I agree with what you say but in the past there was something going on at the parishes all the time. Mothers didn’t work outside the home, for the most part, and much of their social life was within the parish. Now, almost everyone works! Children’s lives revolve around secular school and non-religious activities.
We have a constant battle with the schools not to have any extra-curriculars on Wednesday nights and there will probably come a day when they won’t feel they need to give us that courtesy at all.
Somehow, we have to help them “own” their faith. Not to go through the motions to please Mom and Dad, who don’t go to Mass or Grandma, who does.
I have had some luck, most of the kids I have had in my Confirmation classes are still going to Mass and they are out of their teens now. They are getting married in the Church. It may be that I have taught more in the vein of RCIA, or it might be that I am very firm in my faith and emotional and I show it. And yet, sometimes I think that we want them to have the theology so we drill them without making them understand that the commitment is a gift and not a chore. You aren’t going to hell if you can’t name the 7 sacraments, it is the heart that must be touched before the teaching is absorbed and when that happens they can’t get enough.
It’s interesting the kinds of Organizations (are they called Fraternal Organizations? I don’t know) that are in the Catholic Church but some were very popular in the past, like Legion of Mary (established in Ireland I am rather certain) or Holy Name Society, the latter I’ve heard is really low on popularity according to our pastor. The Knights of Columbus are probably relatively popular but I doubt if like in the old days. Bless this woman I know, in the last 2 years or so we did Legion of Mary door to door (like the Mormons do!) prosyletizing and all of the other things that organization does. Heck, in places like India and Singapore, I think they are still popular. But unfortunately, most of these kinds of organizations are not what they once were. Some day!
That’s why too, when figures are tossed out like 52 percent of Catholics supported Obama, heck, the Pew Foundation did a survey that only a quarter of those calling themselves Catholic go to Mass every week. That is a figure of around 25 percent of the 60-65 million Catholics in the US.
http://www.holynamesociety.info/index1.shtml
And there’s a few other such types of organizations, Blue Army is another one now I think called the Fatima World Apostolate but maybe Blue Army would be a good name to go back to.
These are fine organizations: as someone above pointed out, the Church has suffered very much so in the past before but comes back strong.