Looking for a little good news?

A U.S. sociologist who has been studying Catholics offered an encouraging word or two at a dinner recently in Washington:

In an Oct. 3 talk at Georgetown University in Washington before receiving an award from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) for his contribution to church research, James D. Davidson, of Purdue University, said the picture that emerges from his 40 years of social research on religion in America shows a Catholic laity that for the most part is involved in the church, knows and affirms its core teachings, is highly educated and is sophisticated in relating faith to public life.

Msgr. Francis J. Maniscalco, a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y. and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops director of media relations from 1993 to 1994 and secretary of communications from 1994 to 2006, who was also honored, quoted in remarks delivered during the dinner the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, saying “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

“I think that is true of communities as well,” he said. He praised CARA and others who engage in social research on the church for helping it to live an examined life.

CARA, an independent Catholic research agency founded in 1964, has been affiliated with Georgetown University since 1989.

In his talk Davidson said that when news media put the focus on Catholics who are dissident, religiously illiterate or anti-hierarchical, they distort the broader picture of the majority who know and live their faith well.

“American Catholics are the most highly educated laypeople in the history of the church,” he said. “Two-thirds have more than a high school education and one-third have advanced degrees.”

He said numerous studies show that Catholics tend to distinguish between core church teachings and matters less central to the faith, and where surveys find a lack of consensus among Catholics it is on those less central issues.

“Not only do Catholics today have an instinct for what is most important, they also affirm those core beliefs and practices,” he said.

Msgr. Maniscalco is currently director of the Rockville Centre diocesan Respect Life Office and adviser to Rockville Centre Bishop William F. Murphy on public policy issues.