Spinning Dogma

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 25, 2000 | by Larry Witham

Catholics debate the value of research to direct the church in an era of change.

When the U.S. Catholic bishops debated solutions to a priest shortage this spring, they referred to research done by CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. "CARA's only agenda is to advance the research needs of the Catholic Church and its decisionmakers," says Bryan T Froehle, director of the 35-year-old institute based at Georgetown University in Washington. "We have a passion for the social-science research method and a passion for serving the church."

But research can rock the boat. The CARA report -- now a plumb line for church strategy to recruit more priests or shift to lay ministry -- revealed that 27 percent of Catholic parishes have no resident priest. Moreover, more priests are older than 90 than younger than 30, although the United States has the best priest-to-parishioner ratio in the world.

"Some people see that as a sign of gloom and doom," says Mary L. Gautier, a CARA senior researcher. "But it depends on whether you want to see the glass half-full or half-empty."

CARA is compiling a "portrait" of world Catholicism, a multivolume project scheduled for completion next year. The book on U.S. Catholics, Catholicism USA, is full of facts that demand half-full or half-empty interpretations of the nation's largest religious group.

To put the priest question in perspective, for example, Catholicism USA shows that the nation had fewer priests before 1950 than it does today. True, while younger American Catholics often are less institutionally loyal, they tend to

revere the theology of the Eucharist and Mary and the ethic of service. "Catholic young adults tend to have a greater sense of identity as Catholics than young adults of other religious traditions," says Froehle.

What is more, the church is uniquely continental, a mosaic of ethnicities, regions and age groups that matches closely the general demographics of the United States. "There are stereotypes and generalizations -- `Catholics are this, or Catholics are that,'" says Gautier. "We take great delight in putting holes in conventional wisdom."

Although not the only place for research on Catholicism, CARP, is a hub for a variety of scholars and advocacy groups. It shares data and conducts polls for Catholic parishes, dioceses or educational groups and specialists in the field, such as Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute. Royal is promoting the health of the Catholic tradition by seeking more detail on Catholic attitudes.

"Polling is a useful thing in the modern world," says Royal. "But you don't say that Moses, Jesus or Buddha drew conclusions based on focus groups and popularity polls." The data may show a weakening of Catholic organizational loyalty or disagreement with papal teachings on sexual morality, but the experiential part of the church eludes data. "The real energy across the board is in the more traditional expressions of faith," says Royal. "It's a countercultural energy. You sometimes have to get beyond the numbers to appreciate this existential weight."

More liberal reform group,; are avid users of data, however. In Cleveland, Sister Chris Shenk, founder of a group called Future Church, galvanized parishes there and around the country in support of lay and women's ordination after one well-noted study showed a priest shortage. "A little-known fact is how many lay ministers work behind the scenes to prepare worship and manage the parish," says Shenk. "People didn't believe it until we had some numbers."

Similarly, Sister Maureen Fiedler of Catholics Speak Out uses opinion polls frequently to make her case for change. "There is an increasing gap between the views of the laity and the view of the hierarchy on internal church issues," she says.

At CARA, the social scientists know that advocacy groups often use research data to argue a cause and may twist their real implications -- just as polling can be given a "spin" by partisan groups. "There's no question in my mind that that happens everywhere," says Froehle. "So what we want to provide is a context and well-established trends. I don't work on the premise that people are less religious or less spiritual but that times have changed. There are new issues out there, and the church has changed as well."

Portrait of a Catholic, American-Style

* Catholic views differ by generation: World War II Generation (ages 75 and up), Silent Generation (ages 67-74), Vatican II Generation (ages 40-66) and the Young Adult Generation (ages 19-39).

* One in three attend Mass weekly or twice a month.

* Catholics have the widest U.S. dispersion of any faith.

* Adult conversion in marriage has dropped, but baptism of children remains steady.

* Four in 10 Catholics are young adults.

* Catholics are statistically "overrepresented" in upper incomes and middle incomes.

* Eighty-five percent say faith is "very" or "somewhat" important. Three-quarters are "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with the church and its leaders.