Religious Responsibility in Catholicism

Abstract

People's thoughts and lifestyles have always been influenced by the times they live in. Many things change in life from one age to the other, or from one generation to the next, and these changes have an impact on many concepts in life. Religion, which is an important part of many people's lives, is one concept that has gotten its share from change. As a result, the question is whether people's adherence to religion changes with the change in time. The goal of this thesis is to see if generational differences have an impact on how religious activities are carried out. With Christianity as the world's largest religion and Catholicism as its major sect, this thesis specifically aims to reveal if Catholics continue to fulfill their religious responsibilities in every generation and if there are any differences between generations in this regard. The hypothesis put forth by this thesis is that there is a decrease in the fulfillment of the religious practices among Catholic Christians in each new generation. To test this idea, data was collected from several surveys and a comparison between generations was made. This hypothesis was confirmed correct in general, although with some exceptions, by demonstrating that the older generations are more likely to be practicing in most of the sacraments compared to the younger generations. However, some generations tend to be more practicing than the previous generations in some specific sacraments; yet, the statement claiming that the execution of this specific practice decreased from the oldest generation until the youngest generation stands rightful. Thus, keeping this exception in mind, the claim should be that the fulfillment of religious responsibilities decreases over time, especially among the youngest generations.