CONNECTICUT
National Catholic Reporter
Peter Feuerherd | Nov. 17, 2016
If the late comic Rodney Dangerfield were a state, he might be Connecticut.
It doesn’t get a lot of respect. Small in size (number 48 out of 50); with a name difficult to spell, it suffers from an identity crisis: is it a New York City suburb? Or a slice of New England with leanings towards Boston? Its baseball sympathies includes a mythical dividing line between Red Sox Nation and New York Yankeedom.
The state does lead the nation in per capita personal income. At the same time, its combination of affluent suburban towns mixed with struggling cities like Bridgeport and Hartford makes it number two in income inequality.
Now Connecticut can add another number one to its list: it is tops, according to a 2015 Pew study, in the percentage of baptized Catholics who no longer consider themselves Catholics (see page 143 of this study appendix).
According to Pew, the number of nones — those who respond that they do not consider themselves part of any religious tradition — is growing. Many of the nones are former Catholics. Nationwide, over a seven-year period from 2007 to 2014, self-identifying Catholics in the U.S. population fell from 23 to 20 percent. Connecticut leads with a 10 percent drop.
What’s up with the Nutmeg State?
NCR asked prominent Connecticut Catholics and Mark Silk, a non-Catholic religion scholar and writer, to address reasons and suggest solutions.
First, the possible reasons:
The Pew study indicates that Catholics in Massachusetts, just behind Connecticut in this category, were hit hard by the Boston Archdiocese sex abuse scandals.
The fallout may well have infected bordering states as well. Boston is a media link for much of Connecticut.
Connecticut’s three dioceses were not immune. When then Bridgeport Bishop Edward Egan’s testimony in a priest sex abuse case was made public, many Catholics were outraged as he distanced himself from priest sex abusers, calling them independent contractors whom the church had little control over.
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