Call ex-Catholics home
For every Catholic parent, it is a question of perennial concern: will their children continue to practise the faith beyond their day of confirmation?

“Pope Francis has flung open the doors of the Church, even as many Catholics had not noticed that they had been seen to be closed.” (CNS photo/Octavio Duran)
Clearly, many children do not. In Europe, observers speak of Christianity in terms of erosion and even demise. In the United States, the Catholic Church is the biggest single religious group; the second-biggest is said to be lapsed Catholics.
Indeed, the Church’s New Evangelisation efforts place the missionary focus not so much on the so-called “unchurched”, but on those baptised Catholics who have become detached from their Christian beliefs.
In South Africa the secularisation of society has not yet reached such alarming proportions as in Europe, and the question of how to “win back” inactive Catholics is still nascent.
However, even here the secularist agenda is finding an increasingly receptive audience, separating many cradle Catholics from God.
This is no doubt aided by media which pretend that religious faith is of no public relevance — except in cases of scandal and the election of new popes — and religious bodies, including the Catholic Church, which do not succeed in asserting their public presence.
Not all who leave the Catholic Church do so for a life of no faith. Many join evangelical and pentecostal churches (or, worse, prosperity cults), trading the sacraments, saints and apostolic succession for what they perceive to be superior fellowship, greater vigour in worship and a more intense focus on Christ.
The Catholic Church in Southern Africa has no apparent programme to win back lapsed Catholics, or those who have left for the unaffiliated churches. Indeed, research into why Catholics leave the Church and how they can be persuaded to return remains largely unexplored.
Some of those who take an interest in these questions suggest that the New Evangelisation should not focus on the 18-35 age group.
Instead, they argue, the time to reach out to lapsed Catholics is when such people are about to enter the middle years of their lives, when they are mature and possibly more open to settle for answers in the human quest for spiritual nourishment. This approach may have merit.
At the same time, the Church must reach out to every Catholic who, for whatever reason, has left to join other churches or none.
Before all this can take place, however, the Church must identify the reasons why Catholics become alienated from the Church in which they grew up, as well as whether and how these reasons can be addressed.
Closing the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelisation in the Vatican just over a year ago, Pope Benedict XVI said: “Besides traditional and perennially valid pastoral methods, the Church seeks to adopt new ones, developing a new language, attuned to the different world cultures.”
He called on us all to work harder to redress a situation “where the light of faith has grown dim and people have drifted away from God, no longer considering him relevant for their lives”.
Arguably Pope Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, has by sheer force of personality and energy reignited some interest in the Church. By shifting the emphasis on public discourse on some issues, he has also changed the conversation about the Church.
Indeed, Pope Francis’ tone may well be, in part, a conscious strategy of engagement with those who have become indifferent, dubious or even hostile towards the Church. If this is so, then it seems to be having the desired effect.
Pope Francis has flung open the doors of the Church, even as many Catholics had not noticed that they had been seen to be closed.
The Year of Faith, which is coming to a close at the end of this month, was intended to animate the New Evangelisation effort.
With the guidance of the Holy Father, we must build on the Year of Faith: to listen to alienated Catholics without judging them, to meet their needs where we can, to impart to them the sense of hope and optimism we draw from walking on the pilgrimage of life with our Lord.
And this is an evangelisation effort that must involve all the faithful, from bishops to laity.
- Archbishop Tlhagale: The ‘Gangster’ - February 7, 2025
- Bishop Edward Risi: The Liturgist - February 5, 2025
- Archbishop Nubuasah: Apostle of the Batswana - February 3, 2025