Towards a better understanding of issues and pastoral insights on the Catholic disaffiliation

Abstract

The main issue raised in this article is the significant decline in the number of practising Catholics in the Western world, including United Kingdom. For example, statistical data indicates that only 13% of cradle Catholics in Britain say they attend Mass weekly. Of those raised Catholic, 37% say they have “no religion”. Several extensive quantitative and qualitative research projects were initiated in the UK in the last few decades, and by supporting many of these projects with young adults and adults, the Catholic Church in England attempted to understand the extent of the issues and how they can be addressed. Respondents indicated multiple reasons for their disaffiliation, such as personal issues, changes in individual circumstances and world views, and painful lived experiences in the Church. Several respondents revealed that they consider themselves Catholics and actively involved in the Church life. However, they do not attend Church on Sundays regularly nor pray. The article presents some insights of the well-known Catholic theologians on the issues of disaffiliation in the context of the Vatican II implementation and missed opportunities by the Church to communicate moral teaching. It suggests to follow Pope Francis’ encouragement to experiment in our pastoral endeavours and Mallon’s “unconditional love” approach.