Chicago Catholics and the Struggles within Their Church (review)

This is Father Greeley's last book, written by him before he suffered a traumatic brain injury in November 2008 and completed by colleagues and friends of his who were careful not to go beyond his analysis of the data. Thus, it is both quintessential Greeley and painfully not. The book begins with eleven "straw man" propositions about Chicago Catholics that Greeley sets up so that he can knock them down with data in eleven chapters that follow. Each chapter, however, presents only the beginnings of an analysis, typically with just one rudimentary table, and far too little text to present the full analysis and commentary that typify a Greeley book in the sociology of religion. For example, one chapter is only one page long and several are only three to four pages.

The book presents data from 500 Catholic respondents to a survey conducted in the Archdiocese of Chicago in the summer and fall of 2007. Greeley goes to some lengths to compare these Chicago Catholics to the rest of the population in Chicago, but restricts his analysis to the Archdiocese and only infers, at times, that these Catholics may be similar to or different from other Catholics nationally. His chapters explore issues related to Catholic identity, Mass attendance, secularization among Catholic youth, reasons for leaving the church and for missing Mass, and Catholics' attitudes about clergy and the hierarchy. He finds, as he has reported in other studies, that Catholic identity is strong, that Catholics tend to raise their children in the faith, that Catholic education has a significant effect on Catholic behaviors and attitudes, and that Catholics distinguish between what is core and what is peripheral to the faith.

Greeley's analysis is found in the first sixty-one pages of the book, followed by a copy of the questionnaire and an explanation of the methodology of the study. A second appendix presents a qualitative analysis of twenty-two telephone interviews of selected survey participants that were done as a class project by students at the University of Chicago. Finally, a third appendix presents the transcribed interviews of twelve lapsed Catholics that Greeley selected from among the qualitative interviews because they "flesh out the statistical bones," in his words.

In summary, the book is very brief and quite accessible for general readers as well as undergraduate students. There are no surprises here and the analysis supports the claims that Greeley has been making throughout his long career. The book would have benefited, though, from a more thorough analysis and better editing. It is too bad that Father Greeley did not have the opportunity to complete his thoughts.