Generational Splits

First, I want to thank Steve and his interlocutors for their extremely thoughtful posts about the role of progressive Catholics on this site and in the Church.  I share virtually all of Steve's views on the matter, and have refrained from posting only because of a lack of time to post and because I thought Steve was pretty much covering the territory. 

I did want to quickly jot down a response to Amy's question about generational differences and the reader's comment about the same topic.

I don't agree with Amy (or the reader) that the Church's positions on issues like contraception are not as salient for my generation.  I think that would only be true if you limited your discussion to young Catholics who attend mass.  I would agree that that group is far less likely to be preoccupied with these issues, mostly because they seem more likely to agree with the Church's teaching.  On the other hand, mass attendance among Catholics born after Vatican II is quite low, and I would wager that if you polled young Catholics who don't attend mass, the level of disagreement with, dismay towards, or merely disregard for the Church's teachings on issues like contraception and homosexuality would be about as high as with people of Steve's generation, if not higher.  And my guess is that puzzlement over teachings about things like contraception, married and female priests, and homosexuality has, in part, contributed to the alienation of this younger group from the life of the Church.  Of course, there are other forces at work here, but the chasm between that cohort's views and the Church's on these issues can't help.

To me, the fact that younger, mass-attending Catholics are more likely to fall in line behind the Church's teaching is a cause for alarm, not relief.  It reflects the shrinking of disagreement by attrition, not by persuasion.  Benedict will get his smaller Church, I fear.