Fallen Away Catholics- Father Kevin Louis's Bulletin Column - December 10, 2006
It seems that many Catholic families today have members who have given up the regular practice of their faith. Some explicitly renounce any faith in God while others simply go about their lives as if God does not exist. Some take up non-Christian religious practices while others join any of the myriad of Christian “churches” that seem to endlessly splinter off from one another. Some remain nominally Catholic but are irregular in their participation in the life of the Church while others reject certain teachings that are part of that which God has revealed for our salvation.
Various reasons are given for the rejection of Catholic faith or for remaining at the margins of the Church. Some buy into the philosophical notion that the only authentic human knowledge comes from the so-called “hard” sciences allowing no room for reason enlightened by faith. Others cite wounds – whether real or imagined – inflicted upon them at the hands of members of the Church – priests, consecrated religious, or laity. Some speak of a lack of credibility of the Christian message – and the Catholic Church in particular – because of the scandalous and immoral behavior of lay people, religious men and women, and clergy. Others simply see no reason for God and the Church as they have adopted the prevailing cultural attitude of indifference – God is missing from their lives but is not missed. Some – in dismissing specific teachings having been revealed by God in Jesus Christ and proposed for belief by the Church – are in fact rejecting that which they think the Church teaches. Others are not interested in anything beyond the cares and pleasures of the moment and this world. Some – because of their own sinful behaviors that they have no interest in changing – openly reject or absent themselves from the Church’s life. Others are plain and simple lazy. Some wrestle mightily with the profound questions that face every human person – What is the meaning of this human adventure especially in light of suffering and death? Others struggle with the demands of faith itself.
Many elements of this American intellectual, moral, and popular culture that we have created are certainly inimical to Christian and Catholic faith. Satan – the father of all lies – surely is at work in all of this. Yet those who abandon the regular practice of their faith remain responsible for the choices they make – choices that affect not only themselves but their children as well. And we who do believe cannot absolve ourselves from all responsibility for this phenomenon of unbelief among our family members, friends and neighbors. Indeed, in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council note that insofar as we Catholics “neglect (our) own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in (our) religious, moral or social life, (we) must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion” (19).
What are we to do when a loved one or friend or neighbor gives up the regular practice of Catholic faith? Is prayer for them all that faith demands of me? Or should I bring the topic up with them? How do I do approach this without it degenerating into an argument? How can I speak to them when I am unsure of my own understanding of the faith? Who am I to speak to others about faith when I am a sinner myself? What responsibility do I bear when my family member or friend or neighbor leaves the Church? Are my loved ones going to Hell? Do I fulfill my responsibilities to my loved ones by simply holding that as long as they are part of some religion everything is OK? What are the spiritual and intellectual resources available to help? Is anyone else facing these same questions and concerns?
Please join Phil Lawson, our Director of Catechesis and Evangelization, and me as we explore these questions on two consecutive Tuesday evenings this Advent. Providentially, the first session is on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Within seven years of her apparition near present-day Mexico City in 1531 to the native Juan Diego eight million people embraced the Catholic faith! How can we not invoke her intercession – she who is the Star of the New Evangelization – for all those who have given up the regular practice of their faith! The second session is the following Tuesday, December 19, and both gatherings run from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.
Saint Peter, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!