Why Catholics Leave, What They Miss, and How They Might Return

Here is a report of a project undertaken in the UK in which Catholics who no longer regularly practice their faith share their story. Their testimonies must be seriously listened to and heard more widely. This plan embodies two hopes: first, that the Church might better discern in what ways it might serve those who are both missing and missed from our parishes. Second, that it might better understand the means of preventing others from leaving in the first place. Some of the topics address the question of why many Catholics do not practice their faith, what respondents miss about the Church, and what the Church might do to bring them back. An epilogue makes a number of concrete pastoral recommendations regarding how Catholics might best respond to the findings.