Rich Thoughts

Some Catholics long for a return to how the Church functioned in the United States in the middle of the 20th century. Back then, in parts of the country, parishes were the hub of almost every neighborhood. Children attended the local parish school. Entire families came every week for Mass and confession. Parents volunteered with various parish ministries, and brought their young adult children to parish social functions, where they met their future spouses and began the next generation of the cycle. Parishes and schools were staffed by an array of priests, religious brothers, and religious sisters, with very few lay employees.

There are many reasons why things have changed since the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, ranging from the increase in the middle class, the rise of secular social organizations, and the establishment of the interstate highway system. The reforms of Vatican II – which encouraged us as Church to reexamine the way we celebrate liturgy and relate to our non-Catholic neighbors – also had an influence, but demographers have come to recognize another important element. For good or for ill, we now understand that mid-20th -century American Catholicism was an anomaly in the life of the Church, rather than the rule.

In the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, there was a huge upswing in people participating in Catholic life. The seminaries and convents were full. Parishes and schools were bursting at the seams. Now, as the numbers of parishes, priests, and religiously professed around the country – especially in the northeast – dwindle from the pinnacle of the 1950s, it’s easy to view the smaller numbers as a loss, a sign that Catholicism is failing. But in many ways, we’re simply returning to religious participation more in line with how things were in the early 20th century. For example, the number of Paulist Fathers today, while much less than in the 1960s, is similar to the number of Paulists there were in the 1920s.

What caused the great upswing in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s? Think about the social and economic cataclysms that our grandparents and great-grandparents survived in the years before that: World War I, the 1918 flu pandemic, the Great Depression, and World War II. People coming of age at that time faced profound questions of purpose and mortality – I think many of them turned to the Church and religious life to seek insight and understanding.

As devastating as the Covid-19 pandemic has been in the United States and continues to be throughout much of the world, it pales in comparison to the collective suffering that our ancestors experienced between 1914 and 1945. And yet, the pandemic is inspiring the same questions about purpose and mortality that our grandparents and great-grandparents had. As people are vaccinated, they return to communion with tears in their eyes. People are requesting appointments for help in processing all that they have gone through in the isolation of the past 15 months. It’s too early to be certain, but this might be a record year for RCIA, the process for adults interested in becoming Catholic. (If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about RCIA, be sure to reach out to Rachel Vaughn, our Director of Faith Formation, at rvaughn@staustin.org.) And of course, if you know or meet someone with gifts suited to the priesthood, diaconate, or religious life, please invite them to consider it!