CrossCurrents A Catholic
Reflects on Faith in Our Times
Bernard F. Swain, Ph.D. www.CrossCurrents.us
Lessons from the
Ex-Catholics Among us
The man who is remodeling my bathroom
used to be a Catholic—but not any more.
He was born in the Dominican Republic,
came here with some members of his family fourteen years ago, and has settled
into his life as a contractor. His mother (who dropped by the other day to see
his handiwork) remains a Catholic, but his children are not.
I learned the manÕs story the day we went
to pick up supplies and I noticed, on his truck, the decal of a lionÕs head
with the words ÒCongregacion de Leon de JudaÓ—the name of one of the many
growing evangelical movements in our area.
The manÕs apprentice is a twenty-year-old
from Guatemala. He too has a Catholic mother, but his father was agnostic and
the family rule was that he could either copy his mother or be ÒnothingÓ
–so he remained religiously ÒnothingÓ until he came to the US, where he too
joined an evangelical church and now says that he is doing this work because God
brought him here.
These two men represent a whole population
of Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking people who are
leaving the Catholic Church for another faith. Their experience is a warning to
Catholic leaders, and a lesson to us all.
Last summer I hosted three French priests
visiting Boston and New York. One morning I guided them down a one-mile stretch
of Washington Street in BostonÕs Dorchester district. In that one mile, they counted 24 storefront churches.
Like most Europeans, they were stunned by
the spontaneous vitality of AmericaÕs religious culture. They had already
noticed that most American towns, even small towns, boast several churches
(whereas the typical French village has a single parish in the village's
center). So it was obvious to them that these storefront churches take their
membership, not from some vast atheistic or religiously indifferent mass of
Americans, but from the membership of other religious communities –
mostly Christian communities.
But still they were shocked to see how
many of the storefront signs were in French or Spanish or Portuguese (or some
Creole variation). They knew, as well as I, that people speaking those
languages had arrived from overwhelmingly Catholic cultures. So the signs alone were enough to tell
us that these new, homespun, almost primitive churches were building their
congregations from the membership of local Catholic parishes!
In other words, the story of my contractor
is not really unique – or even all that rare. The fact is, my
neighborhood is filling up with brand new churches, and many of them are full
of Ex-Catholics.
The phenomenon of unhappy Catholics
finding a spiritual home elsewhere is hardly new. Protestantism, after all, roots
its entire history in the decision by millions of Catholics to form new
churches where, they believed, they could better practice the Christian faith.
And that belief survives today.
For twelve years I served on the faculty
of the School for Deacons of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. One day I
asked the candidates about their religious backgrounds. Of the 22 candidates,
only six had grown up in families with two Episcopalian parents. The majority
of them had grown up with at least one Catholic parent, and 12 of the 22 had
been brought up as Catholics! Within three years, all were ordained clergy of
the Episcopal Church.
Occasionally I have also worked with
members of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and there too I have found
large numbers of ex-Catholics. And among sects, the Reverend Sun Myung MoonÕs Unification
Church has made most of its strides in the U.S. among Christians, and according
to some statistics nearly 30% of these are former Catholics.
During the Cold War, the large numbers of
defectors from Communist countries to the Òfree worldÓ were generally regarded
as an index of what was wrong with Communism. If there are large numbers of
defectors from the Catholic Church to other churches, does that signal
something wrong with Catholicism?
Perhaps my contractorÕs story can help
clarify the matter. At first, he simply said that he joined his new church
because Òbeing a Catholic was too easyÓ! But once he gave details, his
experience came into sharper focus.
He first went to his new church, he tells
me, simply because he was invited by a friend who thought he might enjoy the
experience. That first visit
proved decisive, for he suddenly found himself listening to a preacher unlike
any he had heard before.
ÒIt was just like he was speaking directly
to me,Ó he says. ÒI never met the man; he had never seen me before. But it was
as if he knew everything about my life.
Suddenly, as he spoke, I felt naked, exposed. All my life was before me,
and I knew I had to decide what kind of life it would be.Ó
After that first encounter, this man
decided that he needed to take responsibility for the direction of his life. He
joined this church, reformed some of his excesses (he now drinks wine and beer,
but never gets drunk). The change presumably shows in his personal life, and it
certainly shows in his professional life. Working with him, I found him a man
of great integrity, always accessible and dependable, but most of all always
concerned to provide quality service and honest dealings with his customers. At
one point, when I discovered a small math error in a contract, he adjusted it in
my favor with no quarrel and with a clear desire to treat me fairly.
As for his former Church, this man
explains that his mother will remain with her Catholic parish since she has
been an active member since her arrival in this country, and he respects her
decision. But he still finds Catholic
life puzzling. ÒDo people even bring Bibles to the service?Ó he asks, and
explains that during services and sermons he must have his own copy to work
over the passage as the preacher speaks.
For me, his question clarifies what he meant by his initial Òtoo
easyÓ remark: he finds Catholic membership too passive, with too many Catholics
merely going through the motions, not giving much thought to their faith, their
life, or the connection between the two.
This does not surprise me. After 35 years
working in Catholic parishes, I am only too aware just how deep rooted is the
tradition of regarding parishioners as the children of the Church, and priests
as the only adults. The result: all the responsibility is loaded on a shrinking
number of clergy, and the typical member treats the parish as the ATM of their
spiritual lives, looking for convenience and service but unready to accept
responsibility or make any personal investment.
Many Catholic leaders in fact are
reluctant to ask for such responsibility or investment, fearing that people
will back away. But the truth may
be just the opposite: the failure to treat Catholics as adults, to give them a
share of responsibility, to expect that they invest personally in the life of
the Church and the life of their faith – these may be the real reasons we
are losing our members to other churches.
Notice the easy lessons in my contractor's
story: 1. He only went because he was invited. 2. He only stayed because he
felt spoken to personally. 3. The ÒnakednessÓ he felt came from connecting the
faith of the Church with his own unique experience of life. 4. That connection
immediately spilled over, beyond the church walls and beyond the confines of
Sunday morning, to pervade the rest of his life and transform it. 5. From that
point on, he knew he must take responsibility for remaking his life according
to GodÕs will for him.
Is there anything here that is alien to
the Catholic faith? I think not.
The dynamics of faith that this man experience are exactly what we as Catholics
preach and profess to believe. The challenge is: how well do we practice it?
© Bernard F. Swain PhD 2006
Send Your Comments and Questions to bfswain@juno.com
Dr. SwainÕs
opinions do not represent the views of this parish or any other official body.
Bernie Swain has
devoted more than 30 years to adult spiritual formation in dioceses in the US,
Canada, and France. Since 1991 he has maintained a private practice as trainer,
teacher, and consultant to leaders in parishes and other religious
organizations. He holds degrees in theology and political science from Holy
Cross, Harvard, The University of Paris, and The University of Chicago.
His writings include Liberating
Leadership (Harper & Row,
1986) and more than 200 articles in periodicals such as The National Catholic
Reporter, Commonweal, The Miami Herald, The Catholic Free Press, The Pilot,
Harvard Theological Review, and
Liturgy.
A lifelong layperson,
he lives in Boston with his wife and three children. Visit his website at:
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