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The American Catholic: A Social Portrait
Rare book
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 23, 2024
Andrew M. Greeley (1928-1913) was an Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and fiction writer, who also wrote many nonfiction books such as 'The Making of the Popes 1978: The Politics of Intrigue in the Vatican,' 'The Jesus Myth,' 'Priests: A Calling in Crisis,' 'Everything You Wanted to Know About the Catholic Church But Were Too Pious to Ask,' etc.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1977 book, "This book is intended to be a social portrait of American Catholics to be read mostly by non-Catholics... My goal in this volume to sociological, not theological. I do not intend to present a summary of American Catholic doctrine. Nor do I intend a systematic presentation of what American Catholics believe, although I shall have some things to say about how some beliefs are changing.
"I am primarily concerned with the Catholic people and not with the Catholic church as an organization... Non-Catholic Americans ... know very little about the educational, occupational, and economic status of Catholics, or about their family structures, their moral values, or their political, social, and racial attitudes and behavior... It is to fill all these gaps that this volume has been prepared."
He suggests, "It the next fifteen years are as bad as the last ten for the American Catholic church, it will be hardly recognizable as the church which emerged at the end of the Vatican Council, much less the church that existed before the Council. Only one-third of its members will be going to mass every week. A mere 29 percent will find themselves very pleased at the prospect of their son being a priest, and only 12 percent will be giving more than $180 a year ... to the church. A tiny 1 percent will be active in church affairs... Half the Catholics in the country will continue to pray every day, religion as private devotion will continue to be vigorous, but religion as church activity will be approaching the vanishing point." (Pg. 146-147)
He admits, "Are there no optimistic scenarios? There are two forces at work during the past decade within American Catholicism---a negative force associated with the birth control encyclical, measured by declining support for papal authority and the official sexual morality, and a positive force associated with the Vatican Council, measured by increasing reception of Holy Communion every week.
"What if the negative force bottoms out and the positive force continues to grow, while half of the youthful drift away from the church is turned around? Under those very optimistic circumstances, the revival in American Catholicism would not be spectacular... The dynamics at work in American Catholicism at the present time are such that it is relatively easy to imagine the 'worst case' eventually and relatively difficult to imagine the quite modest 'best case' eventuality. The birth control encyclical not only canceled out the effects of the Vatican Council, it also set into motion forces which have caused grave losses to the Catholic church and which will be very difficult to reverse in the next fifteen years." (Pg. 148)
He also observes, "Other American denominations have survived for many years with a much lower level of religious involvement from their members than American Catholicism seems likely to have even in our 'worst case' scenario. Other collectives have survived with much weaker institutional structures than Catholicism is like to have in the years ahead. Neither as a denomination nor as a collectivity will American Catholicism vanish; but the denomination has suffered a grave setback, and the outcome for the collectivity remains to be seen." (Pg. 150)
He notes in conclusion, "Rejection of the church's sexual ethic and the decline of religious devotion on a number of indicators has not led Catholics to defect from the church in very large numbers. Indeed, the powerful loyalty of the American Catholic population to the parochial system seems virtually intact. The weakening of the hold of the institutional church has had little to do with assimilationist pressures from the rest of society, and has resulted rather from the monumental incompetence of ecclesiastical leaders." (Pg. 272)
This book was obviously much more "timely" when it was written, nearly fifty years ago. It may still have interest for those who are studying the sociological development of American Catholicism."
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1977 book, "This book is intended to be a social portrait of American Catholics to be read mostly by non-Catholics... My goal in this volume to sociological, not theological. I do not intend to present a summary of American Catholic doctrine. Nor do I intend a systematic presentation of what American Catholics believe, although I shall have some things to say about how some beliefs are changing.
"I am primarily concerned with the Catholic people and not with the Catholic church as an organization... Non-Catholic Americans ... know very little about the educational, occupational, and economic status of Catholics, or about their family structures, their moral values, or their political, social, and racial attitudes and behavior... It is to fill all these gaps that this volume has been prepared."
He suggests, "It the next fifteen years are as bad as the last ten for the American Catholic church, it will be hardly recognizable as the church which emerged at the end of the Vatican Council, much less the church that existed before the Council. Only one-third of its members will be going to mass every week. A mere 29 percent will find themselves very pleased at the prospect of their son being a priest, and only 12 percent will be giving more than $180 a year ... to the church. A tiny 1 percent will be active in church affairs... Half the Catholics in the country will continue to pray every day, religion as private devotion will continue to be vigorous, but religion as church activity will be approaching the vanishing point." (Pg. 146-147)
He admits, "Are there no optimistic scenarios? There are two forces at work during the past decade within American Catholicism---a negative force associated with the birth control encyclical, measured by declining support for papal authority and the official sexual morality, and a positive force associated with the Vatican Council, measured by increasing reception of Holy Communion every week.
"What if the negative force bottoms out and the positive force continues to grow, while half of the youthful drift away from the church is turned around? Under those very optimistic circumstances, the revival in American Catholicism would not be spectacular... The dynamics at work in American Catholicism at the present time are such that it is relatively easy to imagine the 'worst case' eventually and relatively difficult to imagine the quite modest 'best case' eventuality. The birth control encyclical not only canceled out the effects of the Vatican Council, it also set into motion forces which have caused grave losses to the Catholic church and which will be very difficult to reverse in the next fifteen years." (Pg. 148)
He also observes, "Other American denominations have survived for many years with a much lower level of religious involvement from their members than American Catholicism seems likely to have even in our 'worst case' scenario. Other collectives have survived with much weaker institutional structures than Catholicism is like to have in the years ahead. Neither as a denomination nor as a collectivity will American Catholicism vanish; but the denomination has suffered a grave setback, and the outcome for the collectivity remains to be seen." (Pg. 150)
He notes in conclusion, "Rejection of the church's sexual ethic and the decline of religious devotion on a number of indicators has not led Catholics to defect from the church in very large numbers. Indeed, the powerful loyalty of the American Catholic population to the parochial system seems virtually intact. The weakening of the hold of the institutional church has had little to do with assimilationist pressures from the rest of society, and has resulted rather from the monumental incompetence of ecclesiastical leaders." (Pg. 272)
This book was obviously much more "timely" when it was written, nearly fifty years ago. It may still have interest for those who are studying the sociological development of American Catholicism."
January 2, 2008
This sociological study was published in 1977, so it is by now outdated. Nonetheless, it was a worthwhile read. It provides some enduring insight into American Catholics, who were largely an immigrant people until only a few decades ago. I especially liked his observations about the worldview, behaviors and general temperments of Irish Catholics in particular, his observations about the importance of "neighborhoods" to Catholic culture and his thoughts on how urban sprawl and suburbs have affected that culture.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews