Christian Family Movement - The Fading Movement

The Fading Movement

Recently the CFM has been fading away throughout the world. According to an article in the National Catholic Reporter by Tim Unsworth there are many reasons this is happening. Some of the reasons attributed to the fading CFM were the banning of birth control, the integration of the upper-class neighborhoods, the increased amount of women in the working world, the increase in car travel changing parish boundaries, and the increased use of Catholic schools causing parents to be unable to see the need for having parental conversations with other adults outside of their spouse. The decline of the CFM can be measured throughout the years by the declining number of families involved. Robert McClory explained in his book review of Disturbing the Peace: A History of the Christian Family Movement that "after 1964 the movement shrank: from a high of 50,000 couples in the United States and Canada to 32,000 in 1967, to 16,000 in 1968, to 4,313 in 1974, to an all time low of 1,100 couples in 1980".