"HOW TO REACH INACTIVE CATHOLICS"
A PASTORAL STATEMENT BY BISHOP MICHAEL A. SALTARELLI
DIOCESE OF WILMINGTON
JANUARY 27, 2000 EDITION OF ORIGINS

The most numerous body of Christian believers in America today is the Roman Catholic Church -- numbering some 45,000,000 believers. Recent research shows that the second largest body, some 17,000,000, consists of those Catholics who no longer practice their faith. These are our sons and daughters, our spouses, our extended families, our neighbors and friends, the woman or man who works in the desk across from us -- each of them a brother or sister in Christ.

During this year of Jubilee, we have been invited to seek a deeper level of personal conversion in our own lives. At the same time, we recall our obligation to be signs of hope and gentle invitation to our inactive brothers and sisters.

Like many of you, I and my brother Bishops, the Shepherds of the Church in America, have wondered why Catholics become inactive. Recently the U.S. Bishops' Evangelization Committee conducted research to find an answer to this question. I would like to share with you the results of this research, that is, the reasons that have been given. Based on this information I would also like to suggest ways that you and I together might address the situation. My hope is to stimulate your own concern and creativity, and to persuade you to approach your friends who are not practicing their faith. Like St.Peter near the gate of the Temple we might learn to say, "What I do have I give you...Jesus Christ." (Acts 3:6)

Avery Dulles writes: "The Church has become too introverted. If Catholics today are sometimes weak in their faith, this is partly because of their reluctance to share it."1 Each of us needs to discern with the light and fire of the Holy Spirit how we are to share our faith. Our faith inevitably grows and deepens when we do share it.

The U.S. Bishops' Evangelization Committee diagnosed in their research reasons why Catholics become inactive. I have selected nine of the reasons (in bold print). I then reflect on how the Church can respond.

Reason 1 (Why Catholics become inactive): "Some did not experience the power or presence of God in Catholicism or in the Catholic community of which they were a part."
People are hungry and thirsty for signs of intimacy with Jesus Christ. They want to see evidence that people know and love Jesus Christ personally. They want to see a Catholic faith that reaches every part of a person's being and that is manifested in one's words, actions, manner, smile and friendships.

Avery Dulles issues this challenge: "Too many Catholics of our day seem never to have encountered Christ. They know a certain amount about him from the teaching of the Church, but they lack direct personal familiarity. The hearing of the gospel, personal prayer, and the reception of the sacraments should establish and deepen that saving relationship."2

Each year time itself is made holy by our celebration of the liturgical year, that rhythm of prayers, feasts, and celebrations that make present to us on a continuing basis the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior. Each year we are invited to enter into the spirit of these moments to experience on an ever deepening level the significance of the saving actions of Jesus Christ for us personally. Perhaps in the past year we have experienced the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, or a broken relationship. These experiences change us in subtle ways and open us to a new awareness of the ways in which the experience of Jesus can give new meaning to our own. Our experiences are the soil in which our Christianity, watered by faith, grows. But Catholic faith that only goes through the motions year after year does not grow. This lack of growth is obvious. It often reveals a faith that has not been fully internalized. Our lives need to reflect the love of Jesus growing in us. Our lives need to raise "irresistible questions"3 in the hearts and minds of those who are searching for the way home to Catholic truth and authenticity.

Fundamental to our faith is the reality that Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today and forever." He is the mystery that invites us to Eucharistic faith. He is the one who awaits us in our neighbor, the Sacraments and the poor. He is the Redeemer who has made His Church the sign of God's universal love and welcoming.
 

