Jesus tells us to be careful about what we put our hope in. “Don’t look at this fancy Temple that is being rebuilt!”—It was indeed destroyed around 70 A.D.

But there are other things we have trusted—and with good reason—for a long time, but we are experiencing that they too can fail.

Just take a look at the shift in attitudes of faith and religion, especially in the young.

I am taking most of this from Bishop Barron’s reports to the U.S.C.C.B. meetings. He has headed a committee of bishops on Evangelization for about 2 or 3 years. We face a very serious problem with passing on the Faith in the United States.

• Currently, 24% of Americans are unaffiliated with any faith.
• 50% of millennials—born between 1981—1996, those whom we baptized in the last 30 years have left the Catholic Church.
• For every person coming into the Church now, 6.45 are leaving.
• 1/6 of millennial Americans are former Catholics.
• 80% of those who leave are under 23 years old.
• Perhaps most sobering. The median age of people who leave the Catholic Church is 13.

Demographics of the Church are shifting. In the recent past, the Church has not appeared to shrink because of the growing number of immigrant Hispanics and now the U.S. born Hispanics. But the Hispanic population is affected by the same cultural pressures:

• Today just under 50% of Hispanics in the U.S. are Catholic. The biggest loss is not to the evangelical churches but no unaffiliated.
• Only 2% of Hispanic children are in Catholic schools (compared to 5% of African-American children).
• Only 40% of Hispanic children are in Catholic religious education.
• 58% of Hispanic children are not affiliated with the Church.

Why do they leave? Bishop Barron says it isn’t just opinions that we have. We have libraries filled with research and answers from those who have left. They leave because:

1. They no longer believe the Christian “story.” They do not accept the basic tenets of Christianity.
2. Relativism: “Well, that’s your truth, that’s what you believe.” But there is no objective truth. It’s all relative.
3. Bishop Barron calls it “The Culture of Self Invention.” I make up my own beliefs and goals.
4. The clash between religion and science.
5. Church teaching on sexuality, especially towards gays and transgenders.

Bishop Barron and his committee have 5 suggestions for our work with young people:

1. “Lead with justice.” Young people value those things which really help people in need: the poor, the hungry, immigrants, the sick, etc. Bishop Barron suggests we become involved in community organizing, soup kitchens, pro-life, the homeless, and so forth.
2. The way of beauty,
3. The Lure of Faith: Teach the Faith deeply.
4. Use the social media
5. Parish as mission, we need to be missionary disciples. We go out to others. We don’t wait for them to come to us.

The overall takeaway I want you to have is that we have to do things differently. We will need to re-envision how we do religious education: We can’t just think of it as preparation for sacraments. We probably will need to think about how can we make better connections with the entire families in religious education. And we need to take Bishop Barron’s suggestions seriously. The future of the Church and the spiritual well-being of our children and grandchildren are at stake.

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