February 19, 2013 – The Catholic church has been making news. On
February 7, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops rejected the Obama
Administration’s revised rules regarding mandated insurance coverage for
contraceptive health. Less than a week later, on February 12, Pope
Benedict XVI resigned, citing his age and failing health. While
unrelated, these events reveal a faith segment very much at a
crossroads.
Representing about one quarter of Americans, the Catholic church
continues to grapple with the consequences of its sex scandals, faces
increasing political pressures and—like many of its evangelical
counterparts—must deal with growing disillusionment among its youth. A
Barna study among young adults ages 18-29 who attended a Catholic church
at some point during their teenage years, looks at the faith journeys
of these young Catholics and how these controversial issues factor into
their faith and their perspective of the church.
Sexuality and Birth Control
The Catholic
church’s stance on some of the most divisive social and political issues
of the day has garnered significant media attention. And issues of
reproductive health appear to be one of the major disconnects for some
young Catholics and the church. Yet, reflecting our increasingly
fragmented society, millions of other young Catholics have no qualms at
all with these teachings on sexuality.
The study shows most young adults who identify as Catholic say “the
church’s teachings on sexuality and birth control are out of date”
(60%). Still, only one-quarter of young Catholics (23%) say this
perception is “completely true” of their experience—the most extreme end
of the scale provided to survey respondents.
The segment of 18-29-year-old Catholics surveyed includes a range of
individuals, from those who are very active to those who have
essentially dropped out of church. Among young Catholics who are still
religiously active, only one-third (37%) raises some level of concern
about the church’s teachings on birth control and sexuality and just 12%
say it’s “completely true” for them that the church’s teachings on
these matters feel out of date.
In contrast, among young adults who have dropped out of Catholic
churches, 69% are concerned about the church’s teachings on sexuality
and birth control and 23% say this is a major concern. It is important
to note that this kind of survey research does not imply causation—we do
not know if or how these views about sexuality affected the spiritual
journey of those who dropped out of church, only that the connection
exists.
Interestingly, among those who attended a Catholic or faith-related
school growing up, 65% said they have some misgivings about the church’s
stance on sexuality and birth control, slightly above the average.
David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group and author of You Lost Me,
points out that these data have to be interpreted in light of the
millions of young people who are represented across the spectrum of
viewpoints. “Even when we look at a fairly defined demographic segment
like young adult Catholics, we find a great deal of differences. While
many young Catholics are at odds with Catholic teaching on matters of
birth control, only about one-quarter are very discontent and many do
not at all share these perceptions.”
Clergy Abuse Scandals
The priest abuse scandals
are another controversial dimension of today’s Catholic experience—and
one that has had inevitable impact on many people’s beliefs and feelings
toward the church. Among all 18-29-year-olds who have a Catholic
background, 43% say the “priest abuse scandals have made me question my
faith,” with 11% indicating this is completely true of their experience.
This perception was particularly common among young Catholic
dropouts: 57% say this has been a stumbling block for them and 11% say
this has been a major obstacle to their faith.
The study also looked at how young Catholic’s feel about the church’s
stance toward ordaining women. Overall, just under half (45%) of young
Catholics say it bothers them “that the Church does not ordain women as
priests.” Just 14% feel strongly about this. Young Catholics who remain
active in the church are even more likely than lapsed Catholics to say
this is an important consideration (13% versus 9%). While not a majority
view among young Catholics, it is a very strongly held sentiment even
among those who have stayed connected to the Church.
The Faith Journeys of Young Catholics
“Keeping
the next generation” has consistently been a major concern of religious
institutions, but perhaps never more so than today. With the
well-documented rise of the “nones”—those claiming no religious
affiliation—and the growing number of young church exiles,
faith leaders of all kinds are focusing on how to attract and keep
young people. The Catholic church is no exception, and in many ways,
faces some unique challenges in retaining its future congregants.
A majority (56%) of young Catholics (ages 18-29) admit they’ve
dropped out of attending church at some point after having gone
regularly. This percentage is slightly lower than the dropout rate among
young Protestants with a Christian background (61%). Still, 65% of
Catholic-raised young adults say they are less religiously active today
than they were at age 15, which is slightly higher than their Protestant
counterparts (58%).
Also, more than half of young Catholics (51%) say they have been
significantly frustrated with their faith and four in 10 (41%) have gone
through a period when they felt significant doubts about their faith.
These rates are on par with young Protestants.
While many young Catholics may have left the church or questioned
their faith at some level, very few have outright abandoned their
Catholic roots. Only one in three (35%) admit to having gone through a
period when they felt like rejecting their parent’s faith (statistically
on par with the 32% of young Protestants).
Yet, while most young Catholics may have dropped out of church at
some point, the desire to be part of a historic religious institution
remains. Four in ten young Christians (41%) say they’d rather have “a
traditional faith than be part of a hip version of Christianity.”
Similarly, most young Catholics still consider themselves spiritual.
Only three out of 10 (29%) say they are less spiritual today than they
were at age 15.
