Our local Catholic newspaper just ran a story with a bunch of very discouraging statistics.
The Church locally has imploded in the last 15 years. Parish membership, Mass attendance, financial contributions, baptisms, confirmations, numbers of Priests.....all down by massive double-digit numbers.
Frankly I know a lot of this is due to Catholics who have gotten divorced (many times due to no fault of their own) and then felt unwelcome, or just did not want to put themselves through the hassle of an annulment. The bulk of them seem to join non-denominational churches.
I would like to think that compassion is driving this, but frankly it’s economics.
Is it economics (for their money) or is it pastoral (for access to save their souls)? I hope the pastoral consideration is the deciding factor even if the economic interest coincides with that pastoral interest.