A few weeks ago, Carol Ann posted a graph of the Hispanic population in the U.S. in 1980 and 2000. Courtesy of Cliff Grammich with the Religious Congregations and Membership Study, we now have a graph showing Hispanic population growth from 2000 to 2010. Continue reading
In response to my post about Vatican II, someone noted the contrast with our current moment and described feeling like the Church is suffering collective deffervescence. (Perhaps I should call it de-effervescence, but I liked the neologism. So, I stole it for this post.)
Certainly, we live in challenging times for the Catholic Church, especially in the U.S. and places like Ireland. There is also no doubt that priest abuse scandals are the opposite of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church. Such things are sure to lead to increased feelings of disengagement and decline. But, I also think that there are positive forces at work in the Church as well, and it is important that we not lose sight of these positive forces for renewal. I guess I am less pessimistic than many when I look at the Church in the US today. I see so much good and know that evil cannot prevail! Continue reading
Carol Ann mentioned Melissa Wilde’s book on Vatican II, and I think it is a hugely important book in the Sociology of Religion, and one well worth exploring in more detail on this blog. Below is a short excerpt from my own part in an Authors Meets Critics Session for the book held almost 5 years ago:
“With Vatican II: A Sociological Analysis of Religious Change, Melissa Wilde has written a book that people will want to read, and it is a book that should be read. Writing in the kind of prose, that so many of us wish we could write but so few of us can, she outlines a simple, elegant argument for understanding why Vatican II changed some things and not others, and also why it changed anything at all.
Carol Ann identified several important questions that I want to explore in future posts.
For this post, I want to explore her insight regarding the underlying question for many of “why this issue now?” (a battle over contraception at a time of economic hardship for millions?) As she recognizes, it is not an either/or choice and certain Church leaders self-consciously speak out on both sets of issues. Furthermore, the selection of this particular issue at this particular time was driven by the creation of new rules by HHS administration.
But, still, this sentiment, which she identifies, helps us to think about and ask “Which issues (e.g., abortion vs. poverty) are discussed, debated, and focused on in the public arena and by whom?”
I have done research on this topic and my results suggest that Catholic identity politics are intimately connected to these distinctions. In my graphs for this post, I simply show which domain (and issue) is emphasized as “strongly connected to ultimate principles of right and wrong” according to self-identified religious identity.
It is clear that traditional Catholics are most likely to see cultural issues of abortion and same-sex marriage as moral issues, whereas liberal Catholics are most likely to see economic issues of health care and poverty as moral issues. This bifurcation in the moral worldview of Catholics helps us to understand current dynamics, but it also allows us to see the way in which the Catholic Church in the U.S. is fragmented. This is both understandable and potentially troubling.
Transcending (though not necessarily eliminating) such identity divisions will likely be an important task for the Church in the U.S. moving forward.
Brian and Gary’s recent posts dealing with the current debates over contraception and health care have highlighted several of the important sociological elements of the debate–issues of the sacred versus profane, the decline of religious authority and the framing of issues. Much of the discourse around this debate seems to be about religious freedom and what it means in the constitutional sense but also how average people interpret it.
A little over a week ago, I presented the puzzle of liberal Catholics who disagree with the Church about contraception, but who felt betrayed when Obama enacted their contraceptive preferences into public policy. Gary recently weighed in on the debate and highlighted some deeper questions that need to be asked, but I also promised to provide my own solutions to this puzzle. So, here we go—I will begin with the simplest or most parsimonious explanation for liberal Catholics’ response:
Theory 1: Framing– Sociologists often emphasize the importance of framing in political discourse. Sometimes the notion of framing is seen as (or reduced to) a manipulation of meanings and situations. And, at times, there can be an element of truth to this. But the larger truth is that framing illustrates the role of context and history in shaping meaning, and a frame must be understand as the coming together of several different meaningful elements into a single whole.
Continue reading
These past few weeks have been something of a church and state wrestling match:
Now that the Catholic Conversation has been successfully running for awhile we are going to start doing a monthly compendium highlighting the topics that have been discussed over the previous month (or in this case the last 6 or 7 weeks):
With the implementation of the New Translation of the Roman Missal during Advent, Brian Starks wrote several posts on the topic–one exploring his own personal experience with the New Translation and another highlighting videos on the topic. Additionally Brian and Lucas Sharma both blogged about ideas and called for sociological research on the New Mass Translation, and Mike McCallion discussed research on the placement of the tabernacle in the post-Vatican II era and linked these decisions to a liturgical movement.
In addition to the topic of the New Mass Translation, Carol Ann MacGregor has blogged about and provided research data regarding the decline of women religious and the growth of Hispanic populations and the possible effects these demographic changes are having on American Catholicism. She also reflected on the news of Catholic school closures in Philadelphia and presented graphical data depicting changes in the number of school aged children enrolled in Catholic schools over time.
Gary Adler explored research on the the impact of congregational mission trips. He also recalled Catholics’ historic connection to Saul Alinsky and mentioned recent sociological research hinting at the important benefits which have accrued to congregational communities as a result of that unique connection.
More recently, the topic of the New Evangelization and reflection on the Catholics Come Home campaign have emerged. In discussing Catholics Come Home, we highlighted research and discussion by Mark Gray at CARA on whether or not these programs will or have had the desired effects in bringing Catholics into the fold long term. We also mentioned the ICL YouTube channel and showed a video of Archbishop Dolan discussing Human Dignity at Notre Dame.
Catholic Books Review was highlighted as a great source of information on what to read, and we discussed books on contemporary trends in American Religion and Latino Catholicism in particular. Looking at articles instead of books, we blogged about second graders’ first experiences with the Sacrament of Reconciliation and research on religion and health, specifically an article on religious doubt and sleep quality.
Finally, though this blog serves to provide research, data, and opinions on sociological research on the Catholic Church around the country, it can also provide a place for parishioners to reflect on their experiences of Church. Brian, in one of his posts, shared the story of a parishioner’s reflection on how his parish felt to him like family, and we hope that readers will share more such stories with us.
The Archdiocese of Detroit (AOD) has been engaged in a planning process called Together In Faith since 2000, and this process surfaced “New Evangelization” and “youth ministry” as top priorities for the diocese to address. However, little or no research on the New Evangelization (NE), from a sociological perspective, has been conducted.
Sociologists have not even answered basic questions, such as, “How many parishes have a NE committee?” or “How many people have heard of the NE?” Consequently, I started a research project on the NE in the AOD. After several years in the field, 3 telephone surveys of parish offices, and the administration of a social survey to six suburban parishes, I am prepared to present some basic descriptive statistics on how many parishes within the AOD have NE committees and how many parishioners have heard of the NE.
We want to thank everybody who has participated in The Catholic Conversation blog and who has contributed to its successful start. We are continuing to grow and to develop this initiative but as in any organization we are looking to settle on a logo that will be the face of CSPRI and the Catholic Conversation blog. As participants in this initiative we find it important to ask for your input as we try to discern what would be an appropriate logo. We have narrowed the options to two logos and are asking for you to help us decide between the two. If you would like to vote on an option we ask you to comment on the post letting us know which option you prefer. Thanks again for your participation and we look forward to unveiling the CSPRI logo soon!
