Hidden exodus: Catholics leaving

I used to hear people say "once a Catholic always a Catholic", and I could see what they meant -what was often in focus was that even backsliding RC's would still identify as RC and if they developed a spiritual interest they would reaffiliate with Holy Mother Church. People like me were rare at that point in my experience; people like me who had been RC, brought up to think of ourselves as 'Catholic', who had decided not to pursue that path when owning Christian faith for ourselves. In my case, it was because I had rather off-putting associations with Catholicism; my memories and connotations were forbidding. I'm not hinting at abuse or anything like that; simply that what I associated with RC practice and buildings somehow didn't gel with the spiritual awakening I was experiencing -it seemed like my burgeoning faith would not sit well with the RC church as I had experienced it.

However, nowadays, I seem to run into quite a lot of ex-RC's in Anglican and other post-Reformational church polities. And it seems that in the USA there is quite a tranche of the population in this position: the report is here -The hidden exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants | National Catholic Reporter and the summary might be this:

One out of every 10 Americans is an ex-Catholic. If they were a separate denomination, they would be the third-largest denomination in the United States, after Catholics and Baptists. One of three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic.

Of course, we want to know what's going on, why this should be so, and in my case I wonder whether there are similarities likely to the GB scene. Well,

The principal reasons given by people who leave the church to become Protestant are that their “spiritual needs were not being met” in the Catholic church (71 percent) and they “found a religion they like more” (70 percent). Eighty-one percent of respondents say they joined their new church because they enjoy the religious service and style of worship of their new faith.

That I can understand. It's a reason that many 'traditional' churches -including Anglican, Methodist and Baptists are not retaining people. I think we can assume that on the whole the leavers are going to churches where the worship is heavy on contemporary soft rock music in platform-led settings. Anglican and other churches that are retaining and gaining attenders tend to have worship where this style is in evidence. It's a style that I have drawn from and defended, even if I now find it often a bit wearying and unnourishing.

The place of belief in this is not large. "While half of those who became Protestants say they left because they stopped believing in Catholic teaching, specific questions get much lower responses. "
And factoring in that many RC's actually believe similarly to many non-RCs and may actually, candidly, admit that they find papal infallibility, hierarchical exclusivity, transsubstantiation, things that they dissent from, this is something that they are often willing to live with. For me the reason I wouldn't go back comes down to papal infallibility (and the consequences in  terms of the Marian dogmas which I think to be possible pious opinion but should never be inflated to doctrinal necessity) and hierarchical control. However, for many exRCs this is not really the stuff of leaving; it mostly comes down to the experiential. So, I reckon that the doctrinal stuff, as with me, comes later and may serve as a post-hoc rationalisation, if I read the situation rightly.

And it's clearly, from these figures, not wanting an easier faith: "as believers and as worshipers, Catholics who become Protestants are statistically better Christians than those who stay Catholic" I think that this is often similar for ex-Anglicans in this country: they go to more challenging and committed environments. Because these nurture and build their faith.
"While the hierarchy worries about literal translations of the Latin text, people are longing for liturgies that touch the heart and emotions."
That is kind of ironic. For those who are text-liturgically comfortable, it is interesting to note the resonance of 'Celtic' liturgies. One of the hallmarks of such liturgies is a greater affective content. And one of the big things in the song-liturgies of many 'new' churches is, again, an affectivity both of words and of the music. 

I think that there are things here that cross the Atlantic, and also the denominational borders. I may have grown away from rating the song-liturgies that once nourished me, but I think I still understand why they work for many and I think that the solution is to do them better in terms of their formational and integrational dimensions so that they can connect with the concerns and dynamics that are captured by more traditional text-liturgies.