Why do fewer Catholics go to mass? We hear many answers: loss of faith, the impact of secularization, the decline in leisure time, the explosion of alternative leisure activities, the “permissive” culture, the failure of Vatican II reforms, the scandal of clergy sex abuse, church teaching against contraception—all these are offered to explain the apparent change among American Catholics. I don’t really disagree with any of these explanation; they may all be partly true. But I have come to suspect they all over-explain the change. In my opinion, the problem is not that there’s been so much change for worse. The problem is, there hasn’t been much change at all!
Think of it this way: back in the “golden age,” say 50 years ago, most churches were full, often several times a weekend. But we shouldn’t fool ourselves that people had more faith then. Remember, Catholics were taught that missing even one Sunday Mass meant an eternity in Hell. Most of the people at Mass then were just going through the motions. They were “token” Catholics, a captive audience doing the minimum required of them. They couldn’t see what the priest was doing or hear what he was saying, so they spent their time saying the rosary, or daydreaming, or sleeping, or talking, or standing at the back of the church. Very few worshippers actually followed the mass itself, using a Latin-English missal, and none participated in any active way (except the altar boys). At Communion time, very few people (maybe 15-20%) came forward to receive the Eucharist. The rest stayed in their seats, or even headed the opposite way, out the door. In many cases, the number leaving early exceeded the number receiving Eucharist.
Vatican II was supposed to encourage people to go beyond the minimum, to take their faith more seriously, to renew themselves. What happened? For many people, nothing happened, except the minimum requirements changed. Today few Catholics believe the gates of heaven close for someone who misses Mass. In other words, times have changed—and with them, the definition of what it means to be a “token” catholic. Now, instead of “going through the motions” at Mass every Sunday, the token Catholics “go through the motions” by showing up to make sure every family milestone (baptism, first communion, confirmation, wedding, and funeral) gets blessed. So Catholic life still continues for them—but the minimum requirements have changed.
For these people, the Catholic Church still counts in their lives—but the parish is no longer their place of worship. At best, they treat it like their own private family chapel. At worst, they’ve reduced it to the ATM of their spiritual lives, useful but not important—and only useful as long as it’s convenient.
During Vatican II, my father was skeptical of its outcome. “I bet a lot of priests,” he said, “will be just as good at mumbling the English as they ever were at mumbling the Latin.” The key word, of course, was mumbling: none of Vatican II’s reforms could work if people—whether priests or laity—kept on “mumbling” their way through the motions of Catholic life. It even looks like “mumbling” is hereditary, since the “ATM” Catholics of today are mostly the children and grandchildren of the “go through the motions” mass-goers of 50 years ago.
Why does this matter? Because if all that’s changed are the “mumblers” habits, we shouldn’t fool ourselves with bogus nostalgia for a “golden age” that never existed. Yes, the churches were full—but mostly they were full of “mumblers” who added nothing to our celebration of Mass except body heat and a few bucks.
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