sixty percent said that they had simply stopped believing in their childhood religion. Negative religious teaching about the LGBTQ group was not much of an issue nor was the clergy sex abuse scandal. There was no sudden break with their religions. It was simply that religion was no longer important to their lives, though many said they still believed in some kind of God.
I was stunned when a diocesan official brought up matter-of-factly that those who have left the church, have left for good: They are not coming back. Ever.
Our bishop wants us to face this issue and do something about it. However, I don’t think another program or diocesan rally on evangelization is the answer. We have too many programs already trying to solve every problem in religion. What we must do is what Jesus sent the apostles to do: preach repentance, cure the sick and cast out evil spirits, not offer another diocesan plan. What we need are Catholics who bear witness to Christ by the love they radiate in the world. I think it was St. Augustine who said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Too many Christians appear to be half-alive.
I remember hearing an interview years ago –maybe, it was on NPR– where the interviewer said that in the Catholic religion there are not many miracles these days. The respondent, a native-American medicine-man said: “What kind of religion is it that doesn’t heal anybody?”
Although they are losing members as fast as the Catholic Church, our protestant brethren, especially the evangelistic churches, know how to lead others to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We could start a renewal by approaching Catholic fallen-a-ways and offering them personal salvation in Jesus Christ. We should testify, give witness to what Our Lord has done in our own lives through our church. Wouldn’t that be a fresh an exciting thing to do?