“The release today of ‘Faith in Flux’ by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life affirms the need for the parish planning initiative that is now underway here in the Diocese of Camden,” said Andrew Walton, spokesman for the diocese.
The survey found that more than 32 percent of Catholics have left the Church they were raised in, saying they did so because they stopped believing in Church teaching or found that their spiritual needs were not being met.
Significantly, the survey found that “churn” out of one faith tradition into another or into an “unaffiliated’ category occurs early in life. Of those raised Catholic who are now unaffiliated, almost 80 percent left the faith before age 24. Of those who have left the Church for a Christian denomination, almost 70 percent did so before age 24. These former Catholics are much less likely than lifelong Catholics to have attended Mass regularly or to have had a strong faith life as teenagers.
“The Pew survey shows how pressing the need is for parishes to form youth and young adults in the faith and to provide lifelong faith formation opportunities for all age groups,” said Walton. “These, of course, are two of the major priorities identified by parishioners when Bishop Galante visited parishes for “Speak Up” sessions in 2005 and 2006. However, many parishes as presently configured lack the human and financial means to address these needs. That is why the reconfiguration of parishes is so necessary. By joining some parishes together through merger, these parishes will be strengthened to address challenges facing the Church and to advance these key pastoral priorities.”