To say that times are tough for the Roman Catholic Church is an
understatement. Even as it tries to heal from the scandal epidemic
that exploded in the media last year, new incidents continue to
create setbacks. Last Wednesday, Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien, head of
the Phoenix Roman Catholic diocese, resigned after being arrested
for leaving the scene of an accident in which a pedestrian was
killed. The arrest came soon after O'Brien admitted to shielding
priests in his diocese accused of child sex abuse.
And as previously reported in The Gallup Poll Tuesday
Briefing, church attendance by Catholics is down, Catholics
give clergy a lower rating for honesty and ethics than do
Protestants, and fewer Catholics than Protestants have confidence
in organized religion (see Related Items). However, Catholics are
more confident in the church than they were last year (51% compared
to 42%), while Protestants show a smaller increase (from 59% to
62%).
Is a complete recovery possible for the Catholic Church? At the
local level, the answer is yes. While local parish priests may not
have a great deal of influence on the way the church hierarchy
conducts itself, they can greatly impact their members' sense of
belonging to their congregations. The keys to this type of recovery
are found in responses to Gallup's Congregational Engagement Index
survey*, conducted at the end of 2002.
Looking at Gallup's 12 congregational engagement items, (see
"The Driving Factor Behind Spiritual Health" in Related Items),
there are considerable differences between Catholics' and
Protestants' responses on 9 of the 12 items. While a significant
percentage of Catholics "strongly agree" that they know what is
expected of them as members of their churches (59%), that their
spiritual needs are met in their congregations (50%), and that they
have opportunities in their churches to learn and grow (51%), far
lower percentages strongly agree with each of the other items.
Based on these responses, it appears that a large percentage of
Catholics feel isolated and unappreciated as members of their
parishes. They feel isolated because they don't have a best friend
in their congregations, they don't feel that other members are
committed to spiritual growth, they don't feel that the spiritual
leaders care about them, no one encourages their spiritual
development, and no one is talking to them about the progress of
their spiritual growth. They feel unappreciated because they don't
have opportunities to do what they do best in their congregations,
they feel their opinions don't count, they don't feel their
participation is important, and they haven't received recognition
or praise recently for their work with the congregation.
What Is a Priest to Do?
Parish priests and other church leaders can begin to remedy this
situation by addressing these issues of isolation and perceived
lack of appreciation. The following three strategies can help get
the process started:
- Create opportunities for people to develop meaningful
relationships with each other. The most effective congregations
are those in which members feel like the church is their "second
family." This is true whether it is a church of 100 members or
10,000.
- Help people discover their strengths and help them find ways
to use those strengths in service to God. Members who find ways
to do what they do best to help their churches have far more
positive attitudes about them than those who do not.
- Create a climate of caring. While it may be impossible
for church leaders to personally know each member of their
parishes, they can still let people know that they care about them.
The care and concern leaders show for staff and other church
leaders will have a "trickle-down" effect throughout the
congregation.
While such approaches may seem like baby steps in the face of
the considerable image problems facing the Catholic Church, at the
local level helping members to develop or maintain a positive
attitude about their own congregations is a key ingredient to
restoring the church's health.
*Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,000 adult
members of a church, synagogue, or other religious faith community,
aged 18 and older, and 500 non-members, conducted in November and
December 2002. For results based on this sample, one can say with
95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is
±2.6%.
