PARENTS AND FAMILIES CRITICAL TO CATHOLIC FORMATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE STILL ANOTHER STUDY SHOWS

Over and over again, studies show that many of our young people are leaving the Church.

Researchers say that now fully half of young people leave the Church after high school, and some say that only 7%  of Millennials raised Catholic actively practice their faith today, meaning they attend weekly Mass, pray a few times each week, and say their faith is “extremely” or “very” important. 

For the remaining 93% who have disassociated themselves from the Church, only one conclusion is possible:  the Church is in danger of losing the next and future generation of Catholics.

Christian Smith of the University of Notre Dame has been studying this phenomenon for years.

His studies point to one clear factor that statistically determines whether or not young people will stay in the Church when they become adults: their parents. 

The single greatest predictor of whether or not young people will practice the faith when they enter adulthood is the degree of religious commitment of their parents.

The findings of his various studies are dramatic. 

His research shows that it is not enough for parents simply to practice their faith, and much less to practice it intermittently. 

Young people who stay in the Church say that their family regularly talk about religious topics in the home, that faith is “very important” to their family, and that they themselves are regularly involved in religious activities. These parents see their own faith not as something they occasionally do, but who they are.

 Today, the culture young people encounter does not see the world from a Christian perspective. 

Studies show that unless parents have created a Catholic culture in the home, the children will succumb to our society’s non-Christian way of seeing the world as they mature into adulthood.

Bishops everywhere need to take heed of this fundamental truth:  the parish, the parochial school and youth programs are all helpful, but parental religious influence is the singular most critical condition of possibility over all other influences.

Smith and his fellow scholar Justin Bartkus give examples of ways families are successful in handing on the faith. They identify the following four essential aspects:

First, successful parents are able to give their own narrative about why their faith is import to them — “the why.”

Second, they are intentional about establishing a religious culture in the household and eschew autopilot in order to achieve these aims — “the how.”

Third, they give good content, meaning that they expose their children to religiously significant practices, relationships and experiences — “the what.”

Fourth and last, they help their children to interpret the world through the eyes of our faith.

Remember, research studies have found that the Church is in serious danger of losing future generations of the Christian faithful.

Still, Bishops, Pastors, religious educators and youth ministers are seemingly blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to implementing models  which incorporate the family as a whole in the effort to promote Catholic spiritual and religious formation.

Perhaps, Pope Francis’ and the upcoming Synod on Youth will finally understand the critical role which parents and families play in evangelizing the next and future generations of the Church.

The challenge of passing on the faith to the next generation has gotten more difficult in our age. 

If the Church is willing to be bold and creative in a continuing program of formation and education of Catholic families, perhaps young people may grow up to express the faith in God and love of their fellow human beings as members of the Church.