Catholic Religious Transmission

 The following article was published in the Church Life Journal, of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, part of the University of Notre Dame:

Religious Transmission: A Solution to the Church's Biggest Problem 

The text below summarizes the article, often directly quoting to give the flavor of the author's comments. The boxes give my analysis and review of the article.

For over fifty years, the General Social Survey has asked a large, representative sample of Americans a battery of questions, including questions about religion. These data reveal a major problem—indeed, arguably the single biggest problem—for the Catholic Church in the United States. In 1973, 84% of all those raised Catholic still identified as Catholic when surveyed as adults. In 2002, that figure was 74%. By 2022, it had dropped to 62%. More and more of those raised Catholic are leaving.

Pew has recently done a fine study of Catholic Identity that I have reviewed in my post:  US Catholicism: The Pew Big Tent  About 20% of adult Americans respond that they are Catholic when asked about their present religion. However, another 9% say “Cultural Catholics” They say “yes” if they consider themselves Catholic in any way (ethnically, culturally, or by family ties) but do not identify Catholici8sm as their religion.  Another 9% of Americans are “Connected to Catholics,” they say “yes” if they have a Catholic parent, spouse or partner or ever attend Catholic Mass. However, they do not identify as Catholics religiously or as Cultural Catholics or as Former Catholics. Finally, another 9% of Americans say that are “Former Catholics” They say they were raised in the Catholic faith but no longer consider Catholicism as their religion nor are they “Culturally Catholic” nor are they are “Connected to Catholics.”   These four mutually exclusive categories of Americans, [Religious Catholics (20%), Cultural Catholics (9%), Connected Catholics (9%), and Former Catholics (9%)] add up to 47% almost half of the U.S. Population. This should profoundly influence how Catholics think about and practice evangelization. These statistics imply that Catholicism has a huge influence upon Americans that is not limited to those who say Catholicism is their religion.  Catholicism in America is a "big tent" religion not simply in theory but in reality., It is a mistake to try to make it into a smaller sectarian religion set apart from America.

Checking the “Catholic” box on a survey is a pretty low bar as a measure of Catholic commitment. Perhaps a more salient question is how many of those raised Catholic still participate in Mass every Sunday. In 1973, about 34% of all those raised Catholic were attending Mass weekly (or more often) when they were surveyed as adults. By 2002, the number had fallen to 20%. By 2022, it had plummeted to 11%. We are losing nine out of ten cradle Catholics.

The Pew Article reviewed in my post above on Big Tent Catholicism also gives  Observances of Those Who Say Catholic is Their Present Religion: Note: this data does not include those who were raised Catholic  but no longer identify as Catholic! Prayer: 50% pray daily but 22% seldom or never pray Mass attendance: 28% attend at least weekly, but 40% seldom or never attend Confession to a priest: 23% at least annually but 47% never, Only 13% of American Catholics do all three of the above observances. However, at the other end of the spectrum only 13% of American Catholics do NOT do all three observances.  The largest share of Catholics (74%) fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum of observance. They may pray. They may attend Mass. They may go to confession. But they don’t regularly do all three (pray daily, attend Mass weekly and go to confession annually). Most time and attention have been given to increasing Mass attendance. That has likely fallen on deaf ears since 40% of Catholic seldom or never attend. However, 50% of Catholics pray daily, almost twice as many as those attend Mass weekly. Many Catholics may have lost interest in our parishes, but they have not lost interest in God!

Blaming Parents for the Decline of Catholicism

Modern life in the United States presents many obstacles to faith, and Catholic parents are, for the most part, failing—failing to effectively hand on a life of faith to their children. Much is known about what parents can do to more successfully hand on the Faith to their children, and we can therefore make some well-informed judgments about what parishes should be doing differently.

Predictors of Successful Religious Transmission

Both parents have the same religious identity. Available data indicates that children of two Catholic parents are more than twice as likely to retain their Catholic identity, as compared to children with a Catholic parent and a non-Catholic parent.

The parents’ marriage is intact. Family break-ups are hard on intergenerational religious transmission. Cradle Catholics with parents who remain married are around 1.67 times as likely to retain their Catholic identity, as compared to cradle Catholics with divorced parents.

The parents live their religion and their religion is important to them. More generally, children pick up the beliefs of their parents more reliably when children see their parents engaged in relevant CREDs, Credibility Enhancing Displays, (behaviors performed by the person making a claim—behaviors which indicate that the person making the claim really does believe it) But the American Church is a “CRED-depleted” church in many ways. Rosaries, pilgrimages, novenas, Eucharistic processions, abstinence from meat on Fridays—such devotions and religious practices, when engaged in by parents, play a powerful role in communicating credibility to children. But these devotions are less widespread than in the past.

Parents talk with their children about religion. It is one thing for parents to practice the faith themselves; it is an additional thing for them to have religious conversations with their children, and doing so has an independent positive effect for religious transmission.

Parents provide both warmth and structure, and children form secure attachments to their parents. Parents who have good relationships with their children pass on their worldview more effectively

Blaming the Kids Themselves

Thus far, we have mentioned factors focused on parents. But of course what kids are doing is crucial too. Individuals are more likely to retain the religion of their childhood and youth when: (and of course if the kids don't do the following things their parents are to be blamed)

As younger teenagers, they considered religious faith important in everyday life.

As young children and younger teenagers, they were religiously active. This means reading Scripture and personal prayer as well as Mass attendance and other forms of engagement with a congregation.

They attended Catholic high school.

They had many faith-supportive peer relationships, especially as they moved into adolescence and young adulthood.