Editor’s Note: “Restoring faith” is a five-part series examining the Catholic Church in Maine and how it is changing. It was reported by Judy Harrison, Nick McCrea, Julia Bayly, Troy Bennett, Brian Feulner and Ashley Conti. Graphics are by Eric Zelz. Editors are Mike Dowd and Anthony Ronzio.
Prologue: Wings and a Prayer
Picture it: A normal Friday night at Buffalo Wild Wings in South Portland.
About a dozen twentysomethings from Maine flank a long table, half-shouting at each other to be heard over the restaurant’s loud music. While waiting for food, some drink beers or cocktails, while those under legal drinking age quaff iced teas or sodas.
Two servers approach their table with food. The conversation quiets, which lets the beats of Nicki Minaj’s anthem “Anaconda” buffet the table. Then, the dozen young people join hands, lower their heads, and say grace over their nachos and wings.
This clash of cultures is a snapshot of the Catholic Church’s effort in Maine to adapt and thrive. The dozen young adults at Buffalo Wild Wings had just come from a meeting of Ignite, a Portland-based social and faith-building group for young Catholics.
They meet every month for an “Hour of Power,” an adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, as well as at weekly “saints studies,” where they pick a saint and discuss his or her message and relevance in today’s world.
Members come from as far away as Lewiston and Sanford to take part. Some are thinking about becoming priests, sisters or nuns, and others are more drawn to marriage. All want to serve the church and build their faith together.
“Spending time together and with Jesus, that’s what we’re all about,” said Thomas Daniels, a 19-year-old Southern Maine Community College student who calls the priesthood a “viable option” but is far from settled on it.
Daniels is in the early stages of what would be a lengthy, invested process of discernment: determining whether to pursue the seminary, priesthood and devote his life to the church.
He recognizes the challenges the Catholic Church faces — priest shortages, dwindling attendance numbers and aging parishioners — but he argues there’s actually an upside to the “counter-cultural” nature of the church among his generation.
“We’re seeing a revival of sorts,” he said, but it’s not necessarily in the numbers that are turning out. “People are here with the church because they want to be here, not because they’re expected to be.”
Chapter 1: Church and State
Since the 1960s, Maine’s Catholic Church has been in decline. Yet early numbers for 2015 show parish enrollment in Maine — known as the “ least religious state in the country” — is increasing. Why? The reasons are rooted in the church and the state.
A recent Gallup poll found that church attendance in Maine is among the lowest in the nation. Fewer than 30 percent of Mainers belong to a religious denomination or independent Christian church, according to a 2010 census by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. This followed a Pew study that found 40 percent of Mainers pray daily — the least in the nation.
However, the Catholic Church remains the largest organized religion in Maine, with some 143 of every 1,000 Mainers belonging to one of the state’s 55 parishes, according to that 2010 census.
Just a decade earlier, though, some 222 of every 1,000 Mainers belonged to a Catholic church. This decline — about 35 percent — is representative of a 30-year trend of declining church membership.
The Catholic diocese in Maine had about 276,000 members in 1980, 283,000 in 2000 and just over 190,000 in 2010. By 2014, that number had fallen to less than 170,000, after a realignment of parishes between 2004 and 2010 because of an anticipated shortage of priests.
The state’s population has experienced slow but steady growth. In 1990, Maine’s population was 1.23 million; in 2000, it was 1.27 million, and by 2013, it was pushing 1.33 million.
The shift in population from northern to southern Maine during the past three decades, along with an aging population and the loss of manufacturing jobs — especially in mill towns, where the Catholic Church had a strong presence — has dramatically affected Catholic parishes.
Just as the most recent census data showed Maine is growing — albeit at a snail’s pace — early parish enrollment numbers for 2015 are expected to show a small increase of 3,000 over 2014, a growth of 1.8 percent, according to church officials.
This reversal, however slight, seems significant given the challenges the church has in Maine and organized religion has in general.
The church, like many other religions, is competing for people’s time and attention, according to a survey by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. In 2013, Americans on average spent less than 20 minutes per day on weekends and holidays on religious and spiritual activities, according to the American Time Use Survey. On weekdays, it was just about five minutes.
The percentage of the population engaged in religious or spiritual activities on weekends and holidays was 15.5 percent. It was 6.4 percent on weekdays. Those who engage in religious and spiritual activities spend 1.98 hours engaged in them on weekends and holidays and 1.17 hours on weekdays.
Americans over age 15 spent 4.74 hours per weekday and 6.46 hours per weekend and holidays on leisure activities. They spent less time — 4.41 hours per weekday and 1.27 hours per weekend and holidays — working and on work-related activities.
According to diocesan statistics, in 2014, funerals celebrated in Catholic churches in Maine continued to outpace baptisms of infants and children more than 2 to 1. Converts to the church are static. This Easter, nearly 200 people will become Catholics in Maine, about the same number as last year.
So how is the church growing? The reasons seem rooted in four key points:
— A difficult reorganization of the parish structure has yielded changes that church officials credit with bringing flexibility and new offerings to congregations.
— Increasing diversity — in the pulpits and the pews — have energized certain parishes.
— Ambitious outreach efforts have tried to draw young people into the faith.
— A new pope with a more progressive message is prompting some lapsed Catholics to reconsider the church.
It’s far too early to tell what the future holds. What’s clear is the Catholic Church is banking on more than faith to secure its future in Maine.
Coming Wednesday: For generations of those in the faith, attending Catholic Masses was non-negotiable. Churchgoers today, especially those at traditional celebrations, still speak of a duty to the church. Others decry a sense of duty that’s lost.