According to the Pew Research Center, 79% of cradle Catholics leave the church before the age of 23.
Recently conducted research by St. Mary’s Press and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, sites these as the main reasons:
- Church’s teachings, nonsensical, disagree with them
- No need for religion, see “many paths”
- Changed denomination or religion
- Family change in affiliation or practice
- Don’t believe in God (or in the God described in the Bible)
- Moral failures of Church or leadership, e.g., hypocrisy, misconduct, etc.
- No freedom to question, doubt, discuss openly
- Drifted away
- Church not welcoming
Pope Francis said in his 2017 message to participants in the first International Catechetical Symposium, “…the style of Jesus … adapted to the people he had before him …”
Short of abandoning Christ’s instructions, is the Church adapting to the people before it?
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CREATIVE MINISTRY AND MANAGEMENT 