Pastor S Page: Handing on the Faith
Pastor’s page: Handing on the Faith
In last week’s pastor’s column I reported on a questionnaire given a few years ago at St. Rose’s parish in Massapequa to the parents of children preparing for first holy Communion. Although the questionnaire was not a professional instrument, the results confirmed my pastoral experience over 40 years. There has been a gradual diminishment in churchgoing since my ordination in 1973. It seems that many social and cultural changes in the last half-century have damaged the ability of Catholic families to hand on the faith from one generation to the next.
In the metropolitan areas of the Northeast and Midwest, church attendance weekly by Catholics is less than 20% of registered parishioners. The St. Rose questionnaire supports this. Parents are not participating in the Eucharist regularly because they have other priorities: Sunday activities with their children other than mass; busy workweeks that exhaust them on Sunday; liturgies that they find boring; priests who cannot be understood well; a spouse of a different religious belief; divorce and remarriage outside the church; and more.
A new book “For Families and Faith: How Religion Is Passed down across Generations” by a sociologist from the University of Southern California, Vern L. Bergston, delves into the role parents are playing or not playing in the handing on of faith and religious belief to their children. The 35 year study of more than 3500 respondents, wants to know among other things, why some parents do well in passing on their faith while others do not. Bergston’s book questions families in Southern California. The families religious belief were mainline Protestant, evangelical Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, and None. His data covers three generations: parents, grandparents and grandchildren from 1970 to 2005.
Fundamentally, the research shows that children follow their parents lead in general. “If the parents are not themselves involved in religious activities, if their actions are not consistent with what they preach, children are rarely motivated to follow in their parents’ religious footsteps.”
In addition, when parents are close to their children with strong bonds, the transmission rate is higher. The father of the family participating in religious services with his spouse, has a significant impact on the children’s faith development and persistence in the faith. “The family that prays together, stays together.”
Some practical implications from the study: 1. Churches need to focus on the family as a unit. Strengthening connections across generations, or intergenerational faith formation is effective.“If churches want to retain the next generation, they must not ignore families and strengthening connections across generations in their programming.”
2. Don’t be discouraged by today’s lower rate of church affiliation and participation. Historically, religious intensity has increased and decreased especially among young people. It is likely that the low percentage of churchgoing today is temporary.
3. Young people may not be interested in religion, but it is likely that change will come as they grow to maturity.
4. Because young people are critical of institutional religion, institutional religion will need to innovate and reform to deal with that crisis. Renewal of religions is likely.
Peace, Father Bruce