Book Review
Paths of Departure
Mass Exodus: Catholic Disaffiliation in Britain and America Since Vatican II, 2nd ed. by Stephen Bullivant
Oxford University Press, 2019
(305 pages, $32.95, hardcover)
Stephen Bullivant teaches the Theology and Sociology of Religion at St. Mary's University in London. In Mass Exodus: Catholic Disaffiliation in Britain and America Since Vatican II, he examines the massive departure of Catholics from the church since Vatican II, with the implied question: Was it because of Vatican II?
In both countries, a major portion of those raised as Catholics no longer identify as Catholic: 34 percent in the United States, 44 percent in Great Britain. In Britain, such people tend to have no religion; in America, they often join another church, usually an Evangelical church. In numbers, that means that 29.5 million Americans are former Catholics, of whom 13 million have joined a different Christian church and 14.8 million have no religion. Britain has 3.2 million disaffiliated Catholics, of whom 2.7 million have no religion and only 0.4 million have joined another Christian church.
The Catholic Church has a higher rate of retention than Protestant churches do, but much of the disaffiliation in Protestant churches involves switching from one denomination to another, which does not involve the same type of break as departure from the Catholic Church. Catholic men are more likely to depart than women, and the young more than the old. Of those who remain in the Catholic Church, regular Mass attendance (self-reported) has dropped from 75 percent in the 1950s to 25 percent today; Protestant attendance was lower to start with but has dropped much less (and in some statistics I have seen, it is now higher than Catholic attendance).
Catholic Church-leavers give varied reasons for their departure. Surveys, including one that Bullivant directed, indicate that the main reasons are disagreement with the church's teaching about the family (divorce and remarriage) and sexuality, including contraception, same-sex "marriage," clerical celibacy, and the ordination of women. Others left because of painful experiences with clergy or congregations, either neglect or rudeness. A significant minority left because of disagreement with the changes that followed Vatican II. Older leavers tend to retain some links to Catholicism; the younger leavers much less so.
Social Ties & CREDS
Social network theory explains the transmission of belief by the density of social relations. When everyone you know believes something, you will also tend to believe it. In decades past, such networks characterized urban parishes in the United States and Britain. These communities exemplified what Peter Berger called plausibility structures. This was the Catholic subculture or, to its critics, the Catholic ghetto.
The psychologist Joe Henrich hypothesized that "Credibility Enhancing Displays," or CREDS, are important to faith; in short, "human beings are significantly more likely to adopt a belief if those proposing it to them are seen to live out the 'costly' implications of it." Or, as the motto goes, Practice what you preach. Such CREDS characterized Catholicism in America and Britain: rosary crusades, daily family recitation of the rosary, pilgrimages, Forty Hours Devotion, street festivals celebrating saints, Friday abstinence from meat, fasting from midnight to receive Communion, and large families.
The social mixing during World War II brought people into contact with different religions and cultures. Post-war education created prosperity, which led to suburbanization, which dissolved close-knit parishes. Pressure for change, to make Catholicism "relevant" to the new situation, grew in some circles throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. And then came Vatican II.
The Council's Failure
Leon J. Podles holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, has worked as a teacher and a federal investigator, and is president of the Crossland Foundation. He is the author of The Church Impotent (Spence), Sacrilege (Crossland Press), and Losing the Good Portion: Why Men Are Alienated from Christianity (St. Augustine Press). Dr. Podles and his wife have six children and live in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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