Going Going Gone

Multiple forces impede us from doing things the way we have always done.  The historic reality teaches us that religious life has already undergone a few major changes, from the way of the hermit, to the way of the monastic, to the way of the itinerant and the apostolic.  Reinvention is happening now.  We see this in changes in church attendance as well as in changes in vocations.  Many congregations are finding that the work they were consecrated to do no longer is there for them. Others have taken over the work and Sisters are no longer needed to do it.  At the same time the political climate and moral climate, if we can call it that, is diminishing our sense of civil discourse. Violence is everywhere, most especially in our entertainment.  Hate crimes are increasing.  The divorce rate is up 40-50%. 

CARA reports there are more than 30 million former Catholic adults; 50% of those raised in the Catholic faith leave the Church later in life; of those about 11% will one day return.  Some say they are “culturally Catholic” but not practicing.  Some call them “lapsed Catholics” while a small group call themselves “collapsed Catholics.”  They left the Church together in disgust.  Reasons vary.  The book (Going, Going, Gone: The Dynamics of Disaffiliation in Young Catholics, Saint Mary’s Press, 2017) suggests that for most former Catholics disaffection with the Church began at the age of seven.  How do we reimagine ourselves in the midst of these realities?  We can’t just will it all to be better.  We have to accept the reality, live in and through the changes that must happen if we are to survive, and like those recovering from natural disasters, we have to learn to rely on the help of strangers.  The Nuns and Nones project that Sr. Gloria is working in is an attempt to reach out to young people who want no membership the Church of their parents. Although they have no religious affiliation, they are craving spiritual nourishment. They share our passion for the current ministerial needs of our times. 

March 31, 2019 a presentation by Sr. Mary Hughes, OP at Diocese of San Jose Chancery Office.