Why Americans Stay in the Church

“American Catholics increasingly see life as a gift of God and themselves as sons and daughters of God. That provides them with a perspective that is optimistic and hopeful in the face of their daily joys and disappointments.”

Despite relentlessly negative publicity over the past few years, American Catholics have continued to support their Church through their physical presence at church services and through their financial support. Why is this so?

The simple and obvious answer is that they consider benefits from the Church to outweigh its negative features. What are these benefits?

American Catholics might have difficulty articulating their reasons for remaining Catholics, but it seems to this writer that some of the reforms initiated during the Second Vatican Council are working wonderfully well. For example, American Catholics begin each week with participation in the celebration of the Eucharist actively and in large numbers. In doing so, they believe they are truly relating to God in an authentic and meaningful manner. They, thereby, fulfill the basic purpose of religion in a satisfying way.

As Christians Catholics relate to God in and through Jesus Christ, who is a vital and continuing presence in their lives. And, as Catholics they relate to Jesus Christ through the aid of several church resources, including the Sacred Scriptures, the Creeds, the Sacraments and the their involvements in the community of his disciples, principally on the parish level. Thanks to the reforms initiated by the Second Vatican Council they are able to make use of these resources in ever more effective ways to identify with Jesus, the Christ,  adopting his perspective on life, his Way of Life and his ‘mission’ in life.

That is, American Catholics increasingly see life as a gift of God and themselves as sons and daughters of God. That provides them with a perspective that is optimistic and hopeful in the face of their daily joys and disappointments.  They understand that Jesus’ Way of Life” revolves around virtues like humility, gratitude, trust, forgiveness, detachment and compassion, and they try to make this Way of Life their way of life. Furthermore, they believe that Jesus presence in this world signaled the presence of God’s Kingdom in this world, a Kingdom of unambiguous love for every individual person, and a Kingdom that is under constant attack from the powerful negative forces within and around each person. They understand that their goal in life is to work for the advance of this Kingdom, above and beyond all else.

The faith of American Catholics is fundamentally oriented in and around Jesus. That faith is distinctive in the helps it offers individuals to think like Jesus, to act like Jesus and to work for the same basic goal Jesus espoused. Among these helps are the Sacred Scriptures, the Creeds, the Sacraments and the church organization, principally the parish. American Catholics are a community of people of the Book, a community of people that is Creedal, a community of people that is Sacramental, and a community of people organized locally and internationally.

American Catholics are increasingly a people of the Book. The Sacred Scriptures now play a larger part in the life of the individual Catholic as well as in the life of the total community. Although the Second Vatican Council did not initiate this development, perhaps Pope Pius XII can be credited with that through his encyclical “Divino Afflante Spiritu” in 1943, the council did contribute mightily to it. While the individual Catholic might not yet be as conversant with the Bible as is the individual Protestant Christian,  the Scriptures are increasingly important to his religious life. That is due, in large measure, to homilies given during the celebration of the Sunday liturgy that stem from the Sacred Scriptures, which now form an indispensable part of the Mass.

American Catholics are a Creedal People. The Roman Catholic Church takes great pains to articulate its beliefs in precise words and to encourage its members to recite and understand these beliefs. So much is this the case that American Catholics are surprised to learn that other communities of belief, Christian and otherwise, are not nearly so concerned with doctrinal matters. They concern themselves almost exclusively with moral issues, with correct behavior. Catholics are concerned both with doctrine and with morals. At most Sunday liturgies, the entire congregation professes its faith through the recitation of the Nicene Creed.

Most notably, American Catholics are a Sacramental People. Since the Second Vatican Council the community has made great and largely successful efforts to reform and renew the Sacraments of the Church. For example, the differences in the way Catholics participate in the Sunday liturgies today, as compared to before the council, are immense. While this is true of the celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, it is also true of the celebration of other sacraments, including Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders. The Sacraments of Reconciliation (Penance) and of The Sick (the last rites) have yet, in this writer’s estimation, to be similarly reformed and renewed. – a work that is urgent. Through the celebration of the Sacraments, weekly and at key moments in life, the individual’s identification as a disciple of Jesus Christ is forcefully impressed.

The reform movement within the Church stimulated by the Second Vatican Council has had its most impressive impact on the life of the community at the parish level. Again, in this place, the changes in a relatively short period of time are incredibly wonderful. Lay people are becoming the key players in the parish. That is true in their capacity as members and as leaders. Parishioners are now better served than ever thanks to the growing number of full and part-time lay staff people, and despite the dwindling number of priests and women religious parishes now can be and often are true centers of spiritual activity for all age groups. It is on the parish level that the reform and renewal efforts of the Church are often taking place.

In summary, signs of hope are to be found in the formal faith life of the community. And, that faith life is what is of lasting importance in the Church. In future issues, we will publish examples that illustrate this point.