Soooooo, let me get this straight. The writer thinks that Roman Catholics are leaving the pews because of the change 20 years ago from the traditional Latin mass to the Hootenany??? ROFLOLOLOL! Nice try!
I don't suppose the corruption in their seminaries, which includes pedophilia, has anything to do with it at all.
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Church attendance collapsed within five years of the institution of the New Mass, dropping from 80%+ to somewhere around 22%. This was before the scandals broke. But the scandals themselves, together with a general loosening of morals, coincided with the Vatican Council.
No. It does not.
The article was writtein in 1978. At that point the liturgical revolution was well on its way, having fired the first destructive salvos in the mid60s.
While there was some child sex abue occuring before this date, the tidal wave of filth was growing exponantially - and would not make the papers until the mid 90s. So, at that point - 1978 - essentially nobody knew of the depth and extent of the corruption which was consuming the clergy.
People started leaving the pews in slowly increasing numbers in the mid-60s, when the changes in the mass began. that exodus has not slowed, but has grown over the years - to the point that folks are literally fleeing the pews, due to the recent uncovering of the sex scandals.
This process has extended over a period of 40 years.