I’m so glad we’re talking about our non-Mass attending Catholics while we’re reading the Bread of Life discourse (John 6) at Sunday Mass. We know how this ends: many of Jesus’ disciples left him after it.
Why not? We can guess. Some wanted the kingdom restored with violence. Some wanted a secular messiah but not a divine one.
Some wanted their old religion back but with less rules. Some were appalled at the idea that they could literally eat him.
So, what do our brothers and sisters who have stopped going around with us have to say now?
If you could get around 100 non-massgoing Catholics in a room together, what might they say to you about the Catholic Church?
I’m looking at the written responses to our Catholics in Australia survey from the people we called “irregulars” and “nevers”—Catholics who don’t go to Mass very much, or at all. They’ve told me many things they think about the church today.
We put these responses through an analytics program and looked for common themes. The single biggest theme (28 comments) was that people saw a disconnect between Jesus or Christianity and the Catholic Church.
“I personally think the church needs to re-evaluate its actions in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ—in many ways the Catholic Church has become an institution that represents many of the ills Jesus and his disciples rallied against.” (Male, 30-39, irregular, Melbourne)
“Being Catholic is important to me, but it’s starting to not align with my values as a Christian person.” (Female, 40-49, irregular, Brisbane)
The second-largest theme (18 comments) said that the church was too conservative.
“From my work in Catholic schools it appears to me that people are turning away from the church largely because of the new right wing conservative movement that is occurring.” (Female, 50-59, irregular, Sydney)
Clergy sexual abuse was the next largest set of comments (17 comments).
“Sadly I think the leadership of the church is without credibility due to its handling of sexual abuse in the clergy. The only course it could take is for those in positions of leadership to stand down or retire.” (Male, 60-69, irregular, Adelaide)
There were other themes as well: perceived irrelevance to the modern world (16 comments), problems with church leadership, problems with Pope Francis, and issues with the status of women (12 comments each).
These were followed by family or spouse issues and life issues (11 comments), and feeling unwelcome, the liturgy, youth, priests, and comparisons to other churches (10 comments). Issues with specific beliefs and same-sex issues lingered down the bottom with five comments each.
It’s very concerning when people try to separate Jesus and Christianity from the Catholic Church. All those who talked about this also placed themselves on the side of Jesus.
Of course they did. But this goes far deeper than a mere public relations problem.
These people are expressing a deep-seated mistrust of the church in Australia, very often backed up with stories of real-life bad experiences.
I’ve also been treated badly by all sorts of people in the church all my Catholic life. I could easily decide to separate the “bad church” from the “good Jesus” who is not on the side of abusive people.
But I know the difference between bad people and good people. I know that the church is also full of good people who are working hard to make Jesus known to the world.
Some people commented in the survey that we don’t read enough Scripture in the Catholic Church. And yet it’s in Scripture that you find some of the answers to this paradox.
We were told to expect weeds and wheat to grow up together. God will not start yanking people out until it’s clear whose side they have chosen to be on (Mt 13:24-43).
We were told we’d be like a mixed flock of sheep and goats until God comes to sort us out (Mt 25:31-46). We were told that good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees bad fruit (Mt 7:15-20).
We were told that it’s hard to get to heaven, and that a lot of things in our lives will get in the way (Mt 13). We were told to be wary of religious leaders who didn’t practice what they preached, but to obey them all the same (Mt 23).
There are no easy answers for our brothers and sisters who can’t bear to be at Mass with us anymore. But I’d like to offer these Gospel examples as a starting point for a longer conversation—until next week.