Reason 2: "Some did not experience warm, personal caring relationships in their encounters with Catholics. To them the people seemed cold, the services boring."
The primary point of contact between God and ourselves, and between ourselves and our neighbors in faith is when we gather for the celebration of the Eucharist. Yet our Eucharistic celebrations follow a certain pattern. There is an order to our worship that brings familiarity but can also produce the deadening effects of routine. We know the importance of order and routine in everyday life. They are necessary to a good, productive life. And we have all experienced using the same words or phrases over and over even in our most intimate relationships. How often have we spoken or heard an "I love you" or a "Thank you" in conversation with a spouse or a child. Yet, at times, we recognize that we or they are merely going through the motions, that the words are being used from habit.4

The same may become true of our participation in worship. Each of us has to take seriously our baptismal commitment to participate fully, actively and consciously in our Catholic liturgies with attentive minds and hearts. Our authentic participation in the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, and our traditional Catholic devotions will extend to our attitude as a community that lives the faith it celebrates. Our public worship nourishes our private prayer; our private prayer leads us back to Christ who always leads us to our brothers and sisters. We need to reach out to new parishioners, visitors and those who are taking another look at the Church.

Paulist Father John Hurley recently said: "Many drop away with the hope that someone will notice, and with large congregations in many parishes, often no one does. Would you want to join a church that doesn't care when you fall away?"5

We need to ensure that our local parishes are welcoming communities for all of God's people. Our communal worship must lead to apostolic works of mercy and love, especially on behalf of the marginalized.

Reason 3: "Others did experience the complex religious system that seemed to lack relatedness to their lives and, for many, a lack of ministers appreciating their language and culture."
Each week as we worship we pray together the creed crafted by the Fathers of the Church at Nicea. We say, "I believe in one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church." These four descriptive words -- one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic -- are sometimes referred to as marks of the Church. The word Catholic comes from two Greek words meaning worldwide or universal. The Catholic Church is the one worldwide or universal family of God.

When you see the Holy Father celebrating Mass outside St. Peter's Basilica, you notice the Bernini columns on St. Peter's Square which symbolize the arms of the Church reaching out to the whole world. All of us need to support the Church in all its cultural and linguistic contexts, always realizing that our experience of distinct cultural expressions of the faith -- when rooted and balanced -- helps to expand and enrich our own faith.  

Reason 4: "Some were hurt in some way by Catholics -- clergy or laity -- and have not been reconciled."
Sometimes an inactive Catholic simply needs a practicing Catholic to listen attentively and empathetically to the hurt in his or her past. It may be a difficult Catholic school experience. It may be a story of a priest who was insensitive to them at the funeral of their mother or father. It may be a story about disillusionment with the behavior of a Catholic lay person. Whatever the story -- and we know there are many -- we need to listen well. Your simple listening, your gentle apology on behalf of the Church, is part of the reconciling ministry of Christ. You become an instrument of grace. Such a moment can result in the person going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation the following Saturday night and returning to Mass and receiving Communion on Sunday for the first time in many years.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishop's 1992 statement Go and Make Disciples: A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States described the refined sensitivity that is necessary: "We want to let our inactive brothers and sisters know that they always have a place in the Church and that we are hurt by their absence as they are. We want to show our regret for any misunderstandings or mistreatment. And we want to help them see that, however they feel about the Church, we want to talk with them, share with them and accept them as brothers and sisters. Every Catholic can be a minister of welcome, reconciliation, and understanding to those who have stopped practicing their faith."6

Reason 5: "Some are in conflict with the teachings of the Church on...matters of faith and morality."
We mentioned above that the Church is one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Being apostolic means that the belief of the Catholic Church is founded upon the words and witness Jesus Christ left with his Apostles. It is his teachings that we profess. We call this the deposit of faith which makes up the moral and doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church. We cannot "spin" these truths to satisfy polls or the contemporary American cultural myopia. But what we can do is improve the way we communicate the truth of our Church's teaching. Catholic truth will always find a home in a heart that is sincerely searching for the truth.

As a Church, we still need to absorb the teachings of our Holy Father's The Splendor of Truth and On the Relationship between Faith and Reason which not only diagnose the destructive influence of moral relativism and the culture of death but show beautifully the consistent Catholic belief that faith and reason are designed to work in harmony. Each of us needs to work on understanding the faith and being able to give a reason for the faith that is within us.

