Former Catholics

US News and World Report ran a cover story recently on the state of Catholic Church in America. I was stunned by how poorly things are going.

• The abuse scandal cost the Church in America $1.5 billion.
• Only 70% approve of the Pope and only 17% believe abortion is always wrong.
  
• Catholics in America are about one third Latino, but that will be 50% in 25 years (I consider this a negative, not because I'm anti-Latino in any way, but because it says the Catholic church is dependent on immigration and not evangelism.
• 1 of 3 Americans were raised Catholic but 1 of 10 Americans were raised Catholic and left the Church. Only 3% of Americans joined the Catholic Church as adults.
• More Catholics leave the religion of their childhood than any other church.
• Only 19% of Catholics born since 1981 go to confession yearly.
• In the last 40 years the Church has lost one-third of its priests and two-thirds of its religious sisters, while over six times as many parishes don't have a a resident priest.
  

I know we have a lot of former Catholics in our church family and by-in-large they seem to judge their experience with Catholicism harshly. In fact, they usually describe their transition from Catholicism to Christianity as "when I was saved" or "when I became a believer." That's pretty harsh condemnation in my book.

My chief interaction with the Catholic Church professionally is on social issues like abortion, in which they are my allies. But the Church seems to affect a powerful loyalty to (fear of?) "the Church" even in its non-practicing members and my job is to convince people to be devoted to Jesus Christ and him alone. So I'm not really competing with my congregation verses the local parish; I'm persuading Catholics and Protestants alike to put Christ above every other loyalty.