Compared with previous generations, the youngest of today’s adult Catholics are less likely to have celebrated the sacraments that provide the foundation of the faith.
A growing minority of self-identified Catholic adults haven’t made their first reconciliation, received their First Communion or been confirmed, according to research from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University.
The sacraments are at the heart of what it means to be Catholic, said Mark Gray, a CARA researcher. If fewer parents are anchoring their children in Catholicism through the sacraments, the result could be a smaller church.
If a person hasn’t received Communion, been Confirmed, or gone to Confession ever, how could he or she be called Roman Catholic at all?
Senior Priest..that’s a good question. I would venture to guess that since they were baptized Catholic and their relatives are Catholic to whatever degree they pretty much view their Catholicism as more a familial legacy or heritage. An affiliation they assume rather than a living faith and active worship.
The Rev. Terry Fullam, a highly influential leader in the charismatic movement in TEC back in happier days, was fond of quiping that one of the grave weakenesses of The Episcopal Church was that we tended to “saramentalize” people INSTEAD of evangelizing them. Of course, the two things need not be mutually exclusive at all, but the Roman Catholic Church has historically tended to have the same problem. And in a post-Christendom culture like ours, there is little incentive to be merely a cultural Christian, and often good reason not to bother with all that churchy stuff.
David Handy+
We might assume that all these ‘Catholics’ are baptized, and therein lies a problem. More and more people who never come to Mass are presenting their children for baptism. In some places, schools may be an element in this. I have often wished for guidance on this from the bishops. None has so far been forthcoming. I have frequently heard it said by my fellow clergy that in canon law I cannot refuse baptism. All I can find is canon 843.1: ‘Sacred ministers may not deny the sacraments those who opportunely ask for them, are properly disposed and are not prohibited by law from receiving them.’ Aye, there’s the rub. What does it mean to be ‘properly disposed’?
I think I also read an article recently talking about the growing shortage of Catholic priests in the United States, and how there was a real danger of loosing an option of a regular, sacramentally-based parish community in many locations.