“There are questions unresolved, and young people simply don’t have the mental energy or desire to figure it out,” said Bishop Caggiano. “And so they walk away.”

Speaking at an event called Passing on the Faith, sponsored by the Graduate School of Education’s Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education, Bishop Caggiano talked about the reasons young people are leaving the church now more than ever, their changing pathways to vocation and the Catholic faith, and what Catholic educators can do to help the next generation stay engaged.

His lecture was largely a reflection on what he learned at the 2018 synod in Rome on “Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment”—an assembly of bishops from around the world who, with Pope Francis, discussed how to minister to today’s teenagers and young adults.

Eroded Trust and Unresolved Answers

“Disaffiliation in the United States is beginning [as early as]  the age of 7,” Bishop Caggiano, said, citing numbers from a 2018 national study conducted by Georgetown University and Saint Mary’s Press. When disaffiliated Catholic youth—those aged between 15 and 25—were asked at what age they no longer identified themselves as Catholic, 74 percent of the surveyed group said between the ages of 10 and 20.

Part of the blame lies on the many problems plaguing our world today, Bishop Caggiano said. Among them are the “abuse of minors and vulnerable adults,” especially in the church; “polarization”; and lack of “dialogue.” Such issues, he said, have “destroyed many young people’s lives and created this vacuum of trust, particularly with the leadership of the church.”

Their trust has eroded in other ways, too.

“Affiliation occurs when a relationship is built up over time, precisely by questions that are answered satisfactorily,” Bishop Caggiano said. He compared it with falling in love.

“There are a thousand questions that come to mind: Is he or she the real deal? Can that person be trusted?” Bishop Caggiano said.

It works the same way with disaffiliation. Young people and young adults ask religious figures many questions, Bishop Caggiano said. But often, those questions are left unresolved. They pile up. And, just as wood chips away over years, so too does their affiliation for the faith.

The Art of Listening, Accompanying, and Mentoring

Bishop Caggiano urged his audience of Catholic educators—principals and superintendents from local archdioceses and dioceses, administrators from Catholic secondary schools, campus ministry staff who serve at Fordham and nearby high schools, and GSE students—to think about three things he learned from the 2018 synod.

First, if you listen deeply to young people and young adults, he said, you can open a real dialogue. Second, accompany them on their journey, even if you might be on the wrong path. And third, make sure you are a mentor worth following.  

Listening isn’t the same thing as hearing, he began.

“It’s not what we have learned—keeping your mouth closed until somebody else finishes talking, and then saying what you were gonna say, regardless of what they [the other person]  said,” Bishop Caggiano said in his native Brooklyn accent, while the audience laughed.

“You listen with your mind and ears; you listen with your heart,” he said. That means you not only hear a person speak but also pay attention to their body language—their facial expression, posture, the words not spoken.

And, he added, that also means letting them be heard.

“How much do you place into your ministry the importance of allowing them to raise their questions without prejudice?” he asked. “How often do you and I allow that to happen in a safe space?”

Lesson number two: Accompany young people along their journey to Christ. One way to do that, Bishop Caggiano said, is to consider the younger generation’s appreciation for the beauty of the liturgy. He asked the audience to think about how to intentionally incorporate beauty in their teaching—music, art, architecture, and literature—and showcase the cultural diversity of the church.

“When one experiences beauty, there is this natural, unfolding, opening of the heart to embrace it,” he said.

Lastly, the bishop reminded them of the importance of mentorship.

“We need to find better and more diverse ways,” Bishop Caggiano told the Catholic educators in the room. “To allow these young people and young adults to answer the call—to explore the greatness of what it means to be a human being.”

The third largest group, if it were a denomination unto itself, would be ex-Catholics.

In response to a net loss of roughly 20 million members over the last few decades, the Catholic Church has launched the New Evangelization movement, a comprehensive effort to reach out to members who have become alienated from the faith.

On April 20, Fordham’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE) hosted a daylong conference, “Taking It to the Streets: The New Evangelization,” which examined the movement’s efforts to revitalize the Catholic community.

The Most Rev. Frank J. Caggiano, S.T.D., vicar general and moderator of the curia in the Diocese of Brooklyn, said the key to reversing the decline is to evangelize—or, proclaim the good news—in a way that makes people feel welcomed. In his keynote address, “The New Evangelization: Our Journey Home,” Bishop Caggiano said that the church community should be like a home to parishioners.

“The image of home is at the heart of all we do in the New Evangelization,” he said. “The image conjures up… welcoming and belonging, a place of community, of relationships, of love, and also a place where we are nourished.”

