The Challenge

The Challenge of Inactive Catholics

Recognizing that a majority of cultural Catholics are no longer active in their faith, the Church has put an increasing focus on the New Evangelization, an effort to bring them back in contact with Christ and the Church.

Key Insights

The New Evangelization
The New Evangelization particularly focuses on evangelizing those Catholics who have stopped regularly attending liturgy or associating with the Church.
Most Catholics Aren't Active
An estimated 58% of self-identified Catholics in the U.S. do not attend Mass on a weekly basis.
Fewer Call Themselves Catholic
About one third of Americans who were raised Catholic no longer self-identify as Catholic, resulting in 10% of Americans now being former Catholics. 
Not Strangers
The Church still has a contact with inactive Catholics, since they are predominantly the relatives and friends of active Catholics.  We have an opportunity to reach out through these relationships.
Why Catholics Become Inactive
Catholics become inactive for a wide variety of reasons.  Many may not have clarity and simply see themselves drift away, but a significant number leave to seek out a new church that better fulfills their spiritual needs.

Quotations

Church Documents & Statements
The New Evangelization seeks to invite modern man and culture into a relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church. The New Evangelization strives to engage our culture and to help us draw our inspiration from the Gospel. The New Evangelization calls all Catholics first to be evangelized and then in turn to evangelize. While it is directed to all people, the New Evangelization focuses specifically on those Christian communities that have Catholic roots but have “lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church.” 
Disciples Called to Witness: The New Evangelization
Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, USCCB
With a renewed faith, the Church goes forth to share the faith. Given the current cultural context of our society, the Church is directing her evangelization efforts in a particular way to those members of the Body of Christ who are absent. 
Disciples Called to Witness: The New Evangelization
Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, USCCB
Jesus, in and through his Church, wants us to experience the urgent vigilance of the father of the prodigal son so that as we anxiously await the return of missing family and friends, we will be ready to run to greet and embrace them....Those 77 percent absent from the eucharistic feast each week are not strangers: they are our parents, siblings, spouses, children, and friends.
Disciples Called to Witness: The New Evangelization
Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, USCCB
Emphasis added
Millions of Catholics no longer practice their faith. Although many of them may say they are Catholic, they no longer worship with the community and thereby deprive themselves of the gifts of word and sacrament. Some were never formed in the faith after their childhood. Some have drifted away because of one or another issue. Some feel alienated from the Church because of the way they perceive the Church or its teaching. Some have left because they were mistreated by church representatives.

As a community of faith, we want to welcome these people to become alive in the Good News of Jesus, to make their lives more fully a part of the ongoing story of salvation and to let Christ touch, heal, and reconcile them through the Holy Spirit. 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 the faith.
Go And Make Disciples: A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States, 39-40
USCCB
On Trends
Catholicism has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes. While nearly one-in-three Americans (31%) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24%) describe themselves as Catholic. These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration.
Pew Research Religious Landscape Survey, 6
...nearly four times as many adults have left as have entered the Church.  The life-blood of new members being transfused into the Church is a steady trickle, while the blood being lost is a hemorrhage.  Lately, even the trickle is slowing down.  The annual number of adult converts received into the Church dropped over 35 percent between 2000 and 2009.
Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path To Knowing and Following Jesus
Sherry Weddell
...the Catholic share of the U.S. adult population has held fairly steady in recent decades, at around 25%. What this apparent stability obscures, however, is the large number of people who have left the Catholic Church. Approximately one-third of the survey respondents who say they were raised Catholic no longer describe themselves as Catholic. This means that roughly 10% of all Americans are former Catholics. These losses, however, have been partly offset by the number of people who have changed their affiliation to Catholicism (2.6% of the adult population) but more importantly by the disproportionately high number of Catholics among immigrants to the U.S.
Pew Research Religious Landscape Survey, 7
The Catholic church is hemorrhaging members. It needs to acknowledge this and do more to understand why. Only if we acknowledge the exodus and understand it will we be in a position to do something about it.
The hidden exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants
Thomas Reese
National Catholic Reporter

Articles

Cover image from Pentecost, a painting by El Greco.