In one article I read recently, in Nation magazine, written by Matt Hardo, there was this eye-catching headline: “Why Catholics are leaving the faith by age 10.” The most common reason given for leaving the Catholic faith was that they stopped believing in God or religion. They wanted proof, evidence of what they’re learning about their religion and God. And this leads to popular trend in our culture: to see atheism as “smart” and the faith as “a fairy tale.”

In another article R.J. Snell, writing in Crisis Magazine, gets me to better understand this when he writes: “Faith is being lost mostly through utter indifference. Yes, he admits, there are principled atheists who have thought the matter through and made a commitment against faith." Yes, he agrees, there are those deeply wounded and alienated by someone or something in the Church. He mourns for them and prays for their healing.

But many, many more simply drift away because the faith doesn’t matter; they just don’t see it as meaningful or relevant. And it’s not that they reject- ed the faith; it’s just that the faith wasn’t offered with enough content to reject it, so they simply ignored it. For them, the author declares, I am angry. Not angry at them; I am angry for them—because it’s not their fault.

They were taught (on behalf of the Church, from the Church, and by “some of those” in the Church) that the Host was empty, that sacred things were not, that rites and customs were old fashioned, moral duties mere sugges- tions, God was not holy and to be feared, that all of Jesus’ teaching could be neatly summarized by simply: “be nice and don’t hurt anybody unless abso- lutely necessary to gain some advantage.”