Transcript

Although our real problem is not the failure to witness non-Catholics, it's the failure to help Catholics stay Catholic.

Even when we do effectively share the faith with someone online, that person we share it with still has to go and encounter a real-life brick-and-mortar parish to be fully received into the faith.

And I think that's what many Catholics fear the most, the actual parish experience.

For example, when I got married, I needed to get an affidavit signed by my parents and witnessed at a Catholic church that says I had never been married before.

But my parents weren't, and still are not, Catholic, and so no parish would sign their affidavit because they weren't registered at that particular parish.

But they couldn't register at that parish, or any parish, because they're not Catholic.

But at those parishes, Hey, rules are rules.

I can't help you.

I think many people have had similar stories of Catholic parishes feeling, not like welcoming homes, but more like Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmares, and I think that's the crux of the problem for Catholics.

For many Catholics, the ones who aren't debating theology on the internet but just show up to mass every week out of ritual obligation, the faith is something that they just get through.

It's something they've inherited, and it often provides comfort, but it's just one part of their life, and it's usually not the most important part.

In 2023, the Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, asked people to agree with the statement, Religion is the most important thing in their life.

The largest group who agreed with that statement were white evangelicals at 44%.

23% of Hispanic Catholics agree with that statement.

But among white Catholics, it's been the same for a decade.

Only 9% say religion is the most important thing in their life.

That's less than half of all Americans in general.

The Pew study also showed that of all the Protestant denominations, the one not losing members were the non-denominational Protestants.

There may be different reasons for that, positive and negative.

Negative would be that these groups have unlimited latitude to cater to their audiences, so they have an easier time attracting people but a much more difficult time maintaining a consistent theology and a reverent liturgy.

But the positive side may be that this group, especially evangelicals, just see the faith differently.

Most homilies at an average Catholic parish usually focus on encouraging us to be better people each week, and it is good to hear about how we should grow in sanctity.

But you've probably rarely heard a priest say that people's salvation is in danger if they choose to leave or reject the Catholic Church.

Or you've probably rarely heard a priest explain why salvation comes from the Catholic Church.

But for many evangelicals, sharing the faith is a matter of spiritual life or death to the person they're witnessing to.

It's not just about running up the scoreboard in a Pew survey.

And Catholics should have the same missionary passion.

Although, our real problem is not the failure to witness non-Catholics, it's the failure to help Catholics stay Catholic.