Preparing to Say “I Do”

Since its beginning in the postwar era, marriage preparation has enabled parishes to mediate both Catholic theology and broader cultural messages surrounding marriage. Drawing on archival research on two important Catholic family movements from the postwar era and ethnographic observation of marriage preparation in several contemporary parishes in Western Washington, this chapter highlights parish efforts to collectively engage in meaning-making by transmitting a Catholic vision of marriage to individual parishioners. While the vision of a “good” family has changed little from the postwar era to today, therapeutic cultural discourses about self-development and changing marital norms have entered into marriage preparation. Moreover, shifts in the structure of religious authority mean that who does the speaking has changed drastically. Lay persons are increasingly empowered to produce local Catholic culture and make sense of Catholic teachings through the marriage preparation process.

Parishes as Homes and Hubs

Drawn from ethnographic observation in the Washington, D.C., area, this chapter explores how racially diverse, highly educated, and highly involved young adult Catholics in the region of Washington, D.C., relate to parishes. The Catholic scene, for young adults in this locale, is constructed through the efforts of parish-based young adult groups, diocesan offices for Young Adult Ministry, and parachurch organizations. Consequently, this group relates to parishes in three distinct but overlapping ways: parish as home, parish as hub, and parish as sacrament-station. This chapter suggests that scholars rethink the centrality and functions of the parish in American Catholicism. Using the D.C. region in this study, it would be a mistake to assume that young adults who are “loosely tethered” to D.C. parishes are disengaged from the church.

Liturgy as Identity Work in Predominantly African American Parishes

The experiences of African American Catholics are grossly underrepresented in the sociological literature on both race and religion. This is due, in part, to the perception that being both Black and Catholic is a disparate identity. This chapter asserts that while the approximately three million Black Catholics in the U.S. are indeed a minority, their historically rich past and dynamic present make them an integral part of both American Catholicism and the African American religious experience. This chapter explores how Black Catholics in predominantly African American parishes use liturgy to actively combine their dual heritages in forming a distinct Black Catholic identity. Participant observation research identified three distinct styles of liturgy—Traditionalist, Spirited, and Gospel—that highlight the diversity of religious expression among African American Catholics while also heeding the mandate of the Black Bishops of the U.S. to be “authentically Black” and “truly Catholic.”

The Shifting Landscape of US Catholic Parishes, 1998–2012

Employing data from the National Congregations Study, this chapter charts parish trends in key areas of organizational life across a dynamic fifteen-year period of recent history. Parishes’ organizational composition is becoming older and more Hispanic, both among priests and among people in the pews. Meanwhile, local parish cultures are becoming more theologically conservative, but also less charismatic in worship style. Catholic parishes are also seeing large increases in political activity, suggesting a “new politicization” of local Catholic life. Finally, parishes have heightened their participation boundaries against women and gays and lesbians. While briefly suggesting possibilities for why these changes are taking place, this chapter provides an accurate descriptive view of contemporary U.S. parishes and suggests how best to study trends in the years ahead.

A House Divided

Utilizing National Congregations Study data, this chapter paints a demographic portrait of American Catholic parishes in which Latinos are underrepresented and the affluent overrepresented, compared to the overall self-identified Catholic population. As the United States grows increasingly diverse racially, and as the gap between the rich and the poor grows, American Catholic parishes are also highly segregated economically and ethnically. Indeed, Latinos and the wealthy are significantly more segregated by parish than they are by neighborhood. With ethnic and economic segregation closely tied, the Catholic parish landscape is increasingly composed of rich white parishes and poor Latino parishes. The chapter grapples with implications of this empirical reality, along with potential solutions.

A Brief History of the Sociology of Parishes in the United States

Exploring sociological literature across almost three-quarters of a century, this chapter maps the origins and trajectory of sociologists’ exploration of the parish from the 1950s to today. From its contentious start to its largely applied orientation today, the chapter highlights several eras of parish research and argues that our current lack of sociological research on Catholic parishes can be traced to the tenuous relationship between the academy and the institutional Catholic Church. The chapter concludes by asserting that parish studies can be simultaneously good for the academy and good for the church. The future of sociological studies of the parish rest upon the willingness of both the academy and the church to accept this proposition.

Conclusion

This chapter highlights the importance of revitalizing parish studies. Parishes occupy the embedded middle of American Catholicism. Parishes mediate between Catholicism as an aggregate of individuals and Catholicism as a global, hierarchical institution. Employing an embedded field approach, this chapter (and book) illuminates the meso level in sociological studies of Catholicism. Parishes are embedded in and are intimately shaped by social forces of community, geography, and authority. To say that parishes inhabit the middle of Catholicism is to recognize that parishes sit at the intersection of these (and many other) social forces. The chapter identifies three important lessons learned: (1) Seeing parishes sociologically means comparing assumptions with reality. (2) The sociology of parishes must work in conversation—and tension—with the study of congregations. (3) The sociology of parishes requires methodological breadth and strength. The chapter concludes by identifying next steps in a revitalized sociology of American parishes.

Stable Transformation

Utilizing data from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) of Georgetown University, this chapter explores the core and periphery within Catholic parishes over the past forty-plus years. Trend data reveal that many Catholics do not attend or participate in parishes at all, while others at the “core” are highly involved. This chapter traces meaningful differences between periphery and core Catholics and highlights how the core has diminished and the periphery has grown over time. While the Catholic Church maintains its steady share of the population through immigration, reverts, and smaller numbers of adult converts, it maintains this stability with smaller and smaller shares of the Catholic population intensely connected to parish life.

A Sociologist Looks at His Own Parish

This chapter is a dialogue with and reflection by John A. Coleman, S.J., a trained, well-published sociologist and Jesuit pastor in Northern California. In describing and exploring his own experience as a sociologist and pastor, he models the kind of inquiry raised by previous chapters, applying them in a practical way to a single parish to which the author belongs. Through lived experience and his bipartite role as sociologist and parish priest, Fr. Coleman shares in a personal way his own approach to the study of Catholic parishes. The chapter contains numerous questions and tools for applied sociological parish studies.

Power in the Parish

Catholic parishes in the United States are complex organizations (where multiple communities coexist and interact). Relying on participant observation, in-depth interviews, and a case study approach, this chapter explores three parishes in Southern California that showcase the complexity of interactions among different racial and ethnic communities. These parishes are shared in various configurations by white, Latino, Black, and Asian parishioners, and this chapter illuminates the power dynamics of race and ethnicity as they work themselves out in American life. In shared parishes, the cultural work of constructing Catholic identity necessarily involves deploying distinct cultural expressions of Catholicism shaped by broader power dynamics of race, ethnicity, and language. This chapter lays bare this process as parishes illustrate power-in-action, with parish interactions variously producing, perpetuating, and challenging existing power dynamics and race relations.