Passing on the Faith: Transforming Traditions for the Next Generation of Jews, Christians, and Muslims

Looking for God: Religious Indifference in Perspective

Looking for God: Religious Indifference in Perspective Melchor Sánchez de Toca As we neared the public presentation of the Pontifical Council for Culture ’s 2004 research into unbelief, religious indifference, and new forms of alternative religion, I somewhat absentmindedly recited to my secretary a rather detached theoretical analysis of unbelief. Unable to restrain herself, she burst out with her very own story: ‘‘My children have lost the faith.’’ They are good boys, born to a Christian family, whose mother works in the Vatican and is active in the parish. But they no longer go to Mass on Sundays. Indeed, not only do they no longer practice, but quite simply they no longer believe. After a little questioning on my part, she informed me that they became this way peacefully and quietly, seemingly without any turmoil. At that moment, I did not realize that the problems we are dealing with—youth, unbelief, and religious indifference—are not abstract problems, nor are they distant from us. Just like in the Soderbergh’s film Traffic, in which the president ’s right-hand man in the fight against drugs discovers his own daughter’s addiction, for us the problem starts in the home. Unbelief is not out there, belonging to other groups, other people, other countries— the marginalized, those who live with too much luxury or in desperate conditions. Even in the stronghold of the traditional Catholic family, in a traditional Catholic country, where the mother works in the Vatican 24 / Melchor Sánchez de Toca and the children attend Catholic schools and Catholic universities— there too the problems of unbelief and indifference exist. Clearly, these are not new experiences. Saint Monica is a perfect example of a woman of deep faith who suffered tremendously because her son was at first not Christian, then became a member of a sect, and then a first-rate skeptic. Thankfully, the son, Augustine, turned out all right in the end! Indeed the situation of children abandoning the faith from within the home is quite familiar. Often it’s a form of rebellion against parents and authority. A positive outcome—by which I mean a return to the faith—is often forthcoming. But this old problem of abandoning the Church has taken on a new dimension. Today it has a cultural dimension. It is no longer just personal. There has been a breakdown in the process of transmitting the faith from one generation to the next. This cultural swing is perhaps most evident in European countries, to the point that not long ago, it achieved the dubious merit of becoming the cover story of Time magazine under the title, ‘‘Father, Where Art Thou?’’1 The title of this paper, ‘‘Looking for God,’’ refers to the person’s ontological religious nature lived as quest for the fulfilling contemplation of God’s glory, but the subtitle, ‘‘Religious Indifference in Perspective ,’’ seeks to underline the need to examine carefully the visible phenomenon of religious indifference and its partner—the new religiosity . This thesis is based on an inquiry carried out by the Pontifical Council for Culture on atheism, unbelief, and religious indifference in the whole world. The fruits of that inquiry, discussed during an international conference in Rome in March 2004, have now been published in the form of a reflection entitled Where Is Your God?2 In this paper, after briefly presenting the survey and commenting on some of the more relevant and meaningful elements for the youth in the United States, I will touch on some of the pastoral means available to respond to the phenomenon. Why and How a Survey on Atheism Let us turn back the clock to the 1960s and the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. Paul VI created three bodies to promote dialogue with three types of non-Catholics: other Christians—the Secretariat for Christian Unity; believers from other religions—the Secretariat for Non-Christians; and well-disposed nonbelievers—the Secretariat Looking for God / 25 for Non-Believers. The task of this latter office was twofold: on the one hand, to establish dialogue with unbelievers; and on the other, to study the phenomenon of contemporary atheism to identify its causes and the reasons for the spread of unbelief. They soon found that it was easier to study atheism than to find nonbelievers with whom to engage in dialogue ! That problem has become more acute...