60,000 fellow Catholics gathered for the National Eucharistic Congress on July 17 - July 21 in Indianapolis to ignite greater devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist. During the conference, our team at Newman Ministry held a breakout session for those in attendance and posed the question:

“Why are young Catholics leaving the faith, and what can we do about it?”

To discuss this topic and provide solutions, here are the high-level highlights and main takeaways from our five-person panel discussion during the National Eucharistic Congress. The panel included the following representatives from notable Catholic ministries in the United States:

• Peter Blute, Executive Director, Young Catholic Professionals
• Emily Lopez, Adult Evangelization & Young Adult Ministry, Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas
• Everett Fritz, President, Andrew Ministries
• Fr Chad VanHoose, Chaplain, NET Ministries
• Christopher Leach, Director of Strategy, National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry
• and Matt Zerrusen, our CEO and President at Newman Ministry

(Want to watch the recording of our 5-person panel? You can do so here.)

Why are young Catholics leaving the faith?

Everett Fritz, President, Andrew Ministries: 

“It's an interesting question. Why do young people leave the faith? It's happening at a rate that is unsustainable for our church. This is a very big problem. The generation coming up behind the baby boomers in terms of replacement is not there. When I talk to adults, they say things like, "The young people are leaving the church because of poor catechesis," or "It's the parent's fault," or "The culture is pulling them away," or "It's a Vatican Council problem," which is a strange thing to believe.

If you talk to a young person about why they're leaving the church, they give you an entirely different answer. The number one thing I hear is, "My needs are not being met. I don't feel like I belong. I do not know. The questions I have about faith and belief aren't being answered." I liken it to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. If your basic needs aren't met, you don't reach self-actualization. For our purposes, self-actualization would be deciding to become a lifelong follower of Jesus Christ. They don't get to that step unless their basic needs are met.

The most fundamental need of any human person is a relationship. We're made for relationships; we're made in the image and likeness of God. God is a relationship—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You cannot know who God is unless it's in the context of a relationship. We can teach the faith until we're blue in the face, but the number one thing people need to encounter in church is a relationship with someone because that introduces them to a relationship with Christ.”

Emily Lopez, Adult Evangelization & Young Adult Ministry, Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas:

“From an Archdiocese perspective, the institutional church sees young people belonging to something by showing up, sitting in a pew, and receiving their sacraments. We have documentation that tells us they belong, but we don't actually know if they're connected.

Long before there was a church, there was Christ, and the church serves to build a relationship with Christ. Sometimes, we become so focused on the church part that we forget the relationship with Christ component.

If you don't have a relationship with Christ, everything you're doing in the church is just going through the motions. Our young generation is not interested in anything inauthentic or fake. They will buy into authentic things, but it has to have meaning and be rooted in something. 

If we're not rooting them in Christ and seeing this as a relationship, and then living out that relationship in the church, we're disordering something and asking them to buy into it, which they won't. We should appreciate that because that's not what we're meant to be asking them to do.”

Why would a young person stay in the Church today or become active in ministry?

Fr Chad VanHoose, Chaplain, NET Ministries:

“I work with NET Ministries, a mission organization targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Our mentors are either missionaries who go out to parishes and schools or parish volunteers who are mentors at their own parishes through our Y-Disciple platform. The young people we're reaching see a witness in our missionaries and mentors who address their needs.

These generations rank themselves as sadder and more anxious than previous ones. They don't feel a sense of belonging. In our missionaries and mentors, they see the opposite: joy, a life lived in love for Jesus, and a community of believers. They desire relationship and community with Jesus and their peers. They see less stress and anxiety in those we're sending out, which is attractive to them because it hits their core desires—they're sad, don't feel belonging, and are anxious.

Our ministry uses adventure, showing people excited about their faith who want to go on a mission. They aren't seeing that excitement in their peers or often in their parish, so they're attracted to a different type of discipleship they haven't seen modeled.”

Christopher Leach, Director of Strategy, National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry:

“It's rare for a young person to wake up wanting to get involved in the parish. But many parents wake up hoping their child will be part of the Church. It's a risk for parents to make that investment or give that encouragement. Parishes must take that seriously and meet parents where they are so that when they take that risk, the young person is met with an authentic relationship and a real encounter experience.

Parents and peers play a huge role. I've been a parish youth minister for 20 years. I could repeatedly invite a young person to try something new or take on a challenge, and some would. But if it was their neighbor, friend, or teammate inviting them, they would take it seriously and show up.

If our youth ministries and parishes aren't a partnership between adults and young people, we're failing in our mission as youth ministry leaders. Empowering young people to be evangelists and giving them the tools they need to invite their peers is huge.”