Often faith is effectively shared over a cup of coffee or during a long walk with a good friend That's the way friendship works. We discuss our experiences. We reveal our deepest convictions about life. We influence the choices and life direction of others.

Witnessing to Christ to our friends and neighbors in a way that is bold and natural is like any skill. We need to develop it.

We not only live our Catholic faith vibrantly, we also reflect on our personal faith experiences so that we can verbally share them with others. We study the marvelous logic and reasoning behind our Catholic teachings so that we can communicate the truth that will set people free.

Cardinal Newman put it well more than a century ago: "I want a laity...who know their faith, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their Creed so well that they can give an account of it, and who know enough of history to defend it. I want an intelligent well-instructed laity."7
 

Reason 6: "Others never knew their faith well and were ignorant of basics. They were easily misled in their lack of understanding, exploited by those who attack Catholic beliefs and practices for their own purposes."
Often there is a lack of formation in the Catholic philosophy of life. The connections between the Word of God, Catholic worship, and a Catholic way of life have not been made. The joy of discovering the way each mystery of Catholic faith is grounded in Scripture, centered in Christ, and proclaimed in the liturgy has never been experienced. This lack of integral faith formation leaves a vacuum.

An obvious sign of a vacuum is our culture's obsession with television programming which appeals to the cruel and violent side of human nature. Talk shows that encourage a public confession of sins and indiscretions in a crazed Roman Coliseum type atmosphere only leave the vulnerable victims more wounded.

In contrast, the Sacrament of Reconciliation allows Christ's peace to enter our hearts. We verbalize ours sins and come to grips with them in privacy with the complete assurance of confidentiality through the seal of the confessional. Whereas the "talk-show" confession falsely confirms that we are "alright" in our sinfulness, the sacramental reconciliation reminds us that our sinfulness is a wound -- but that we are made whole in Christ Jesus. We are liberated from our sins and renew our confidence and hope in God's mercy and strength.

Another sign of a vacuum is vulnerability in faith. Often our secular education far surpasses our Catholic faith education. A typical example of this is when first year Catholic college students in secular universities are shaken by their Philosophy 101 course. We need to remember that we have access to the richest intellectual tradition in the world with minds as brilliant and diverse as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, Avery Dulles and Pope John Paul II. We cannot forget or neglect this intellectual tradition. We need to learn it. We need to teach it.

We need to support parents, the primary catechists in the family, and catechetical programs so that our Catholic children can grow in the faith from an early age. We need to prune what might not be authentic from our catechetical programs and nurture those things that promote and serve a Catholic way of life and belief. We need to continue to promote effective adult education experiences. Adult education needs to become a primary ministry in our parishes, not an afterthought.8

We need to be attentive to the opportunity to reach out to inactive Catholics in our sacramental programs and in every sacramental moment, whether it be a wedding, a funeral9, Midnight Mass on Christmas, Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday or Easter Sunday. We want "ashes and palm" Catholics to become "eucharistic" Catholics. As in all education, we need to stress the fundamentals of our faith.

Reason 7: "Some have been kept from full communion with the Church because of a marriage outside the Church."
One of the doctrinal treasures of the Church is the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage. When Catholic couples reverence God and each other through fidelity to their wedding vows, they discover what authentic Christian freedom in the Holy Spirit actually is.

We do need to be sensitive to those who have had difficulties in their marriages. Very often we may know a friend who may have had no personal responsibility for the breakup of a marriage. In some cases, it is possible to seek a declaration of nullity (annulment). Contact your priests, lay advocates or our Marriage Tribunal. In situations where Catholics have been married outside the Church after the breakup of the initial marriage, we encourage them to come to Mass even if they cannot receive Communion. We encourage them to pray, to seek spiritual direction and to be open to God's grace.

