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Cultural Catholics: Award, Review, and International Coverage

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The Association of Catholic Publishers has just announced their winners and I’m thrilled to share that Cultural Catholics earned 2nd place in the “Resources for Ministry” category!

Also, my thanks to Noah Banasiewicz, S.J. of America magazine for his strong review of Cultural Catholics! He really touched on some of the key insights of the book in a way that can help potential readers imagine how they might use the findings to better connect with Catholics who attend Mass infrequently. I’ll offer the closing paragraph of the review here:

As a scholar who researches evangelization and seeks to identify how the church can better reach those beyond our pews, I struggle to find thinkers who propose pathways forward that are both practically sound and spiritually rich. Cultural Catholics embodies both of these needs and is a resource from which any diocese, campus ministry or scholar engaged in this work would benefit. Day is neither blindly optimistic nor despairing; rather, she charts a way ahead fitting for this Jubilee Year, undergirded by authentic, ambitious hope.

Finally, I had a delightful conversation with journalist Luka Tripalo of Glas Koncila, Croatia’s largest Catholic weekly. We discussed the book’s implications for Catholic life beyond the United States and also ventured into a few other areas of Church life; it was great to do some cross-cultural comparisons. Our conversation reveals that cultural Catholicism is definitely not just an “American thing,” and so the book offers some opportunities for other countries to think creatively about engaging these Catholics. Tripalo did a great job of distilling our 1+ hour conversation into a tidy, interview-style article. You can read the article, “U.S. Expert on Cultural Catholics Maureen K. Day: Parishes Can Bring Believers Back to Church — Christmas Liturgy Should Be Planned as Early as August,” in English or in Croatian. Tripalo sets the stage of our conversation with the following:

It is therefore refreshing when someone approaches this issue [infrequent Mass attendance] not only from the angle of pastoral activism, but also with academic rigor. Both perspectives—pastoral and scholarly—are united in the recently published book by American Catholic theologian and sociologist Dr. Maureen K. Day, titled Cultural Catholics: Who They Are, How to Respond, published by Liturgical Press. In our conversation with the award-winning author and researcher, we discussed not only the phenomenon of cultural Catholicism, but also the challenges of Catholic social engagement and the potential for reimagining the current model of parish pastoral care.

Crossroads Available for Pre-Order!

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It’s nearly here! It has been a long haul, but the latest book in the D’Antonio series is finally available for pre-order! Catholicism at a Crossroads: The Present and Future of America’s Largest Church is the sixth of the American Catholic Laity books. It was so amazing to work with my fellow sociologists–Drs. Jim Cavendish, Paul Perl, Michele Dillon, Mary Gautier and Bill D’Antonio–on the data collection, analysis and write up of the findings. This series began in the 1980s, surveying Catholics every six years. This time we added interviews with nearly sixty Catholic leaders (broadly construed) to dig deeper into some of the findings as well as explore totally different topics that are not present in the survey data. In the end, we organized the findings into six chapters around the following themes: Church life, moral authority, race and ethnicity, civic and political life, sex and family and longitudinal trends. The final product is a book that paints a thorough portrait of the complexities–including both the problems and the possibilities–of the American Catholic landscape and beyond. I’ll include the back cover endorsements below:

“With a deft use of survey data, excerpts from interviews, a keen grasp of important trends and an unfailing generosity of spirit, this research team tells a detailed and engagingly written story of the Catholic community within the United States today. This book finds a deservedly broad readership among Church leaders, rank-and-file Catholics, sociologists and other religion scholars, as well as among any readers interested in a compelling account of how a longstanding religious tradition, marked by both constancy and change, continues to anchor a people’s faith.” ~Jerome Baggett, author of The Varieties of Religious Experience: Atheism in American Culture

“U.S. Catholicism is, indeed, at a crossroads. At our own peril, the faithful, ministry leaders, and scholars alike ignore the importance of people of color in the U.S. Catholic Church and increasing religious disaffiliation. If dioceses and parishes as well as Catholic schools and universities are going to survive and thrive in the middle and decades of the 21st century, we must understand where the U.S. Church is and where it is going. The data and analyses presented by Day, Cavendish, Perl, Dillon, Gautier, and D’Antonio provide a much needed roadmap for creating plans to ensure the U.S. Catholic Church’s future.” ~Tia Noelle Pratt, Villanova University

“Deeply realistic, deeply thoughtful, deeply hopeful, Catholicism at a Crossroads offers the best insight available into the state of Catholicism in the US today—and where it may go in the future. It should be read by every religious sister, priest, and bishop; every Catholic teacher and organizational leader; every professor at a Catholic college; and every thinking Catholic. Even just reading the ‘Implications’ section that concludes each chapter will be rewarding. This will likely be the smartest Catholic book you read this year—and may even change how you relate to Catholicism.” ~Richard L. Wood, President, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies

Cultural Catholics is released!

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I’m so excited to announce that Cultural Catholics: Who They Are, How to Respond is now available! This book comes out of the most recent wave of the American Catholic Laity series of surveys that began under the leadership of sociologist William V. D’Antonio. Rather than examining the whole dataset, this book takes a deep dive into those 53% of Catholics who attend Mass “a few times a year” or “seldom or never.” The book is written primarily with pastoral ministers in mind, but for those who want to better understand the infrequent Mass-going Catholics in their lives (read: including those in your immediate and extended family), there are a lot of important takeaways for you, too.

And, just to sweeten the deal, Liturgical Press has generously provided us with a discount code! Use the code CULTURE24 for a 20% discount on the paperback edition as well as free shipping when you order through their website by October 30, 2024. For those who prefer Amazon, you can purchase the book here. And thank you to Dr. Tom Gaunt and Nicole Perone for their back cover blurbs:

“A very readable and engaging look at that half of the U.S. Catholic church on the margins or totally outside of parish life.”

Tom Gaunt, SJ, CARA and editor of Faith and Spiritual Life of Young Adult Catholics in a Rising Hispanic Church

“For anyone who cares about the Catholic faith surviving; for anyone willing to imagine a new way of defining ‘a lived faith’; for anyone enthused by the idea that there is a new path forward for Catholic identity; this book is for you!”

Nicole M. Perone, National Coordinator, ESTEEM, Chair of the Board of Members, National Institute for Ministry with Young Adults

Happy reading and blessings on your ministries!