Why Catholics Leave The Church (Bishop Barron)

[BarbTherese]

 

[Guest]

As Bishop Barron states, there are some issues and reasons why Catholics leave that we can't do anything about.  The big issues of ordaining females as priests, divorce and remarriage etc. etc.   But there are some things on a parish level and reasons why people are stating that they leave The Church that we can do something about.

[Grateful]

Excellent idea to have done a survey as to why people leave the Church as the proposed and practical ideas to improve parishioners/customers relations.  How are you enjoying Los Ángeles?

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Grateful said:

How are you enjoying Los Ángeles?

Confused by the above statement, Grateful - I don't know to whom your question might be addressed?

I live in Adelaide, South Australia.

[Ice_nine]

I'm surprised the handling of sexual abuse was not one of the reasons.

[Grateful]

14 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Confused by the above statement, Grateful - I don't know to whom your question might be addressed?

I live in Adelaide, South Australia.

 

14 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Confused by the above statement, Grateful - I don't know to whom your question might be addressed?

I live in Adelaide, South Australia.

 

On 9/27/2017 at 4:39 PM, Grateful said:

Excellent idea to have done a survey as to why people leave the Church as the proposed and practical ideas to improve parishioners/customers relations.  How are you enjoying Los Ángeles?

 

43 minutes ago, Ice_nine said:

I'm surprised the handling of sexual abuse was not one of the reasons.

 

14 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Confused by the above statement, Grateful - I don't know to whom your question might be addressed?

I live in Adelaide, South Australia.

This statement was directed to author Bishop Father Robert Barron who had been promoted to assist Archbishop Gomez at the Cathedral.   Well, not so recently, maybe two-three years ago.   But I, being from Los Ángeles, California, suburbs was only saying a form of welcoming words.  Thought my post was implicitly directed to him who conducted the survey as to "why Catholics leave the Church."

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Ice_nine said:

I'm surprised the handling of sexual abuse was not one of the reasons.

This surprised me too, although I don't think Bishop Barron commented on all the reasons people leave.  Certainly, out here in secular land, the sexual abuse scandal is what is most often brought up by non Catholics and Catholics who have left as well.  It seems to me that the abuse scandal is what has put often non Catholics very much against Catholicism as well as for Catholics who left, it created a Faith crisis. 

I think that for those who leave especially it is a failure in adult Faith education - they do not understand what their Faith means in terms of living it out in the day to day and in difficulty and suffering too.  Consider the tremendous difficulties the early Church experiences including physical suffering and cruel deaths.  They persevered in the face of it.

If our faith is in the human institution of The Church only, we will probably be in difficulty, if not crisis, quite often.  If our Faith is in Jesus, He has warned us that "scandal must come" (Matthew Chapter 18) and to remain steadfast "Peace I leave you, My Peace I give to you but not as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and afraid.  Fear not"

Jesus is commissioning His disciples after the resurrection and they return into Galilee: "[19] Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." Matthew Chapter 28

Edited September 29, 2017 by BarbaraTherese

[dominicansoul]

On 9/28/2017 at 4:11 PM, Ice_nine said:

I'm surprised the handling of sexual abuse was not one of the reasons.

Reminds me of my cousin...

We were having a family reunion around the time the scandals in Boston were being uncovered and it was all over the news.  And my cousin says to me, "This is why I no longer go to the Catholic church."  And I told him, "You haven't been a member of the Catholic church for 20 years!"  And he responded very sheepishly, "oh yeah...."  

I think people tend to latch on to this kinda thing as an excuse as well... 

[Guest]

I agree .......

[Ice_nine]

yeah but then a news story or something will pop up about how the church refuses to pay for a victim's therapy while Cardinal Law lives with some pretty nice accommodations in a hideout somewhere. I think a lot of church leaders still don't get it and still aren't ready to beat their chests and ask for forgiveness for their grievous crimes against children and families.

 

I know clergy are not supposed to be perfect, but we are supposed to revere and follow them. And there is such a huge disconnect still.

Are there any examples of the church attempting to heal without making excuses? I've seen a few, but not enough. There are undoubtedly hundreds (maybe thousands?) of people suffering from the wounds of not only sexual abuse, but betrayal and dismissal from leaders who are supposed to represent Christ.

[Anomaly]

I would bet that many people answered they left the Catholic Church because of ongoing hypocrisy and failure on the part of the Church to address, redress, heal, prevent, or punish with integrity and honor.  I know a number of them.  Just the fact that Baron doesn't mention it (I surmised from comments, I did not listen to video) smacks of the failed Catholic Church response. 

Though it is interesting, that now we are regularly bombarded with news stories teachers sexually preying on students, and I don't see a tenth of the public outrage.   Maybe people are numbed to it now, or they have a lower expectation for teachers, or since its heterosexual assault, it seems less egregious.  

Edited September 30, 2017 by Anomaly

[Era Might]

I didn't leave the church for any scandal, but just because I outgrew it. I still believe in the Gospel and the Life of Christ as some mysterious explosion of what is deepest in man, but I stopped believing in the church as a scholastic system. I still value the scholastic system as a way of living and speaking, but my only connection to the church now is monastic and mystical, beyond the attempt to create a system of thought that doesn't stand up against reality and rational thought...I don't think the Gospel has anything to do with rational thought, but only with the heart in the truest sense where the first will be last and we will be judged on love alone...what you did to the least of these my brethren, you did to me.

[dominicansoul]

3 hours ago, Ice_nine said:

yeah but then a news story or something will pop up about how the church refuses to pay for a victim's therapy while Cardinal Law lives with some pretty nice accommodations in a hideout somewhere. I think a lot of church leaders still don't get it and still aren't ready to beat their chests and ask for forgiveness for their grievous crimes against children and families.

 

I know clergy are not supposed to be perfect, but we are supposed to revere and follow them. And there is such a huge disconnect still.

Are there any examples of the church attempting to heal without making excuses? I've seen a few, but not enough. There are undoubtedly hundreds (maybe thousands?) of people suffering from the wounds of not only sexual abuse, but betrayal and dismissal from leaders who are supposed to represent Christ.

I totally agree more needs to be done about the scandals and the fall out and the ongoing scandals as well.  The Church with its good intentions has programs now to train and weed out molesters on the parish level, but frankly I have no idea what's being done on the clerical level...

[Norseman82]

What Bishop Barron spends most of his time on is "a drop in the bucket" compared to rising secularism and the allure of the world, which manifests itself in the many problems we see today, especially sexual ethics.  Also, how many people do we lose due to them marrying outside the Church (and this is a "chicken and egg" situation, because some marry outside the Church because they cannot find a compatible spouse within the Church, but that could be because the ones who would have been compatible spouses themselves married outside the Church instead of sticking around for their own kind).