Reason 8: "A significant number of the inactive simply got lazy and stopped going. They may have gotten busy with their jobs and families and through their own fault didn't find the time. In a recent survey of young-adult Catholics published in America magazine, 35 percent of the inactive simply got too busy and were lazy and didn't find the time to be involved."
We may have battled this phenomenon ourselves. Faith is never static; it is growing or fading. Time is so precious these days that we can easily begin to slide. We decide there is just too much to do on a particular weekend so we miss Mass.The culture tells us we must work harder and play harder -- but nowhere does it acknowledge that, for the sake of truly human development, we must also rest better and pray better. The reasoning continues to the point where Church attendance is no longer an issue. Through friendship and casual conversation, we can help our friends and family members to begin to practice the faith again. Invite someone to Church!

Reason 9: "Others moved to new locations and never got around to finding a church in their new city or neighborhood. The America survey noted that 19 percent of the inactive young adults fell into this category."
These people work with us. We can easily work into our conversations information and enthusiasm about local parish life. Our parish welcoming committees have a special role here. So does Eucharistic adoration -- holding up before the Real Presence the physical and spiritual needs of our friends and neighbors.

A Special Word to Parents of Inactive Catholics
I know how painful it can be for you when your children stop practicing their faith. You wonder where you went wrong, what you failed to emphasize, what you failed to explain. Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, take that energy and apply it to your prayer life.

Often your adult child's inactive faith can be a difficult subject for you to broach. Defensive reactions can be quick. You may have a tendency to lecture or to nag. Often the issue of Catholic practice may be tied up with delicate emotional issues between you and your children. Still, never give up. Pray for your inactive children and model more vibrantly your own Catholic faith for them. There can be opportunities for you to talk empathetically with your children about the benefits of returning to the Church. It requires a great deal of emotional calm, a supernatural spirit, and an intuitive sense of diplomacy and timing!

Remember St. Monica, who never gave up on St. Augustine. She prayed for Augustine for over thirty years. During this period, he restlessly tried a number of intellectual philosophies and engaged in self-centered, manipulative relationships. How painful it must have been for Monica to watch her talented son walk this self-destructive path.

It was through Monica's prayer that Augustine came home. We lift up our sons and daughters to the intercession of St. Monica and St. Augustine. We never give up on them

Pray and Take Action
Having reflected with you briefly on the need of our outreach to 17,000,000 inactive Catholics, I encourage you to continue with your own reflection. Think of your friends, your family, those in your sphere of influence in this Diocese of Wilmington and elsewhere.

Think about how you can tactfully speak with them and invite them back to the Church. I will be praying for your efforts and will look forward to hearing about your experiences and benefiting from your own insights.
 

1

 Avery Dulles, SJ, "John Paul II and the New Evangelization," Laurence J. McGinley Lecture, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, December 4-5, 1991, 15.

2

 Dulles, 16.

3

 A phrase used in Pope Paul VI's apostolic exhortation "On Evangelization in the Modern World," 1975.

4

 Cf. Some of these ideas can be found in the recent writings of  Professor Scott Hahn.

5

 Robert Delaney's "Bringing Inactive Catholics Back Top Priority for Evangelizers."

6

 National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Go and Make Disciples. A National Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States (Washington DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, November 18, 1992),

6

 See also Committee on Evangelization, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, A Resource Directory for Reaching Out to Inactive Catholics. A Time to Listen...A Time to Heal (Washington DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, November 15, 1998).

7

 Cardinal John Henry Newman's Present Day Position of Catholics in England, Longman Green and Co. edition, 390-391.

8

 See National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us. A Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation in the United States (Washington DC: United States Catholic Conference, November 17, 1999).

9

 See Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli's October 28, 1999 Statement entitled "The Need to Promote the Consistent Use of Catholic Funeral Rites" in the Diocese of Wilmington's newspaper, The Dialog.