Divided we stand: a generation gap in the church doesn't have to cause a major rift, as long as we're able to listen to one another.

EACH SEPTEMBER COLLEGE FACULTY ACROSS the country receive an information packet about the fresh crop of 18-year-olds settling into our classrooms. We learn about the demographics, SAT scores, and volunteerism of incoming students, and we are reminded that these youngsters do not remember when A1 Gore was vice president, Hillary Clinton was our first lady, or Jerry Seinfeld had a hit comedy--all in the hope that the more we know about our students, the better we will serve them as teachers.

Anyone interested in being a better teacher, pastor, or minister in the Catholic Church would do well to pick up American Catholics Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Their Church (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), the fourth report in the 20-year study on American Catholicism by William D'Antonio and colleagues. Like their earlier reports, American Catholics Today offers a bird's-eye view of the shifting beliefs and practices of contemporary U.S. Catholics, giving the folks in the pulpits a chance to hear from those in the pews, and offering every interested Catholic important information about the way our church may be headed.

D'Antonio and his fellow sociologists Dean Hoge, Mary Gautier, and James Davidson begin by reminding us that this is no longer your mother's church--especially if your mom is part of the pre-Vatican II generation born before World War II, but even if she is a Vatican II boomer born between Pearl Harbor and John F. Kennedy's election. Today nearly half of adult U.S. Catholics are part of either the post-Vatican II generation born between Kennedy's inauguration and John Paul II's election to the papacy, or the "millennials" born after 1979--and the percentage of these younger Catholics will only grow larger as the number of pre-Vatican II and Vatican II Catholics drops.

THERE ARE SOME STRIKING CONTINUITIES ACROSS THE GENERATIONS. Both older and younger Catholics exhibit a high level of commitment to Catholic identity. About three quarters of those surveyed said that being Catholic was an important part of their identity, that they wanted their children to grow up Catholic, and that they couldn't imagine themselves as anything but Catholic. (And yet nonpracticing Catholics now constitute the second largest religious group in America, right behind practicing Catholics.)

A very large majority of U.S. Catholics believe in Jesus' Resurrection and Real Presence in the Eucharist, support the church's commitment to help the poor, and see the sacraments, prayer, and devotion to Mary as central to their faith. Most Catholics continue to see weekly Mass and a daily prayer life as essential or very important.

At the same time, Catholics across the generations have a generally high opinion of priests (though not bishops) and believe that the pope and bishops have the authority to make decisions about doctrine (but not politics or morality). And both older and younger Catholics agree that the laity should exercise significantly more leadership and authority in the church, and that it is time for the Catholic Church to ordain married men and women. (On these questions the laity and younger priests seem to be moving in opposite directions.)

But there are also significant differences among the generations. Pre-Vatican II Catholics, growing up in an immigrant urban church that sheltered them from the larger society's anti-Catholicism, went to Mass and received the sacraments more than their parents or children, and their commitment to the institutional church remains quite high.

As this older generation is replaced by younger Catholics who go to Mass and marry in the church less frequently than their parents or grandparents, the commitment to the church has been declining, and the number of Catholics attending Mass weekly could drop by a third in the next 20 years.

YOUNGER CATHOLICS ARE NOT ONLY GOING to Mass and receiving the sacraments less frequently than their parents and grandparents, they are also less willing to grant the pope and bishops authority to make decisions for them in matters of morality and politics. In general, younger Catholics are less supportive of the church's moral teachings about gender, sexuality, or marriage and are more likely to rely on their conscience rather than the Vatican as a guide for ethical and political decisions. Indeed about half of younger Catholics turn to their conscience as the final moral authority when deciding about abortion, homosexuality, and nonmarital sex.

At the heart of the generational divide (and the growing gap between younger Catholics and the church's hierarchy) is a disagreement about what it means to be a good Catholic. While older Catholics and the pope and bishops believe that a good Catholic must go to Mass weekly and agree with church teachings on doctrine and morality, younger Catholics think being a good Catholic is largely a matter of believing "the basics"--which would include church teachings about the Eucharist, the Resurrection, sacraments, Mary, and helping the poor.

Accompanying this generational divide is a growing gender gap. Twenty years ago Catholic men gave only marginally more authority to the institutional church than women did, but today Catholic women are distinctively less supportive than men of church teachings on divorce and remarriage, contraception, abortion, and homosexuality. And as D'Antonio and his colleagues have noted elsewhere, young college-educated Catholic women are least likely to agree with church teachings in these areas.

AMERICAN CATHOLICS TODAY REMINDS US that the Catholic Church in America (and elsewhere in the world) is engaged in a serious long-term argument about what it means in today's society to be a Catholic and whether church teachings about sexuality, gender, and marriage should be required or revised. The book also reminds us that a growing percentage of both older and younger Catholics are less convinced by these moral teachings or the teachers who present them than their predecessors.

Since Catholic theology has long asserted that authentic teachings must be received by the whole church, perhaps it is time for the teaching office of the church to listen to the voices of the laity who make up the bulk--and future--of the Catholic Church. You want to be a better teacher? Be a better listener.

Catholic films to appeal to all generations:

Therese: The Story of Saint Therese of Lisieux (St. Luke, 2004)

The Ninth Day (Kino International, 2005)

The Third Miracle (Sony Pictures Classics. 1999)

By PATRICK McCORMICK, professor of Christian ethics at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.