Editor:
Your article “Survey finds signs of hope among younger Catholics” (Feb. 26 issue, by Nancy Frazier O’Brien, Catholic News Service) was correct that there are both positive and negative signs in the attitudes among younger Catholics. A major problem facing the church, however, is the number of young people with a Catholic heritage who do not consider themselves Catholic at all. And certainly that reflects attitudes of the parents as much as the children.
I found that very clearly in doing research for my recent book “Life Happens. How Catholic Baby Boomers Coped with a Changing World” (details at www.annlo.com). In interviews with 64 members of the Class of 1966 at Morris Catholic High School in northern New Jersey, I found that only about one-third of those graduates are still practicing Catholics today. And how they define “practicing Catholic” is a far cry from the much stricter way their parents would have interpreted the term.
And the number of their now-grown children who are active in the faith is dramatically lower than even that percentage. Only about 10 percent of the children of those Catholic high school graduates are active Catholics today by any stretch of the definition.
The shortage of priests is a well recognized problem. I suggest that the shortage of future parishioners might be an even more critical issue facing the church.
Charles W. Nutt
Vineland
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