Seems all are not happy in Rome.
Meanwhile the Catholic Church is the fastest growing Christian denomination in the world with an average of 250 million new Catholics annually...half of which are converts.
No need to spend all Sunday afternoon diving around in that dumpster for articles like this. There are more recent examples than 2003. THIS, for instance.
No need to spend all Sunday afternoon diving around in that dumpster for articles like this. There are more recent examples than 2003. THIS, for instance.
The examples of the former are numerous, and plenty are well known. Examples of the latter are unfortunately too numerous to count, hence Mr. Jones's findings. I pray that the tide is turning (and ever so slowly, it seems to be).
Catholic Priests in Latin America need to lay off the Marx based liberation theology and just preach Christ and maybe things would be different.
Could you please explain why you are posting an article from May, 2003 in May of 2007?
Makes no sense to me. Old news.
The news today......be converted and save your soul.
I agree that it will be the case that several orders are and will be struggling for the next couple years. I do know that isn't the case at all with some of the more newer orders that hold on to good Catholic tradition, some of them are bursting at the seems with those discerning vocations.
Jones’s analysis is simplistic. Mass attendance began to decline in this country before Vatican II, peaking at 75% in 1955. By 1965, Mass attendance had fallen to 67%. There were other factors at work here besides the Council, although the liturgical and theological confusion that followed the Council was definitely a big factor. One of these factors was the cultural revolution that occurred in this country during the 1960s, especially the revolution in sexual values. Another was the fact that by the 1960s, Catholics were increasingly entering the mainstream of American society, abandoning their “fortress mentality.” Anti-Catholic bigotry was a sad fact of American life up until WWII and Catholics were very conscious of their second-class status. Hency they kept to themselves, maintained their own insitutions, and remained aloof from society. By the 60s this was changing and Catholics were becoming “regular” Americans. Unfortunately, many stopped practicing their faith in order to fit in better with American society.
The biggest cause of the decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life has been the decline in Mass attendance among Catholics. Catholic families who do not attend Mass on Sundays, do not produce vocations. And contraception and divorce are largely to blame for this decline in Mass attendance. Moreover, Catholics’ acceptance of the divorce mentality has directly led to a decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Those who do not see marriage as something permanent and sacred will not value the renunciation of marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
That thing is to teach the power of God, Jesus as God and the facts about the supernatural power of the sacraments of the Church. It would be difficult for one who knows in the depths of his/her being about the Real Presence in the Eucharist to leave the only church which offers it.
A side issue is to teach people about the fact that all bishops, all priests and even the pope may be flawed, is that which requires submission of mind. We do not worship or idolize them as people. We just respect the offices.
A
The election of Benedict XVI has had a wonderful effect on Church statistics, but the numbers probably won't be public for a while yet.
ah, but all we need to counteract this terrible fall in faith is to become a saint.
Are you doing that?
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This is a reposting of an OLD thread. In spite of multiple requests, the poster, a known and often virulent anti-Catholic, has failed to explain this out-dated post. I have hit the abuse button and complained. I suggest you do as your conscience dictates, but I see this as a deliberate effort to sow discord among the forum.
Still the longest lived institution on the planet, even when arguing amongst themselves, she’ll be here long after the mainline protestant denominations have gone, which doesn’t seem likely to be much longer. Then she’ll outlast the muslims, and be there at the second coming.
That’s funny, my RCIA class had 97 this Easter vigil, including converts, and not counting the slew of teenagers along with over 120 first communicants (With 3 masses of different languages on 4 Sundays in May with first communions, it’s a task... along with all the baptisms in between).
the catholic church is not the USA church, it is universal. There are about 60 million catholics in the USA, only a fraction of the 1.1billion catholic population. The church is booming everywhere except the secularist west. in mexico for example there are almost as many seminarians as there are priests, in brazil the number of seminarians has increased 10 fold since the 70’s, africa, south and east asia it is booming. All IS well in the church, just wait a few years and things will come right again in the West. It’s a generational thing; young people will return to the church, and they are, you’ll be swamped by them in a decade or two.
I don’t rely on “facts” that are 6 months old without believing this article
A 4 year old article?