Posted on 05/09/2017 8:08:13 AM PDT by Salvation
It was recently announced that a substantial number of Catholic parishes will be closing in Connecticut. This is just the latest in a national trend that is likely to affect the diocese where you live, especially in the north. Id like to offer some rather quick thoughts and then ponder what I think is the root cause for our decline.
Given what I think is the root cause, how should we begin to stop the steady erosion of the practice of Catholic faith? I would agree with Dr. Ralph Martin that the first step must be to revive a more biblical vision of urgency regarding salvation. Just because many peopleeven among the clergysay that there isnt a problem doesnt mean that there isnt one.
Jesus was far more sober in assessing the situation. He devoted many parables and warnings to our need to attend to the salvation He offers. There are the sheep and the goats, those on the right and those on the left, the wise virgins and the foolish ones, those ready for the masters return and those who are not, those who will hear, Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world and those who will hear, Depart from me. I know you not. Jesus noted that the road to damnation was wide and many were on it, and only a few were on the narrow road to salvation (Matt 7:13-14).
But just try to tell any of this to most people today and see what kind of response you get. My sense is that urgency is at an all-time low. Yet biblically, directly from Jesus Himself, it is clear that the likelihood of being saved is greatly reduced when one does not repent regularly and walk in the faith actively, including a heavy dose of Scripture and frequent reception of the sacraments.
Yet few people speak this way today. Many dismiss such speech as fear-based argument. The fact is, however, that some things should be feared, including our tendency to be hard-hearted and hard-headed, to prefer passing things and error to eternal truths. Running about in a panic is not helpful; we need sober acceptance of our vital need for the sacraments, the proclaimed Word, holy fellowship, and the transformative power of the liturgy.
Until this sober appreciation is recovered by many and demonstrated by the few of us who remain, the steady erosion seems likely to continue. Church closings may be coming soon to a neighborhood near you. It is sad to lose buildings, many of them works of art, but it is even sadder to ponder the human loss that the empty buildings represent.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Great video too — Open it in another window as you continue to post, etc.
Bishops close parishes when they will not support evangelism in the black and Muslim communities. They yield to demographics; instead of being shepherds they are accountants.
Parishes close when churches adopt a “me too” policy towards the values, morals, and beliefs of secular culture. When that happens, the church is deemed expendable. “If the salt loses its savor, it is fit only to be trampled underfoot.” (Or something like that; I’m not Jack van Impe, and don’t have the Bible memorized.)
In my more than fifty years of living as an American Catholic — a miserable sinner, but one who goes to church every week and is up on current events — I NEVER have heard the US Conference on Catholic Bishops issue a statement reminding Catholics they have a grave moral responsibility to attend weekly Mass and that it is a sin not to do so. Never. I’ve read statements about how we should give more tax dollars to “the poor”; how we should oppose the death penalty; how we should support “immigration reform”, etc. However, I’ve never read that we SHOULD go to church. Likewise, I’ve never heard any of my friends who got married in the Church report that when they booked the church, they were told, “If you don’t plan to attend Mass every week and to bring your children to church every week when you have them, you’re not welcome to get married in the Church.”
In short, the “barriers to entry” are much too low in the Catholic Church.
Many of the parishes in Minneapolis have been filled with illegals and the services are in Spanish as the Americans have stopped coming.
Just so - depravity is disguised as tolerance, acceptance, ‘pride,’ etc which fools the gullible because it looks like a campaign of positivity when it is the opposite.
Unfortunately, churches justifiably predisposed to positive messages mistakenly believe these cynical leftist PR campaigns are aligned with religious teaching. Their message gets muddled, even neutralized.
If only there was a common language for our cultures to share so we could more easily worship together. :).
That’s not a problem in the Dallas Diocese. Parishes are bursting at the seams around here. At my parish, we have 5 Masses each weekend with 4,000 to 5,000 attending.
I’ve heard priests say it, but never all the Bishops as a whole Body of clergy.
I’ve attended a Spanish Mass — it was fine with me.
Step one should be to get a Catholic Pope.
Decades of ultra liberal priests teaching 'tolerance' of people living lifestyles celebrating evil might is a factor - - at best it's a strange choice for a spiritual leader's focus.
Tolerance of evil easily transitions to acceptance of evil...
Traditional Americans know that... they walked away - unwilling to support parish houses doubling as San Francisco style Bath Houses - - or lawyer soaked pedophile payoff lending agencies...
And now? Silly economically insane South American style socialism. It's nuts.
In short the Church is heavy on out-of-touch elites designing 'religion' for people much more obsessed with ' corrupt elitism and the world' then with the spiritual needs of the people living in their parishes.
What sane person wants to support that style of insanity with their hard earned money? Very few. The Church needs a reformation... and soon.
My true Pope describes the nut of the problem:
Given what I think is the root cause, how should we begin to stop the steady erosion of the practice of Catholic faith? I would agree with Dr. Ralph Martin that the first step must be to revive a more biblical vision of urgency regarding salvation. Just because many peopleeven among the clergysay that there isnt a problem doesnt mean that there isnt one.
Jesus was far more sober in assessing the situation. He devoted many parables and warnings to our need to attend to the salvation He offers. There are the sheep and the goats, those on the right and those on the left, the wise virgins and the foolish ones, those ready for the masters return and those who are not, those who will hear, Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world and those who will hear, Depart from me. I know you not. Jesus noted that the road to damnation was wide and many were on it, and only a few were on the narrow road to salvation (Matt 7:13-14).
This “falling away” is another sign of the end of the age. Read your Bible and pray, alone if necessary, but with the faithful if possible.
Decades of ultra liberal priests teaching 'tolerance' of people living lifestyles celebrating evil might is a factor - - at best it's a strange choice for a spiritual leader's focus.
Tolerance of evil easily transitions to acceptance of evil...
Traditional Americans know that... they walked away - unwilling to support parish houses doubling as San Francisco style Bath Houses - - or lawyer soaked pedophile payoff lending agencies...
And now? Silly economically insane South American style socialism. It's nuts.
In short the Church is heavy on out-of-touch elites designing 'religion' for people much more obsessed with ' corrupt elitism and the world' then with the spiritual needs of the people living in their parishes.
What sane person wants to support that style of insanity with their hard earned money? Very few. The Church needs a reformation... and soon.
Msgr. Charles Pope needs to talk more with his flock...
Also it would not be surprising if the horrors the priest sex abuse scandals of the last decade and a half played a BIG part in the decrease of Catholics.
Continue: Of Catholics attending Sunday mass.
I’m a lifelong Roman Catholic and the problem, seems to me, is that the mainstream Catholic Church in the USA just doesn’t give people enough to believe in, so they’ve become easy to minimize and dismiss.
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