In a recently released book titled “American Catholics Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Church,” University of Connecticut Professor and Emeritus of Sociology William d’Antonio confirms a consistent trend among younger Catholics – in every survey since 1987, younger Catholics have become increasingly more liberal and less practicing in their faith and values. The results are most striking among college-aged Catholics.
"We've had four [surveys] since the first one,” d’Antonio says, “and what they have shown over time is that there's a big generational gap between the grandparent's generation – that is Catholics born in the forties – and Catholics of the millennial generation, who were born in the seventies and eighties.”
According to the results, only 15 percent of college-aged Catholics said they attended mass. In contrast, 60 percent of those aged 65 and older said they attended church services every week.
Most revealing, however, is the divergence in views among younger Catholics with their parents and grandparents regarding abortion, homosexuality, and divorce.
D’Antonio attributes the results to the increasing tolerance that young people give to different lifestyles in today’s culture.
"When I was [that] age I didn't know anyone who was homosexual. When anyone got divorced, it was a scandal,” he says.
Other studies, meanwhile, have revealed that Catholics as a whole have generally become more diverged in their views when held up to official church teachings.
In June 2007, The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Marriage and Family Life released results that revealed a high acceptance of divorce among adult Catholics; 76 percent said they believed divorce was acceptable.
“Cafeteria Catholicism,” the practice of picking and choosing only those beliefs considered “convenient,” has been attributed to the increasing rise in liberal views among many Catholics.
The term has no status in official Catholic teachings. However, the practice of selective adherence to the magisterium of the church has been repeatedly condemned through the teaching of the popes.
Pope Benedict XVI spoke against the divergence with church teachings when he delivered his April 2005 homily at the opening Mass of the conclave that elected him the 265th pope.
“[R]elativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching,’ looks like the only attitude [acceptable] to today's standards,” he said.
“However …” he added later, “[b]eing an ‘adult’ means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today's fashions or the latest novelties.”
“A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature."
Following Benedict's election, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote: “For American Catholics – especially women and Democratic pro-choice Catholic pols – the cafeteria is officially closed.”
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