The U.S. Catholic Church's Internal Self-evaluation

In October 2021, Pope Francis asked the worldwide membership of the Catholic Church to reflect on the church, its mission, and their membership.  As part of a two-year "Synod of Synodality" (you can see the Vatican's web site for the Synod here), leaders of local congregations (parishes) and local collections of congregations (dioceses) were to engage in dialogues with their members to gather information about their members' experiences and perspectives.  In the U.S., the local reports from this process were then to be sent to the national U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who would then create a summary for Catholicism as a whole in the U.S.  This summary -- called the National Synthesis -- was completed and sent to the Vatican in August 2022 and can be found here in pdf format.

This document provides an excellent look at the key issues and concerns of American Catholics who remain the largest religious denomination in the U.S.  So this study is worth a look.  It intends to reflect contributions from about 700,000 persons, so this was a large collective effort.

Several key issues are identified in the report as being of extreme importance to the study participants, and I will mention just a few of them.

The first issue mentioned is the sexual abuse within the Church.  The report states: "The sin and crime of sexual abuse has eroded not only trust in the hierarchy and the moral integrity of the Church, but also created a culture of fear that keeps people from entering into relationship with one another and thus from experiencing the sense of belonging and connections for which they yearn" (p. 5).

Another issue was "to be a more welcoming Church where all members of the People of God can find accompaniment on the journey. ...  People want the Church to be a home for the wounded and broken, not an institution for the perfect" (p. 7).  LGTBQ+, divorced, and those with special needs (e.g., deaf) members were identified as particularly in need of this welcoming, and there was a desire for women to have more leadership roles.

A third issue, called "co-responsibility" in the report (p. 11), is to find a better balance of the religious work between the clergy (the appointed religious leaders) and the laity (the member volunteers).  There was an expression that the laity can do more than they have been doing.

Yet other issues are mentioned so you can see the report for more details.  Of course, this report reflects the concerns of American Catholics who participated, and the concerns of Catholics in other countries can and will differ.  Nonetheless, a lesson for our class is that religious groups -- even ones as old and established as the Catholic Church -- must continue to adapt and innovate when confronting changing circumstances and challenges.  Only by doing this can they keep up in an ever changing religious marketplace.