Stephen White on U.S. Catholics Being a Leaven in Society

"A recent Gallup poll indicates that, for the first time in living memory, fewer than half of Americans (47 percent) consider themselves members of a church. For most of the 20^th century, the rate hovered around 70 percent. That number has been declining since at least the late 1990s, but the decline appears to be accelerating.

"Membership in a church, it should be said, doesn't necessarily reflect belief or religious affiliation. The question Gallup asked in its poll was, 'Do you happen to be a member of a church, synagogue, or mosque?' A fallen-away Catholic and a Catholic in search of a parish in a new city might both plausibly answer in the negative. While a minority of Americans claim 'membership' in some church, according to Gallup, 76 percent still claim some religious 'affiliation.'

"Particularly concerning for Catholics is that, even among those whose 'affiliation' is Catholic, the rate of 'membership' has fallen almost 20 percent since 1998. That's twice the rate of decline seen among Protestants.

"There is much to lament in these numbers, and in the myriad unhappy explanations for why such decline is happening. Without in any way dismissing legitimate concerns about such decline and what it means for the Church and her mission (to say nothing of souls), we shouldn't despair of the diminished position in which the Church now finds herself.

"Catholics in the United States - and here I mean both the clergy and the laity - too often demonstrate a complacency of mind more characteristic of an establishment church than a distinctive minority. This includes, by the way, a certain insecurity about 'losing a culture' that was never really ours to begin with.

"American Catholics are, and always have been, a religious minority.. . ."

In a recent commentary, Stephen P. White (executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America and a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center) reflected on the importance of Catholics in the United States to be thinking more about how to stand out and less about how to fit in and about being the leaven to those around us, including our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings, our fellow parishioners, our neighbors, and our co-workers.

To access Mr. White's complete post, please visit:

The Catholic Thing: Not a Loaf, but Leaven (1 APR 11)