So if most young Catholics embrace their religious roots, are
spiritually oriented and desire a traditional faith, why the high
drop-out rates? One reason may be that many young adults find Mass to be
dull and uninteresting. One-fifth of all young Catholics (18%) admit,
while they know Mass is supposed to be meaningful, they consistently
find it to be a boring obligation. Two-thirds say this has been true for
them at least some of the time.
Young Catholics also admit they feel excluded in church at the
expense of older adults. One in four young Catholics say they’ve felt
their parish values older people more than younger people.
Not surprisingly, compared to those young adults who remain
religiously active, Catholic dropouts are more likely to express these
kinds of criticisms of their experience with Catholicism.
One of the surprising revelations of the research is that those who
have attended a Catholic or faith related school are essentially no more
favorable—or unfavorable—than the norm toward Catholicism, the church
and Mass. Attending a Catholic school doesn’t seem to cause additional
disaffection, but neither does it insulate students from such
frustrations. In fact, about one-quarter of all young Catholics (26%)
say they had a mostly negative experience in Catholic school. Among
those who attended, the proportion is about two out of five (40%) who
remember their educational experience unfavorably.
Observations
With the bishop’s recent
announcement regarding health insurance and contraceptive coverage,
there’s a lot of skepticism about young people’s positions on these
issues. Yet the data suggests that most active young Catholics are in
agreement with the Church’s teachings on abortion, birth control and
sexuality. Additionally, while many devout Catholics are discussing
this—and other recent church and political clashes—as religious liberty
issues, that’s not what younger adults are talking about. In fact, a
recent Barna study found that religious liberty isn’t much of a concern for young people.
“While the Catholic Bishops’ decision will likely connect with
religiously active younger Catholics—who tend to be conservative on
matters of sexuality,” says David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group.
“An important part of the story seems to be in how those young Catholics
who have left the church—or who are moderately active—feel about these
issues. Interestingly, among those who are just semi-active in the
Catholic church, their perceptions of sexuality are much more like those
of Catholic dropouts, which suggests the struggles over birth control
and reproduction are likely to affect millions of ‘swing’—that is,
moderately involved—Catholics.”
Kinnaman says that while “it’s worth understanding the spiritual
journeys of a group of people,” that does not mean trying to cater to
their preferences of church or religion. “Leaders have to be in tune
with the people they are serving,” he says. “Especially in America’s
increasingly fragmented religious landscape where people are influenced
by many factors beyond their church or spiritual heritage.”
He also points out that doubts, questions and even dropping out of
church for a time are not always the end of the story. “We have to
acknowledge that the spiritual transitions people experience can be a
good, productive thing,” Kinnaman says. “Anyone who takes their faith
seriously will at some point in their life call certain aspects of it
into question—and that includes the priorities and teachings of their
religious institution. It isn’t necessarily the doubting or the
questioning that’s cause for concern—it’s what young people do as a result of those questions.
“And, with nearly two-thirds of young Catholics having dropped out of
church at some point, this should be a high priority among Catholic
church leaders, as it has become among many Protestant leaders. Being
effective among Millennials requires understanding what makes them tick,
which includes knowing how the church’s teachings and positions on key
social issues affects and is interpreted by young Catholics.”
| To help educate faith leaders about Millennials and faith, Barna Group has been hosting a series of events, called You Lost Me Live, around the country. |
About the Research
This Barna Update is based on
research conducted for the Faith That Lasts Project. The research
included a series of national public opinion surveys conducted by Barna
Group.
In addition to extensive quantitative interviewing with adults and
faith leaders nationwide, the main research examination for the study
was conducted with 18- to 29-year-olds who had been active in a
Christian church at some point in their teen years. The quantitative
study among 18- to 29-year-olds was conducted online with 1,296 current
and former churchgoers. The Faith That Lasts research also included
parallel testing on key measures using telephone surveys, including
interviews conducted among respondents using cell phones, to help ensure
the representativeness of the online sample. The sampling error
associated with 1,296 interviews is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points,
at the 95% confidence level.
The sample of young Catholics included 536 interviews with18- to
29-year-olds who had experience attending a Catholic church prior to age
18. The sampling error associated with this sample is plus or minus 4.1
percentage points, at the 95% confidence level.
The online study relied upon a research panel called KnowledgePanel®,
created by Knowledge Networks. It is a probability-based online
non-volunteer access panel. Panel members are recruited using a
statistically valid sampling method with a published sample frame of
residential addresses that covers approximately 97% of U.S. households.
Sampled non-Internet households, when recruited, are provided a netbook
computer and free Internet service so they may also participate as
online panel members. KnowledgePanel consists of about 50,000 adult
members (ages 18 and older) and includes persons living in cell phone
only households.
About Barna Group
Barna Group (which includes
its research division, the Barna Research Group) is a private,
non-partisan, for-profit organization under the umbrella of the Issachar
Companies. It conducts primary research, produces media resources
pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy
spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian
ministries.
Located in Ventura, California, Barna Group has been conducting and
analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to
values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like
to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each update on the
latest research findings from Barna Group, you may subscribe to this
free service at the Barna website (www.barna.org). Additional
research-based resources are also available through this website.
© Barna Group, 2013.
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