How to attract and retain young people in our churches and ministries

Everett Fritz, President, Andrew Ministries: 

“I was just saying to someone on the front row beforehand, I'm a big advocate that the way we're forming young people in the church is ineffective, obsolete, and doesn't work. I've been working for 18 years in youth ministry, and in 13 of those years, I've stumbled upon doing something different.

Right now, I coach what I call “small group discipleship.” There's nothing fancy about small groups; they just happen to be the best environment for discipleship. Discipleship is a hot buzzword in the church, and it drives me crazy because it's constantly misused. Discipleship, by nature, is small. It's handpicked individuals that a rabbi would invite to live with him, learning from his way of life. This is how Jesus's twelve disciples learned from him.

The early Christians in places like Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome learned from the apostles' way of life. At some point working in a parish, I realized that what we were doing was ineffective. We were focusing on delivering the message of the gospel, which is important, but the method is also crucial. What I do in youth ministry is simple: find faithful Catholic adults in the pews, get a handful of young people, and put them in a relationship with this person.

I spend my time teaching those adults how to take their life, their living witness, and turn it into the program that the young people follow. This involves the adult's prayer routine, interactions, and faith experiences. Results-wise, the parishes that our ministries work with see a threefold, sometimes four or five, even sixfold growth in youth ministry within a year. And 80 to 90 percent of the young people who come out of our ministries remain Catholic and active into adult life. The missing piece in forming young people is discipleship. A living witness of faith will always trump a dynamic presentation.”

Peter Blute, Executive Director, Young Catholic Professionals:

“YCP is positioned right as students are coming out of college. Many are used to being part of a strong Catholic community, but when they transition out, they often lose that built-in community. One of our members, Juan, didn't realize what he had until he stepped into his first job and felt a deep sense of loneliness and lack of direction.

He came to YCP and found a community that gave him back the gift of happiness. A deep sense of belonging is essential for us. Up to a third of young workers today experience social isolation, which is extremely harmful. But we are a people of hope, and there are four key principles driving this sense of belonging.

First, in-person interactions are best. We've all learned the value of shaking hands and hugging, which deepen connections. Second, making people feel that their presence matters is crucial. When someone knows they're missed, it deeply rewards them. Third, shared experiences and struggles are very important. We focus on the struggles and joys of being young in the working world. Fourth, connecting people locally and giving them a broader network is vital, especially as younger generations are highly mobile.

With YCP, they can connect anywhere across the country, knowing they have a similar community to join. This feeling of belonging drives the desire to be part of young adult communities and organizations like YCP.”

Tackling turnover in our churches and ministries

Christopher Leach, Director of Strategy, National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry:

“We see a lot of turnover in parish youth ministers. At NFYCM, we have a lot of ideas on how to solve this problem, but I can't get into all of them now. The main issue is that it's unlikely the same youth ministry leader will be with a high school student throughout their time in high school or be at the parish when that young person returns from college. Therefore, the most important job of a youth minister, pastor, or parent is to ensure each young person has multiple relationships within the parish and faith-filled disciples who will support them.

It's the type of ministry Everett talked about earlier. We can't endorse it highly enough because it places young people in relationships. I was blessed to be involved in a parish that accompanied young people. I guarantee you, 22 years after leaving high school, I could walk into that parish today and see multiple people who were with me in high school, who were my small group leaders, who invested in me then. We need to ensure every young person has that type of experience that outlives the youth ministry program, the plan, and the professionals who are there but live within the parish.”

Emily Lopez, Adult Evangelization & Young Adult Ministry, Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas:

“From a diocesan perspective, it's never good to try to do too much because the relationships of value exist at the parish and in the communities people belong to. When I meet with pastors, I always bring up how they feel called to best serve their community. They celebrate Mass, hear confessions, and know their people better than I could. Any policy instituted from the top down is probably not going to be the most effective.

When I meet with pastors, I ask them where they see young people in their church, and if they don't see them, why not? How are they feeling called to lead their community, and how can I support them? On a diocesan level, we can do a few things. First, we need clarity of our goal. We tend to measure how many people are sitting in the pews and how much money they give. Neither tells us much about their relationship with Christ or their engagement with the church community.

About five years ago, we had a convocation in our archdiocese. Every pastor was mandated to come with a contingent of people, the size of which depended on the size of his parish. Before attending, they had to develop a parish evangelization plan, and each team member had to develop an individual evangelization plan. Following up on that, Archbishop Naumann sends out an annual pastoral report asking questions like, "Is your parish membership growing? Where do you see people encountering Christ? How are confessions and Mass attendance?" These things are important, but we must clarify the goal. If we're measuring things unrelated to our goal, we're sending the wrong message. People will study for the test, and if our pastors believe the most important thing is to get people in pews and collect money, we're sending the wrong message. None of that is relational.

