Posted on 05/27/2007 7:17:23 PM PDT by Gamecock
The numbers tell the story.
Time magazine wanted to talk theology with Mel Gibson recently on the set of The Passion, his new movie depicting the last hours of Christ. Asked what he thought about the effects of the Second Vatican Council on the Catholic Church, the Braveheart of Catholic traditionalists said, "Look at the main fruits: dwindling numbers and pedophilia."
Gibson's post Vatican II ergo propter Vatican II argument would be enough to drive any high school logic teacher crazy. Is the Council responsible for all the Church's ills, including the priestly sex-abuse crisis, that have arisen since the Council closed in 1965? After all, many of the abuse allegations pre-dated the Council, and some of the most notorious offenders--like John Geoghan and Paul Shanley--were trained in the pre-Vatican II seminaries. Too many factors come into play to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Council caused the pedophile priest phenomenon.
But Gibson comes closer to the mark when blaming the Second Vatican Council for the "dwindling numbers . In fact he is being generous, because "plummeting would be a more accurate term than "dwindling" to describe of the incredibly shrinking Catholic Church since 1965. In every area that is statistically measurable--such as the number of priests, seminarians, priestless parishes and nuns--the deterioration is obvious, and is the exact opposite of the trends before the Council.
EMPTY SEMINARIES
Beyond a vague understanding of a need for "more vocations," most Catholics are perhaps unaware of the disaster facing the American priesthood. After skyrocketing from about 27,000 in 1930 to 58,000 in 1965, the number of priests in the United States dropped to 45,000 in 2002. By 2020, there will be about 31,000 priests--and only 15,000 will be under the age of 70, according to a study conducted by Dr. James R. Lothian of Fordham University.
The shortage of priests has created a problem previously unknown to modern Catholics: the priestless parish. Only 3 percent of the parishes in the US--a total of 549--were without a priest in 1965. In 2002 there were 2,928 priestless parishes, about 15 percent of all US parishes. By 2020, a quarter of all parishes, 4,656, will have no priest.
As one would expect, the priest dearth has been fueled by a collapse in the seminarian population. There were 16,300 seminarians in 1930 and 49,000 in 1965. By 2002 the number had plunged to 4,700: a 90 percent decrease. Without any students, countless seminaries across the country have been sold or shuttered. There were 596 seminaries in 1965, and only 200 in 2002.
And empty seminaries result in declining ordinations. While there were 1,575 ordinations to the priesthood in 1965, in 2002 there were 450, a decrease of 350 percent. Taking into account ordinations, deaths and departures, in 1965 there was a net gain of 725 priests. In 1998, there was a net loss of 810.
RELIGIOUS ORDERS DISAPPEARING
The tragedy of the convents has been perhaps even more startling. A host of 138,000 sisters ran the Catholic education and health systems in 1945; their numbers swelled to 180,000 by 1965. In 2002, there were 75,000 sisters, with an average age of 68. By 2020, the number of sisters will drop to 40,000--and of these, only 21,000 will be age 70 or under. One does not have to be Chicken Little to predict that within a generation there will be no nuns.
The same is true for the once-proud religious orders of men. For example, in 1965 there were 5,277 Jesuit priests and 3,559 seminarians; in 2000 there were 3,172 priests and 389 seminarians. There were 2,534 OFM Franciscan priests and 2,251 seminarians in 1965; in 2000 there were 1,492 priests and 60 seminarians. There were 2,434 Christian Brothers in 1965 and 912 seminarians; in 2000 there were 959 Brothers and 7 seminarians. It does not require special training in statistics to conclude that by 2050, if these trends continue, the Jesuits, the Franciscans, and the Christian Brothers, will be the virtually extinct in the US.
Other statistics on the life of the Catholic Church in America tell the same story. At the time of the Council there were 4.5 million students in US parochial schools; now there are 2 million. Before the Council there were less than 400 marriages annulled by Catholic diocesan tribunals in an average year; now there are 50,000. Before the Council 3 out of 4 Catholics attended Mass each week; now the figure is 1 in 4.
Given these alarming facts, one wonders how a movie star like Mel Gibson can sense a Church in extremis, but the American bishops cannot. They know the statistics (which are published by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops), yet take no action to counter the catastrophe.
The bishops do not have a good track record when it comes to responding to crisis. Just as they showed no interest in the sexual abuse of minors--in fact they were sometimes complicit--it is a good bet that the bishops will neglect the emergency that threatens the very existence of the Church in the America.
[AUTHOR ID] Kenneth C Jones of St. Louis is the author of Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church since Vatican II, published by Oriens Publishing Co.
Not only that, but, a family with 6 or 8 kids might rejoice if 1 or 2 decided to take holy orders. But in a family with only 1 or 2 kids to begin with -- the kids joining holy orders is a tragedy, extinction in fact (unless, of course, priestly celibacy is revoked.) Perhaps that's the real reason for vocational shortages -- parents discourage their scarce offspring from seeking them, for fear of having no grandchildren.