Many Catholics no longer feel welcomed, he said, sensing a disconnection between their own lived experiences and what they hear at Sunday Mass. As a result, church leaders must find new ways to engage with contemporary parishioners.

“A growing number of individuals do not find the proclamation of the community to be credible—and that’s the great challenge in the New Evangelization,” he said. “The content is the same, but the context has changed. So the New Evangelization is about making the content available in this new context.”

In his presentation, “Changing Their Minds About the Faith and the Church: Why Are So Many Catholics Opting Out,” Tom Beaudoin, Ph.D., associate professor of theology at GRE, illuminated the staggering statistics that precipitated the New Evangelization.

Beaudoin and J. Patrick Hornbeck, D.Phil., assistant professor of theology, are concluding a study funded by The Louisville Institute on why so many Catholics are either leaving the religion or radically redefining their beliefs—in a word, “de-converting.” Since 2011, the team has collected more than 300 survey responses and interviewed dozens of people on why and how their relationship to Catholicism has shifted.

“Deconversion is changing one’s faith-mind—that is, beliefs and/or practices—in relationship to normative, or official, Catholicism,” Beaudoin said. “According to this definition, you can deconvert and be out the door, or you can deconvert and stay, even go to Mass every week.”

The team found certain themes among the participants’ reasons for distancing themselves from Catholicism. First, participants said that the church has failed to modernize, and thus cannot respond to the challenges that modern Catholics face. Second, many participants say church rituals are prosaic. Third, participants cited detrimental relationships with church leaders or communities.

Beaudoin added that an overall cultural shift has also prompted many deconversions—not only within Catholicism but in other religions as well.

“The cultural landscape is changing profoundly about religious identity itself,” he said. “People are feeling more agency about religious identity, and they’re also trying to find a way on the ground to make sense of the fact that they live in a religiously pluralistic world. They want to take what’s good from the many things they’re learning. In general, they don’t feel that they have to be in church all the time to be a good Catholic, or a good Methodist, or otherwise in the mainline.”

A deeper understanding of the data is critical for any work within the New Evangelization movement, Beaudoin said. Moreover, church leaders must cultivate a curiosity about deconversion, rather than a condemnation.

“What is sacred for people in real life, and why are those things sacred?” he said. “For me, that’s got to be part of the New Evangelization.”

Other presentations included:

• C. Colt Anderson, Ph.D., dean of GRE, “A New Rhetoric for the New Evangelization”;
• Claudio M. Burgaleta, S.J., associate professor at GRE, “Four Popes and the New Evangelization”;
• Harold “Bud” Horell, Ph.D., assistant professor of religious education, “The Challenges of Evangelization and Two Views of Catechesis”; and
• Monsignor Michael Hull, S.T.D., pastor of the Church of the Guardian Angel in the Chelsea section of New York City, “What’s the Good News about the New Evangelization?”

With the number of practicing Catholics steadily declining, the late Pope John Paul II launched the New Evangelization movement, a comprehensive effort to reach out to Catholics who have become alienated from the faith.

On April 20, Fordham University’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE) will sponsor a daylong conference to examine this ongoing movement in the Catholic Church.

“Taking it to the Streets: The New Evangelization”
Saturday, April 20
9:30 a.m.
McGinley Center | Rose Hill Campus

The conference, which is free and open to the public, aims to provide the Fordham community and beyond with the opportunity to learn about the movement in light of Church teaching and current cultural trends.

The Most Reverend Frank J. Caggiano, S.T.D., vicar general and moderator of the Curia in the Diocese of Brooklyn, will offer the keynote address, “The New Evangelization: Our Journey Home.”

Other speakers include:

• C. Colt Anderson, Ph.D., dean of GRE;
• Tom Beaudoin, Ph.D., associate professor of theology;
• Claudio M. Burgaleta, S.J., associate professor at GRE;
• Harold “Bud” Horell, Ph.D., assistant professor of religious education; and
• Monsignor Michael Hull, S.T.D., pastor of the Church of the Guardian Angel in the Chelsea section of New York City.

For more information, contact Jodi Hunt at (718) 817-5966, or by email. Visit the conference website here.

Click here to watch student scholarship recipients speak about their Fordham experiences.
Click here to watch Father McShane’s speech.
Click here to watch Patricia Heller’s speech.
Click here to watch John Heller’s speech.
Click here to watch E. Gerald Corrigan’s speech.
Click here to watch Courtney Markes’ speech.
Click here to watch the Ramblers sing “New York New York.”
View additional photos, including some “red carpet” arrivals at the dinner.

