Has anyone else noticed a collapse in Catholic identity in the youngest generation? [View all]

[ButterflyBlood]

I don't know if it's the same everywhere like here, but in midst of all the debate about if one is "born into a religion" I don't see that AT ALL here. I mean there are plenty of people raised Catholic here, but very few who still practice, and of those that don't very few still identify that way, even those who haven't converted to something else but aren't atheist/agnostic will identify as just "Christian" or "Spiritual but not religious". I don't know of anyone on my Facebook friends who puts "Catholic" down for religious views. And furthermore if someone here goes to church only on Christmas and Easter, it's often not the Catholic church even then but most than likely some non-traditional and not denominationally affiliated type place (that could be just a Minneapolis thing though since we're far bigger on that type of stuff than most cities.)

This isn't surprising for obvious reasons. But in my area amongst my generation, Catholic identity and their family's culture and tradition don't seem to be very highly valued. It's not surprising that there was a huge round of Catholic parishes closing and merging here recently. As I noted elsewhere I go to a church now where the vast majority of people are under 35, while in many Catholic parishes the majority are people with gray hair.