The pope's done a great job of reversing that trend, huh?
Well, used to be that the Church threatened everyone with eternal damnation was one not to fulfill the Sunday obligation. Nowadays most people aren't inclined to buy into that anymore. Love of God is expected to be enough to get folks into the pews, but apparently that's not as effective as the coersion of the promise of hell. But the pope has done one heckuva job of trying for those with ears to hear.