The second thing is recognizing that the institutional church is part of a very big Catholic ecosystem. There are parish schools, colleges, apostolates, Knights of Columbus, and various ministries. People grow in relationship with each other and Christ in many different ways. We hope they're attached to a parish where they receive sacramental grace, but there's incredible value in other places of community. We need to build relationships within the church and with these other entities, recognizing that we're not in competition. The money will follow the mission if we're all on the same mission.

Lastly, we've made an intentional effort to create environments where an encounter with Christ is likely. This is our leading mantra when developing retreats, camps, or any event for adults, youth, or young adults. We need to get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit work, creating environments conducive to encounters with Christ rather than trying to force things to happen our way.”

Connecting young people through "bridge" programs and ministries

Peter Blute, Executive Director, Young Catholic Professionals:

“From our perspective, coming out of college and starting your young adult life, a key piece is tapping into the needs of those at the end of their college experience. Think about juniors and seniors—helping them see, through their campus ministry experience, the connections and friendships they've made, which they can draw on as they think about where to get a job. Right after finals, seniors start thinking about this, but we can help them start earlier by inviting them to YCP, for example, to build these bridges.

Now, I will tell you, it's tough for seniors in college to identify with the professional side of what YCP does. But when we talk about professionals seeking their vocation, that message resonates more. They're seeking to understand where they're called to be next. As we build those bridges, we follow this track of keeping those engaged in their next phase into young adulthood and the working world.

There's another track—bringing people back. We're keeping people engaged, but we're also hoping they feel equipped to invite others. At YCP, we've seen helpful entry points where you can invite a friend who may not be where you are in your faith. Identifying these entry points is crucial. For example, it's easier to invite a coworker to a happy hour than to the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, which is awesome but might be overwhelming.

Understanding these points throughout the cycle equips people to invite those who are not quite engaged in their faith, who have left the faith, or who increasingly have no faith. John Maxwell, a famous business author, says sociologists tell us that one introverted person can influence 10,000 people in their lifetime. This perspective highlights our opportunity to equip people to influence others, reflecting the love of Christ. Our task at hand is bridge-building to do this even better.”

How to accompany young people today (from a Priest's perspective)

Fr Chad VanHoose, Chaplain, NET Ministries:

“Everyone is down on Gen Z, focusing on everything wrong with them. They feel the weight of inadequacy and stress. A big part of accompaniment is to encourage, invite, and affirm them. Highlight what's good about them and why we need them in the church.

When I talk to young people, they appreciate being treated as normal humans, not talked down to. I've had young people tell me they feel respected when I talk to them as adults. I'm encouraging them to do something bigger and more meaningful. Our next generations need shepherds to disciple them, calling them to something deeper than they're capable of themselves.

I see this with millennials, too—they struggle to form a deep, meaningful, intentional community. So, I'm constantly inviting parishioners to connect more deeply. They may know each other superficially, but we can encourage and invite them to deeper relationships, where their deep desire for community can solidify and strengthen a life lived in discipleship with Jesus.

They want to belong and find community; we're hardwired for that, even in the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can invite our young people into that deeper relationship.”

What is the Catholic Lifecycle?

Each of us has a unique faith journey, which is a beautiful aspect of the Church. We each follow our own paths and have individual stories, known only to God. However, many people are leaving the Church during key life transitions, such as after confirmation or heading into college. 

A big part of this is that the culture is beating us at our own game of evangelization. Another issue that is often overlooked is that ministry in the Church often becomes siloed—sometimes even within the same parish. The breakdown in communication and collaboration between ministries and parents causes the path of discipleship to become disjointed and disconnected for the person of faith.

This is leading many to leave the Church. We must address this issue and work together to support every Catholic in their faith journey. Imagine a Church where every Catholic feels genuinely known, seen, and loved—that is the goal of the Catholic Lifecycle. 

What is needed?

The solution is a holistic, collaborative, yet personal approach to discipleship. This shift requires unifying ministry and communication in the Church. 

We must break down the silos and work together if we are to make disciples of all nations and not just disciples of our nation, our ministry, or our organization.

We must be willing to talk and share information and best practices with each other.

How You Can Help...

#1: Sign up to join the movement and stay connected to our work

#2: Pray for this initiative and our ability to reshape the Catholic Lifecycle

#3: Support the mission through a donation to Newman Connection and our partner organizations