Mass Exodus
By Stephen Bullivant
OUP, 302pp, £25/$32.95

Why Catholics Leave, What they Miss, and How They Might Return
By Stephen Bullivant
Paulist Press, 168pp, £15.71/$19.95

Was Vatican II in some way responsible for declining Catholic practice and “affiliation” (people calling themselves Catholics), or is this phenomenon a matter of trends beyond the Church’s control? Focusing on Britain and the United States, Professor Stephen Bullivant, a sociologist of religion at St Mary’s University, London, presents the evidence with precision, while still producing a highly readable book. The thesis of Mass Exodus is that the Church, like other ecclesial bodies, has clearly faced considerable headwinds since the 1960s as a result of wider social forces, but has also made things worse for itself.