Report: "Younger Catholics Becoming Increasingly Liberal, Studies Show"

An article published by the Christian Post today summarizes the findings of University of Connecticut Professor William d’Antonio in his recently released book American Catholics Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Church, in which he claims to confirm a consistent trend: "...in every survey since 1987, younger Catholics have become increasingly more liberal and less practicing in their faith and values."

I have a couple reactions to his claims.

First, polls are never a guaranteed guide to assessing intangible attitudes like "liberal," and they normally ignore other salient aspects of the questions they attempt to directly answer. However, I agree that it is reasonable to claim there has been a general trend towards embracing "liberal" points of view among youth.

I have to wonder, however, if the end of this trend isn't already in sight. In many ways these polls reveal the long-term fallout of the sexual revolution and other social events from the 70's and 80's. As a result, the youth who are graduating, attending or entering college nowadays have had to more radically "choose" (and make sacrifices for) their faith. In other words, because of the many challenges leveled against religion nowadays, those who have remained faithful to conservative ideals and orthodox positions now constitute a vibrant, tested - albeit numerically diminished - force in today's world.

So I wouldn't count the battle lost yet. Indeed, they have not yet begun to fight.

One need only witness the active Catholic campuses, youth groups, websites, blogs, seminaries, young professionals and married couples to see the movement flourishing. And frankly, most of them are too busy living their faith to answer pollsters.