Pre-Evangelization and Young Adult “Native Nones”

A New Paradigm for Reaching the Unchurched

Tamra Hull Fromm

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781725255029
  9781725255036
• eBook ISBN:
  9781725255043
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

What motivates American young adult "native nones," or those who have grown up without a religious background, to investigate the Catholic faith? What turns them off? How do we reach them? Tamra Hull Fromm re-examines the role of pre-evangelization in the contemporary context and presents a micro-study of twenty-four "native nones" who chose to investigate the Catholic Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in the Archdiocese of Detroit, USA.

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Voices of Young Adult Catechumens

What do young adults without a religious background say about their own journey toward the Catholic Church? The responses may be surprising. In this chapter, I include excerpts from interviews with twenty-four unbaptized young adults in the Archdiocese of Detroit (Michigan, USA) who chose to explore the Roman Catholic faith through the RCIA process.

While the initial phase of the RCIA, known as the pre-catechumenate, is associated with pre-evangelization. I would argue that participation assumes that there has already been some preparatory work in the heart and mind of the individual. The USCCB acknowledges that those who inquire into the Catholic Church have either had contact with other persons of faith or have had a personal faith experience.314 By examining the experiences of young adult catechumens, I hoped to better understand the factors which drew them to investigate the Catholic Church. This step is congruent with practical theology because we now turn from the theoretical framework of pre-evangelization to ask if what appears to be going on in the so-called “real world” is actually happening.

Methodology

In this micro-study, I chose to use both quantitative and qualitative methods. However, I relied more heavily on the qualitative elements to answer my primary research questions. My research sample was purposive, snowball, and homogenous. Finding the participants was not easy. I first attempted to recruit participants by posting an invitation on the diocesan young adult Facebook page. After two weeks, I received only one response. So I decided to directly approach the person(s) responsible for organizing the RCIA process at the local parish. Perhaps not shockingly, I was told by some parish staff members that there were no catechumens at all in the program! I then attempted to contact all potential participants either via email or phone.

Once I received a positive response, I scheduled an interview with the participant. Interviews took place at either the parish of where the interviewee was attending the RCIA program or in an agreed upon parish location, either in a private room (with glass windows on the door) or in a public area with sufficient privacy to maintain confidentiality.

All interviews were conducted between February 2017 and February 2018. Before each interview, participants were informed both verbally and in written form about the purpose of the study. Participants could withdraw from the research at any time and without providing any reason. Each interview began by thanking the participant for his or her time, confirming that their individual identity would be protected, and explaining the reason for the interview and how the data would be used. Participants were then asked to sign a consent form and complete a brief demographic questionnaire.

Each interview lasted between five minutes to one-and-a-half hours, depending on the interviewee’s willingness to share. The participants were, in general, extremely open, cooperative, and happy to share their experience. Interviews were semi-structured, meaning that each interview was based on the same outline, but I varied the wording and the sequence depending on the way the interaction with the interviewee developed. I transcribed the interviews from electronic recordings and used deductive content analysis to first apply three predetermined codes based upon my initial research. Other codes emerged as I read iteratively and these were subsequently categorized.

The data does not obviously reflect the experiences of all young adults who have participated in an RCIA program in the United States. Neither does it address (or specifically intend to include) the experiences of young adults who have participated in the RCIA but chose not to be baptized, for whatever reason. Still, the findings do highlight certain issues, experiences, and questions that may be indicative of a broader group of young adults who share the demographic, ethnic, and socio-economic profiles of this research sample.

Demographic Information of Participants

The table below indicates the gender, marital status, ethnicity, educational level of the participants. The average age was 27.4 years. However, overall participant age ranged from 20–35.

Table 9.1 Demographic Analysis of Participants

	Count	%
Male	7	29%
Female	17	71%
Single	11	46%
Married	13	54%
Asian	1	4%
Black	2	8%
Latino	1	4%
White	20	83%
Some high school	1	4%
High school diploma	1	4%
Some college	6	25%
College certificate	2	8%
Associate	2	8%
BA/BS	11	46%
MA/MS	1	4%

Religious Background of Participants

I began each interview by asking the participant to describe their religious or spiritual beliefs before choosing to participate in the RCIA process. I wanted to understand how the participant self-identified in terms of their own religious beliefs or spirituality and to explore the presence and practice of a religious faith during the participants’ childhood and teenage years. The responses would also determine if religious faith was being passed down to subsequent generations.

Table 9.2 Religious Background of Participants

	Count	%
Some belief in God	11	45.8
Spiritual	4	16.7
Christian	4	16.7
Undefined	5	20.8

The above identifiers were not prompted verbally or via survey during the interview. While none of the participants had been baptized prior to the interview, the identifier of “Christian” may be a bit unexpected. Stetzer, Stanley, and Hayes note that some unchurched young adults identify with a denomination or faith group because of their childhood behavior. They argue that this group tends to be more likely to believe that God exists, that the Christian God of the Bible exists, and that the existence of God should impact their lives.315 In addition, they may be more predisposed and receptive to outreach efforts, organized religion, and traditional views.

None of the young adults self-identified as agnostic or atheist or expressed doubts about the existence of a transcendent, higher being, or God. As this study was very limited in size and demographics, it is certainly possible that the young adults who responded to this question did not wish to self-identify as such out of fear of judgment by the interviewer. It is also possible that, out of all the young adults who were initially approached and asked to participate in this study, only those who had a basic notion of God or spirituality responded to this study.

Religious Background of Participant’s Family

In twelve (or 50 percent) of the cases, participants identified their parents as Catholic. In three of these cases, both parents were identified as Catholic, while in nine cases only one parent was described as Catholic. When only one parent was described as Catholic, the gender was fairly equally split, i.e., four fathers and five mothers. In such cases, the marriage could be described as interfaith or “mixed faith.”316 Fifteen (58.3 percent) of the participants mentioned a parent or parents identified as “not practicing.” In two of these cases, the nonpracticing parent was also described as a “believer” or “spiritual.” Several participants identified their parents (or other family members) as “Catholic” even though they later added without prompting that the same parent or parents do not actively practice or only attend sporadically (e.g., Christmas and Easter, weddings and funerals).

What was more insightful is that twelve (50 percent) of the participants identified their grandparents (one or both) as either “religious” or described the grandparent in some way as actively...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Cultural Context of American Young Adults
• A Brief History of Pre-Evangelization
• Pre-Evangelization according to Alfonso Nebreda and Magisterial Documents
• Pre-Evangelization as “Encounter”
• Protestant Views of Pre-Evangelization
• The Hermeneutical-Communicative Model and Pre-Evangelization
• Eight Methods of Pre-Evangelization
• Voices of Young Adult Catechumens
• Where Do We Go from Here?
• Demographic Characteristics of Participants in Qualitative Study
• Bibliography