Many, if not most, of my Catholic friends have adult children whom they raised in the Catholic faith but who no longer profess themselves Catholic.

Among these middle-aged or older parents, this fact often provokes discussion. They wonder how this happened, how their childrens’ strong Catholic upbringing did not “take.” Sometimes, they confess to being unhappy at this outcome.

Though I have not heard parents of other faiths talk about this subject, they may feel the same way. Observant parents ─ Protestants, Jewish, or Muslim ─ are unlikely to feel indifferent when their children reject the religion in which they grew up.

Many of these people probably do not realize that, for Americans, leaving their religion is a widespread tendency. In a poll published this year, the Pew Trust finds that “about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives.”

In the study, Pew discloses the reasons why Americans change religions or give up on religion altogether. Some of these findings challenge views that were long familiar to me and to many other people.

In my tradition, people would describe those who left the church as “fallen away Catholics.” We used to consider them unfaithful to the truths that were imparted to them as children. They were regarded with a kind of disapproval because they had dared turn away from “the one true Church.”

But nowadays, fully one-tenth of all adult Americans are former Catholics. This means that some 30 million people used to belong to the church but no longer do.

That fact alone serves to change the way the attitude of those of us who have stayed with the church toward those who have not. There are so many leavers.
And, in fact, most Catholics, in my experience, now treat the leavers, not with disapproval but with respect. The fact of their having left does not mean that  we treat them as outcasts. Nor do our clergy.

Most of the leavers, Pew informs us, depart before the age of 24. And many change religions or churches more than once.

Some of those who leave the Catholic church join other churches or religious groups. But others join the ranks of the people the pollsters call “unaffiliated.” This category includes atheists, agnostics, and people who are simply indifferent to religion.

The reasons discovered for the large leakage of young people from the Catholic Church might come as a surprise. By and large, they leave because they no longer believe in the church’s teaching. Almost one-half give this as their reason for becoming unaffiliated.

However, other reasons are cited by a large number of people who have abandoned religion altogether. Many have ceased to believe in God and in what most religions teach.

They may also have left, the Pew study finds, “because they think of religious people as hypocritical or judgmental, because religious organizations focus too much on rules, or because religious leaders are too focused on power and money.”

Incidentally, only about a third of the Catholic leavers cite the clergy sexual abuse scandal as the motivating factor for their departure. This also has to come as a surprise, given the gravity of those offenses and the widespread publicity they have received.

Given my own experience as a lifelong Catholic, I tend to ask questions such as these: Was the faith badly taught? Did it seem part of an oppressive discipline that had to be rejected? Or was religion connected with childhood and perceived as not fit for maturity?

Left to myself, I also tend to see American culture as a huge influence in young people’s decisions about religion. Some aspects of our pop culture can be seen as favorable to religion, but many others are not.

The Pew study would seem to answer my questions more simply. I can imagine the researchers responding that my questions are irrelevant. That’s because the answer is simple: Americans change.

Mark Gray, a research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, has helped me refine my interpretation of the survey.

He points out, for example, that not all the Catholic departures are happening right now. Rather, they reflect the actions of people over a period of time ─ fifty years or so.

By and large, he says, Catholics are notable, not for leaving, but for staying with the church. Some 68 percent keep to their original religion, whereas among Protestants the rate is lower. However, among major religions, the retention rate of Jews and Muslims is the highest.

The Pew Trusts speaks of “the churn within American religion.” I like this term because it graphically suggests what is going on among so many of our people.

Sometimes that churn can cause dismay within families, but that may be the price of membership in a dynamic society that offers many free choices, not least about religion.

Richard Griffin