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To: TraditionalistMommy
Firstly, I haven’t seen any of you provide statistics to support your claims. All the available numbers suggest, time and again, that church attendance is dropping, there are fewer priests every year, and Catholic schools are in crisis and closing in great numbers.

I don't have numbers at my disposal, nor do I have the time to go find them. I have qualitative support: traditional orders are growing; orthodox dioceses are producing priests; liberal/"progressive" dioceses and orders are withering away IN REGARDS TO CLERGY AND PROFESSED RELIGIOUS. Until this is remedied, the church attendance issue will not be fixed and cannot be fixed. Are the orthodox dioceses still bleeding parishioners and thin on priests? Sure. Are the orthodox religious orders still small? Certainly. But they aren't as small, they aren't bleeding as badly, and they have genuine hope that the situation will get better. Look at the FSSP, or the Society of St. John Cantius, or the Dioceses of Lincoln and St. Louis, or Kenrick-Glennon and St. Charles Borromeo. Compare them to their less traditionally-minded counterparts. It cannot be ignored.

I can only speak for what i know: my fellow seminarians from our rather small diocese have absolutely no interest in liberal or modernist concepts.

You never answered my question: HOW do you explain the trends that exist, which are in stark contrast to your assertion?

123 posted on 04/28/2008 10:45:31 AM PDT by GCC Catholic (Sour grapes make terrible whine.)
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To: GCC Catholic

I don’t know how you can expect me to explain something you, yourself, can’t provide any evidence to support. The burden of proof is on you, I’m afraid.


125 posted on 04/28/2008 10:48:31 AM PDT by TraditionalistMommy
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To: GCC Catholic

It’s because those who profess to worldly orders eventually decide they’d rather be in the world themselves, and the vows go by the wayside.


171 posted on 04/28/2008 11:50:21 AM PDT by ichabod1 (I know the diff between right and wrong. Right: What I Am. Wrong: What You Are)
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