I know the feeling. I was unwillingly single til almost too late -- I married at age 38 (my wife was 34). Now we have 2 kids and we're hoping for at least a 3rd soon, before it's too late... but if God had seen fit to bring us together at an earlier age, we both would have wanted a lot more. And we're Protestants! (BTW, I have run into a number of non-contracepting Evangelical families over the years, with anywhere from 6 to 14 children. If only... if only...)
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Yes, there are some “quiverfull” Protestants out there who let God choose the number of children they should have. God bless them!
Sadly, by and large, most Protestants and Catholics have bought into the contraceptive mentality. As priests we often encounter couples well past the age of conceiving wishing they had had more children, or couples who went the route of sterilization and later regretted it, or couples who ended up divorced because of the selfish, contraceptive motives of one of the spouses.
Sadly, also, no one ever talks about the bad fruits of the contraceptive mentality: abortion, divorce, adultery, homosexuality, cohabitation, etc. If it’s not about having children within the context of matrimony, then anything goes.
A lot to pray for. But there are signs of hope as pro-life families keep growing—evident at the annual March for Life each year. God bless...
No, it's just some severe pruning. Gibson's an apostate, himself. The good news is, Jesus prophesied that the fatihful would be far and few between, so everything seems to be going as planned.
There's still a billion or so Catholics in the world, even if the American flock is too busy sleeping in instead of going to Mass on Sunday.
Great post, Fr. Thanks for being here.
Ping to several people who I know would enjoy Father Maximilian’s excellent and very insightful comments! (I know that I am pinging a few non-Catholics, but you are dear FRiends of mine and I know you will appreciate his insight.)
God Bless
At any rate, your post draws a relatively accurate picture of the damage Satan has done to the Church, either by:
1. Restricting the Truth (heterodox bishops)
2. Destroying souls (pedophile priests)
3. Leading people away from the Church (New Ageism, lies, spiritual sloth, cultural poisoning)
I would even go so far as to say that, in the coming centuries, this will be regarded as one of the darkest ages of the Church. Among about ten or fifteen nominal Catholics in my workplace, I'm the only one who attends Mass. The rest are (almost) hopelessly suffocating in secular mindsets.
My local parish has roughly 30 weddings a year. Out of that, only two or three of those couples will actually follow the teachings of the Church and/or attend Mass regularly. If we do the math, that's maybe 10% of new families actually having a sacramental dimension to their marriage. This is mind-boggling.
Contraception (as Paul VI keenly predicted) is an epedemic among nominal Catholics. There is simply no perspective anymore on the place of mankind vs. God. Once we became insistent on restraining the hand of God from His creative right, it became that much easier just to ignore Him altogether. Once that happens, there's no point in attending Mass or going to confession. Add to that the hyper-social pressure to accept diversity and reject religion as an intolerant system of tyranny, and it's not surprising that there are fewer and fewer people in church. Those of us who stay and fight the good fight have our work cut out, but the outcome is already known.
Thanks for the ping!
I know that you are doing your part to keep the Catholic population up!
‘...The outcome is already known”
How true. This knowledge is what gives us the Gift of the Holy Spirit—Fortitude.
As St. Paul tells us—”we must keep our eye on the finish line.”
I am so grateful to God that when all the dust-up came in the aftermath of Humane Vitae, that we remained faithful. Because of God’s goodness to us, all of our children have remained in the Church and we have many grandchildren.
Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ!
thanks for the ping!
“I know that you are doing your part to keep the Catholic population up!”
Okay, I’m no Tax-chick but I’m trying my best!! ;o)
I’ve never claimed to be solely responsible for the Church’s population growth!
In fact, some people may leave after experiencing Mass with Pat and James ...
LOL! Father mentioned how nice it is to hear babies in church again. We attend a very small parish with lots of older families. It was a very sweet thing for him to say after Ella talked through Mass!
That would be kind! Our pastor is hard of hearing (he’ll be 70 later this year) so I don’t think he notices our little boys.
We have a lot of young children in the parish, but none as loud as James! My husband and I usually go to different services, so the little boys can stay home.
I don’t rely on “facts” that are 6 months old without believing this article
Oh but I have a clue to what Calvinism is, friend. It was so depressing to hear the 5 points that the Lord had to tell me clearly that this is NOT from Him. He wants all people to be saved but some will reject Him.
The source of the desire is of God but we have to decide to act on it. Some will reject, some will accept. The final decision lies with us.
Of course He knew. But the final decision lies with us. We accept His gift of eternal life or reject it. It would not be a gift if it was forced on us.
What part of the teachings of Calvin do you see in Phelps actions?
That’s a rhetorical question, right?
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