Pew Research: Are Catholics Leaving the Church for the Bible?

So it would seem. The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey put out recently by the Pew Research Center reveals that large numbers* of Catholics are leaving the Church, often in order to join Protestant Evangelical traditions who place strong emphasis on knowing and living the Bible.

And one of the main reasons these former Catholics give for leaving the Catholic Church is that they don't feel their parish offers them a meaningful encounter with Sacred Scripture.

Here's what Thomas Reese reports in the National Catholic Reporter: "Ex-Catholics are not flocking to the evangelicals because they think the Catholic church is politically too liberal. They are leaving to get spiritual nourishment from worship services and the Bible."

Reese points out that "Thanks to Pope Pius XII, Catholic scripture scholars have had decades to produce the best thinking on scripture in the world. That Catholics are leaving to join evangelical churches because of the church teaching on the Bible is a disgrace."

Now, that last statement seems to "stretch" the research a bit. It doesn't seem to be church teaching on the Bible that is given as the reason for leaving. Rather, it seems that typical Catholic spiritual and liturgical practices around the Bible may be problematic and need to be "beefed up" in many parishes.

Reese redeems himself, though, when he goes on to affirm precisely what Vatican II and the world-wide bishops have been saying for nearly fifty years--and what Pope Benedict XVI insists in his recent exhortation, Verbum Domini.

"The church needs a massive Bible education program," writes Reese. "If we could get Catholics to read the Sunday scripture readings each week before they come to Mass, it would be revolutionary."

The numbers suggest that the pope, the bishops, and Mr. Reese are right on target. The mission of the Hartford Catholic Biblical School is to provide exactly the kind of serious, meaningful encounter with Scripture that adult Christians need and crave.

*According to the Pew Research Center, one out of three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic.