Study: Catholics losing the faith

Medill Reports ^ | Feb 27, 2008 | Greg Trotter

[a_chronic_whiner]

ping

[Quix]

Thanks.

Thanks for such a great example of the standard RC edifice twisting of reality.

The confirmation is appreciated.

[Quix]

I guess those are the ones you believe in, since they were condemned as heresies by The Church?

That's rich.

I'm beginning to think that rubberizing pills must be distributed with the wafers. Amazing.

Thanks for the laugh.

[Quix]

What an artful manipulation of rubberized ambiguities! Very clever. Congrats.

[Quix]

that doesn’t mean we can’t debate, but civilly...

= = =

Really?

What a surprise!

[Mad Dawg]

that doesn't mean we can't debate, but civilly...

Sure, but debating or (better still() discussing civilly requires intent to be civil. This intent is often lacking.

There are many reasons for this. Some fall in the medical area. But an interesting one is the strand or trend in some "schools" to ask Tertullians question (expecting the answer, "Nothing at all!") "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?"

Some people think words are mostly for control rather than communicating, for causing pain and driving people away rather than developing koinonia.

These may be able to discuss civilly, but they see no reason to do so.

[Mad Dawg]

(Well I was going to offer to swap an idol for a good snake ...)

[Cronos]

You take rubberizing pills?

[Quix]

Naw.

I don’t even give them up for lent.

I leave them entirely to the RC edifice and reps.

[Cronos]

No thanks, we don’t use rubberizing pills — since you like ‘em so much, you’re free to use them. We in The Church don’t use things that twist reality, however, if you use them, feel free to speak incoherently.

[John Leland 1789]

“Roughly 10 percent of all Americans have strayed from Catholic roots, the study reported.”

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This must mean that 10% of all American members of the RCC have strayed from Catholic roots.

My dad was raised Roman Catholic; for some years in French-speaking boarding school run by nuns in Ottawa, Ontario. He was actually born in Detroit, however, and joined the U.S. Army at age 17. When he was 45 years old I was 17 and in the U.S. Air Force. He telephoned me one morning and told me, “Son, I became a Christian yesterday.” He meant that through all his years as a Roman Catholic, he had never met Jesus Christ. I’m not laughing at the Catholics. I was raised in a Baptist church from age 2 (where my mother took us children), but wasn’t a Christian until 18 months after my dad was saved by grace through faith.

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“Despite the loss, the survey shows that Catholics still represent nearly a quarter of the American population – just as surveys conducted in the early 1970s found.”

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And I doubt seriously that the RCC is still the largest denomination in the USA.

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“’Much of Catholicism’s loss can be chalked up to previous generations of immigrants assimilating into American culture and remaining less faithful to their ethnic identities and religions,’ Green said.”

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Well, the nation didn’t begin as a RCC-dominated nation, and when the previous waves of immigrants arrived, if they were RCC members from predominantly RCC countries, they saw pretty quick that there were a whole lot of people who were blessed and helped in other than RCC churches. It had to have a big impact.

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“’That kind of assimilation is typical for any ethnic group,’ said Mary Gautier, senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research and Apostolate, at Georgetown University. ‘And it affects all religions – not just Catholicism.’”

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Almost sounds like Mary Gautier is declaring Roman Catholicism to be an ethnicity.

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“Intermarriages, dwindling numbers of priests, and insufficient church facilities are reasons why people might go elsewhere, [Gautier] said.”

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Or are more and more people discovering that earthly religious priests have no power over people’s eternity, as the RCC would really want its members to believe.

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“. . . .link parishoners to the Gospel.”

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What in the world does that mean? A priest can’t link a soul to anything. And I suspect that “Gospel” here means the mandates of Roman Catholicism upon the religious lives of its members, and is not referring to the sufficiency of Christ’s Redemption work at the Cross where He died for our sins and rose again the third day for our justification. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 4:25).

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“’It’s our mission to evangelize and we are failing that,’”

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I would like to see here the RCC’s exact definition of evangelism beyond, ‘conversion of the human heart and the promotion of social justice.’” These are very vague words. They are kind of like Obama using the word “change.” In Catholicism, what is the conversion of the human heart? Is there any place in the country one could go to see an illustration of this, in RCC terms, in the daily lives of common RCC members?

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“The Catholic Church also struggles to reach out specifically to the needs of minority communities, such as blacks, Asians and Hispanics, said Deck, who has spent his career in the Hispanic ministry. And the assimilation of immigrants into the Church and also American culture is a tricky balance, . . .”

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My observation (Philippines) is that the RCC just adapts local culture into the church and runs it as a side program to get pagans to stay loyal to the priests, if you can call how they live their lives “loyalty” to anything.

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“We have to be very careful,” Deck said. “Our role is to promote the Gospel, not any particular culture – not even American culture.”

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I can understand that and agree with that, if I could see a biblical definition of “the Gospel.”

[samiam1972]

Read this when you’re finished with schooling for the day! (Ping to self)

[Twink]

LOL loved the last line of your post. :)

I grew up in the philly archdiocese so we had latin mass for as long as I can remember (and we didn’t have Saturday evening mass until the Pope ordered it because our archdiocese was “behind the times” in every way). Then sometime during my later grade school years, it switched to english and I could actually understand it. But, since we were a heavy Italian parish, one Mass each Sunday was always said in Italian. I know Italian (can understand it, but not speak it as fluently as I should). When I attended the Italian Mass, I could understand it and even reply at appropriate times. Latin and Italian aren’t that far apart so I was lucky to learn Italian in my home as it made latin mass a bit more understandable for me.

My current parish (mostly liberal but changing now with this Pope) is offering a Latin Mass but most Masses will stay the same but small changes - back to certain liturgy and away with some of the more liberal aspects. I think we’re going in the right direction especially since most sunday masses won’t be said in latin but there will be one per month and all masses will incrementally go back to how the liturgy was before Vatican II. People here want the high latin mass. It’s packed and not just like the Christmas and Easter Masses are with those catholics. The Italian monthly Masses are packed. I don’t know how other parishes are faring but this area, liberal for the most part, is happy with the changes this Pope is making.

I do agree with you, your last comments, and I prefer English but I know enough Latin and Italian if I end up at one of those Masses, it won’t be too hard to follow.

[meandog]

Do you find yourself sometimes unconsciously repeating the new Mass liturgy when the old one is introduced?

[Twink]

I have to follow the missil(sp) more now.

I’ve been in the parish for over 15 years and we used to kneel at certain times, did it that way for as long as I could remember. For some reason that changed and we stood and now we’re back to kneeling. It must have been a diocesan change because not all parishes made the change from kneeling to standing.

I still say my Confession the way I was taught back in 2nd grade and it’s different today.