The 12th annual Fordham Founder’s Award Dinner celebrated the theme of transformation, honoring both the University community and the city in which it thrives.

More than 800 Fordham alumni and friends filled the Waldorf Astoria’s Grand Ballroom on March 18 to honor three members of the University community whose support has been transformative. This year’s Founder’s Awards went to E. Gerald Corrigan, Ph.D., GSAS ’65, ’71, and Patricia Anne Heller and John Ryan Heller, PAR ’03, ’07, ’11.

In addition, the annual gala raised $2 million this year toward the Fordham Founder’s Scholarship Fund.

“Being in New York City has facilitated my involvement in community outreach, volunteering as a mentor in the Bronx, working as a tutor, and participating in scientific research at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine,” said scholarship recipient Courtney Markes, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior who is a pre-med student majoring in Latin American and Latino studies. “It has helped us all to know there was someone else who believed we all have the potential to be great, and that all we needed was the means to fully realize this promise.

Markes told those attending the dinner that there were no words to communicate how grateful the students are to their supporters. “Each one of you took a chance on us,” she said.

E. Gerald Corrigan, Ph.D.

The night began with an invocation by the Most Rev. Frank J. Caggiano, auxiliary bishop and vicar general of the Diocese of Brooklyn, and ended with an anecdote from Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, on the appointment of the Catholic Church’s first Jesuit pope, Pope Francis. In between, attendees were treated to student testimonials and an elegant rendition of “New York, New York” by Fordham’s a cappella group, the Ramblers, among other highlights.

Upon receiving the Founder’s Award, E. Gerald Corrigan said he was deeply honored and “humbled” to have his name closely associated with Fordham.

“There is something very special about Fordham that distinguishes it from other great centers of learning,” he said. “That distinction is best-captured by the Fordham brand, namely the ‘Jesuit University of New York.’”

“Those six words celebrate the common bond between this great city and this great University.”

One of the University’s most ardent supporters, Corrigan earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Fordham in economics. He spent 25 years working for the Federal Reserve before moving into the private sector, where he serves as chairman of Goldman Sachs Bank U.S.A.

“It will be 50 years this September that I started my training at Rose Hill in the economics department,” he said. “There is no doubt that my career was put forth in a very fundamental way in those years.”

Patricia Anne Heller (left) and John Ryan Heller.

In accepting their awards, the Hellers, proud parents of three Fordham graduates—Amy, FCLC ’03, Michaela, FCLC ’07, and Tim, GSB ’11—described themselves as Fordham “lifers.”

While their son Tim was a student at the Gabelli School of Business, the couple worked diligently with Fordham’s administration to develop the University’s first Parents’ Leadership Council, serving as its inaugural co-chairs and helping to recruit members from coast to coast. Today, the group boasts 70 members.

Attending Fordham, said John Heller, has taught their children how to think, how to care, and all about the true meaning of respect.

“We feel very fortunate to have become a part of this community,” he said. “We have always felt that we received more than we have given.”

The Chicago-based couple, the first parents to ever receive a Fordham Founder’s Award, have come to call New York City their “second home.”

“When we dropped Amy off 13 years ago and we heard the phrase ‘Fordham is our School and New York City is our Campus,’” added Patti Heller, “John and I did not realize they were talking to us. But like our children, our lives have been enriched and enlightened immeasurably.”

Referring to the fact that the Founder’s Dinner was happening just hours before the first Jesuit pope’s inaugural mass in Rome, Father McShane said that the convergence was completely appropriate because evening’s three awardees had lived lives as if they’d “heeded the advice of St. Ignatius.”

“They have transformed the world in and through the action of their everyday lives,” he said.

“The pope’s election shines a new and luminous light on what we are about this evening,” said Father McShane. “Tonight we celebrate Francis by doing what we do, doing it well, and doing it with heart – great heart.”

Father McShane called attention to “the 4600 undergraduates who performed over a million hours of community service last year,” students who “chose to spend their spring breaks on Global Outreach projects,” as well as the “tireless work done by our faculty” to instill the transformative Fordham character in the men and women they teach.

“In the [pope’s] spotlight, I would argue that we shine–and shine in service.”

Among the attendees were retired Gen. John M. Keane, GSB ’66, financial analyst Mario Gabelli, GSB ’65, Trustee Fellow Regina Pitaro, FCRH ‘76, actress Phylicia Rashad, the first holder of Fordham’s Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre, and His Excellency Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.

William F. Baker, Ph.D., president emeritus of WNET and Claudio Acquaviva, S.J., Chair and Journalist in Residence in the Graduate School of Education, was the master of ceremonies.