This is the question posed by a recent special on NPR More Young People Are Moving Away From Religion, But Why? One-fifth of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, and those younger than 30 especially seem to be drifting from organized religion.
Regardless of the answers offered in this article the question is something members of the Vincentian Family must face especially in this Year of Faith and Evangelization. What do you think?
Tags: evangelization, Year of Faith, Youth
Fr. Barron takes a crack at this…
I found the responses from Fr.Barron’s survey quite interesting. I think they are similar to what the responses would be if a similar survey were to be conducted in my parish. In addition to the arrogance of some priests, bad preaching, and people feeling undervalued, I think that many persons have left my parish because of the perceived partiality/favouritism by priests. Many people are searching and feel that their deep needs are not being met. I also believe that if priests were prepared to listen to what parishioners are saying about them and to see it as constructive criticism, things could be resolved and there would be more unity in the church. Priests do not know everything. They most definitely know more theology than the parishioners, but they need to lshow that they really care about ALL their parishioners.