Vatican synod addressing issue of lapsed Catholics

WASHINGTON -- The expression "preaching to the converted" takes on new meaning this week, as select bishops from around the world embark on a monthlong synod in Rome.

Their mission: Help the Roman Catholic Church confront the reality that one of its biggest mission fields is among its own members. Millions of lapsed Catholics, especially in the United States and other Western countries have joined other religious groups or become so jaded and indifferent that they might be called nonbelievers, according to a working document for the gathering.

The synod for "The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith" -- which is having its first working session Monday and runs through Oct. 28 -- will include reports from experts and discussions among about 250 bishops and other high-ranking prelates.

Its work ultimately will lead to an authoritative document produced by Pope Benedict XVI, who has frequently touted the importance of "new evangelization."

That effort is new "not because it's a new gospel -- it's the same gospel of Jesus Christ," Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz said in an interview. What's new is "the focus is on those "1/8 whose faith has grown tepid."

Kurtz, one of seven American bishops with roles at the synod, said he doesn't see the gathering producing broad, top-down strategies.

Rather, a key goal is to help lay Catholics recognize that evangelization is their mission, too, not just that of priests and bishops, he said.

"The reaching out is done one person at a time," said Kurtz, also vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The whole movement of the new evangelization is to empower each baptized person to reach out. Often the person reaching out might well be a friend or a family member and a co-worker."

An official Vatican working document for the synod cited challenges that include the sweeping advances of globalization, communications, secularism and science as well as post-Cold War encounters among the Western, Islam and Asian cultures.

The document said the new evangelization is mainly targeted at Europe and North America, where once-robust Catholic populations have flagged in numbers, devotion or both.

While the Roman Catholic Church officially records growing numbers of American members, one major survey released this year found a decline in Catholic numbers, in part by excluding those who call themselves Catholic but rarely or never attend church.

The church's own statistics show a general decline through the decades in rates of church baptisms, marriages and funerals in the United States. That means even those who call themselves Catholic are turning less to the church during life-cycle events that it considers crucial moments for receiving sacraments.

And about a third of people who are baptized Catholic as a child in the United States are leaving the fold when they grow up -- with about half becoming Protestant and the other half abandoning organized religion entirely, a 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found. The Pew Forum releases a new report Tuesday.

The Catholic attrition rate is actually lower than in several other religious groups -- including Buddhists; Jehovah's Witnesses; Protestants, including those who switch denominations; and even those raised with no religion, a majority of whom joined one.

But the Catholic exodus still represents several million disaffected from the church that baptized them -- 1 in 10 American adults.

Many who left Catholicism said they just gradually drifted away from the church, stopped believing its teachings or failed to have their spiritual needs met, according to Pew.

Those who became Protestants mainly said they found their new religion more appealing while those who are now nonreligious were more likely to dissent with church stances on such things as abortion, homosexuality and artificial birth control.

Bridging the divide(AT)

The official working document for the synod focuses mainly on re-evangelizing Catholics who have lost faith rather than on those who have gone to other Christian denominations.

But the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center and author of books on the Catholic hierarchy, said the synod is handicapped by a growing divide between Catholic theologians and bishops over where to draw the line between what a Catholic must believe and legitimate areas where people can question and dissent.

"What made Vatican II happen was when theologians and bishops came together in dialogue," he said, referring to the reformist council that opened 50 years ago this month.

"Sometimes I think the new evangelism is simply the catechism of the Catholic Church with a smile," he said. "And that's not selling."

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, who will help coordinate the synod, lamented that gulf in a Catholic News Service interview. He said church-affiliated colleges have a "long way to go" to conform their religious teachings to the catechism rather than teaching a sense of a loving God that otherwise wasn't "rooted in the creed."

Kurtz acknowledged the challenges but said opportunities abound among Catholics who may be alienated but still have pride in their Catholic identity, have contacts with Catholics and may show up for marriages, baptisms, funerals and other major church events.

"When we use categories (such as active or lapsed Catholics), we're talking about real people," he said.

Sometimes Kurtz said critics of church doctrines have a distorted view of them, and the goal should be "inviting them to understand more fully church teaching."

But for those who do understand church teaching -- and still disagree -- the goal should be "extending loving outreach, just as Jesus Christ did not seek to impose himself" on his contemporaries, Kurtz said.

One example of a way to reconnect is with a new, brief ceremony recently approved by the Vatican at Kurtz's request: a formal rite for the "Blessing of a Child in the Womb," which is offered to expectant mothers and their families.

Reconsider time(AT)

Life-cycle events often prompt people to reconsider religion, and the blessing marks a "great opportunity to welcome someone who wants only the best for their child," he said.

And despite concerns about secularizing trends, the bishops do have some entry points for reaching young Catholic adults, said Director Barbara Carvalho of the Marist Poll, which has conducted research for the Knights of Columbus Catholic fraternity.

While young Catholic adults tend to buck church teaching by favoring gay marriage and viewing morals as relative, they do value spirituality and tend to share their church's opposition to abortion, a 2010 Marist Poll survey said.

Among young adults in general, "religion and spirituality is central to who they are," Carvalho said. "If an organization is looking to bring young people either back to a faith or to a faith, they will find a receptive audience."