The "Empty Pews" Survey-Part I: The Church as Business

I have never struggled over a post the way I've struggled over this one.  When I first read that the Trenton, NJ diocese had sponsored a survey questioning "fallen away" Catholics as to the reasons they stopped participating in the Church, I was sympathetic.  The survey focused, as one might assume, on the participants' experience in their parishes, since that is the first and main contact a person has with the Church.  Some of the reasons given for leaving the Church, as Fr. Robert Barron points out in his commentary, touch on things that are out of the parish's control, like the Church teachings on marriage, divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, and abortion and contraception, to name a few hot button issues.  Others are very much under our control, like the rudeness of parish staff, the arrogance or aloofness of priests, the poor quality of the Sunday homily, and the general lack of accompaniment many respondents felt on their spiritual journey.  The study released to the public contains anecdotes of insensitive priests and bumbling receptionists to drive the points home.  It forced me to make an examination of conscience.  At a certain point though, I became angry, and as I began to write I found my tone harsh, so I stopped to recollect myself a little more, so as not to give a simple reaction, but a more thoughtful response.

My first thoughts are that there was nothing I read that took me by surprise.  The complaints are not new, and in fact I could tell stories worse than the ones I read in the articles I surveyed.  I've known rude receptionists, heard stories of unimaginably insensitive priests, and even had to deal with a few myself over the years.  I too have been guilty of being short with people, and make no excuses for it.  While there is never an excuse for a priest to be rude or insensitive, the conversation on this topic strikes me as terribly one sided, and the entire approach flawed.

The survey was conducted by a Jesuit priest who teaches in the business school at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia and a layman (I'm presuming) who is involved with a church management institute at Villanova.   All well and good; following their training they designed this to be like exit interviews a corporate business does with employees who move on.  But a survey of this kind, and of any kind claiming to be scientific, is only as valuable as it's accuracy in reporting.  The first thing that got my attention was that the respondents were overwhelmingly white; better than ninety percent.  This may have been a representative sampling of the Church in the U.S. in 1950, but not today.  I'm not privy to the other internals of the study, but is it a wild assumption to figure that a good portion of the sampling fall into the category of the suburban middle class?   Their opinion is important, but is it representative of the greater diversity that is in the Church today?  Maybe this fits the average demographic of Trenton, that sponsored the study, but does it help me in an urban, immigrant setting?

Beyond the demographic questions I have, the entire business modal approach makes me uncomfortable.  Many responded that they left because the pastors only talked about money and fundraising; they see the Church as a business.  A valid complaint.  I'm on record stating that I believe we have too many second collections, for instance, and I know people who either left or changed parishes because their pastor made constant, and in some cases crass, appeals for money.  In my experience people are usually willing and even eager to give to their parishes, but not to the diocese because they view it as a big corporate bureaucracy always asking for more.  It is a catch 22 of sorts; the parishes and the diocese need money to function; in that way we're no different from a business or even a family, for that matter.  At the same time pastors do need to be sensitive to the economic situation of the people they serve, as well as their need for spiritual nourishment.  If the faithful feel that their spiritual needs are being met, they are naturally generous with their time and treasure without having to be harangued.  

But I have also dealt with many people who themselves treat the Church like it's an extension of the service industry; they made a donation, (more often their parents or grand parents made donations decades ago), and now they want a wedding, baptism or some other sacramental service, for themselves or for their adult child who too often hasn't seen the inside of a church since confirmation.  Quite frankly these McDonald's Catholics, as I call them, treat the parish like a drive thru and are often the most demanding people of all.  Do they live in the area anymore?  No.  Do they participate in the liturgy here regularly?  No.  Are they active in the parish where they live?  No.  Do I ever see them again after we acquiesce to their wishes?  Almost never.  For them life in the Church is not about forming community, not about conversion in the Spirit, not about service to neighbor.  It's about getting what I want, how I want it, when I want it, with a side of absolution, hold the guilt, no waiting and please don't call, I'll be back when I need something else.  Does a kindness to a long departed parishioner help bring them back into the life of the Church?  Sometimes, and you could argue that it's worth the 50 undeserving and ungrateful for the one person who's sincere, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating, or make the claim that the clergy treats everything like a business seem any less hypocritical, at least from some corners.

The root problem is that too many of us, clergy and laity, treat the Church, even unintentionally, like a business, so I'm not sure that evaluating our work using business tools is really a help.  Right now our Salesian province is doing a broad evaluation of our works based on evangelization criteria, that in it's own way takes into account many of the issues (at least the "controllable" ones) I see addressed in this study.  Rather than looking at it from the standpoint of customer service it does it from the standpoint of building a community that proclaims the Good News and seeks to know and address the needs, both spiritual and material, of the people we serve, leading them on a road to ongoing conversion in the Lord, not simply to a better shopping experience.  Until we shift the paradigm, (wink, wink, nudge nudge), I'm not sure the perceptions, or the reality, are going to change.

That said, there certainly is food for thought in the survey.  Other complaints that were pretty prominent were on the low quality of the preaching, and the priest as rule imposer rather than spiritual guide or teacher.  I'll hit those next time.