Free Republic

Pope Francis with the Harlem Globetrotters at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square, May 6, 2015. Credit: © L'Osservatore Romano. Vatican City, May 7, 2015 / 03:19 pm (CNA).- On Thursday Pope Francis demonstrated his keen interest in uniting sports with faith, telling members of Italy's Lazio club not to let training or competitions trump the spiritual essentials. “Sometimes it happens that a guy or a girl, due to training and competitions, forgets about Mass (and) catechesis...this is not a good sign; it means we have lost the scale of values,” the Pope told members of Italian sports...

Dec15 Is the Bottom Really Falling Out of Catholic Mass Attendance? A Recent CARA Survey Ponders the QuestionBy: Msgr. Charles Pope Is the number of Catholics really dropping? Is the bottom really falling out of Catholic Mass attendance? If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I have written several articles and cited several studies that detail an increasingly grave situation for the Church (e.g. HERE). Most of us are familiar with a significant number of Church closings, school closings and the like thought Catholic America. These surely strengthen the view that we are in an increasingly...

Mass attendance stable in U.S. churches over last four years New York, Jan. 11, 2005 (CNA) - Mass attendance in the United States has remained stable in the last four years, despite the clergy sex abuse crisis, says a new study released yesterday by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.The study included 10 separate polls, conducted between September 2000, before the scandal began, and September 2004. In each of the polls about one-third of Catholics said they attend Mass weekly. Weekly attendance increased to 39 percent in February 2002, one month into the scandal, then...

Why he’s writing on the Eucharist today In Ecclesia de Eucharistia, released on Holy Thursday, Pope John Paul II says he seeks to ‘help to banish the dark clouds of unacceptable doctrine and practice’ By Russell Shaw 5/4/2003 Before the publication of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (on the Eucharist in its relationship to the Church), there was concern in Vatican circles whether it would be strong enough. As it turns out, it is a warm, faith-filled, sometimes moving document — and more than slightly tough. In undertaking to "help to banish the dark clouds of unacceptable...