Posted on 09/03/2019 9:28:46 AM PDT by Salvation
Numerous surveys have documented the steady decline of religious belief in the U.S. and the rest of the Western world. The category of people known as “nones” consists of atheists, agnostics, and those who state that they are not affiliated with any particular religious denomination. There is little that unites them other than this lack of belief. In trying to bring others to the Catholic faith, we are not facing people with a single mindset but rather a bewildering and complex hodgepodge of stances and ideas; the “nones” disagree with one another as much as they do with us Catholics.
There is a simplistic perception that believers are losing ground to a united group of non-believers; this is not the case. We are losing ground, but to a host of disconnected groups/trends: atheists, agnostics, and the “spiritual but not religious,” as well as those who embrace Eastern religions, yoga, reiki, Wicca, Santeria, Wicca, Santa Muerte, and Satanism. There are also people who follow a syncretic religion, incorporating aspects of two or more different religions into a unique new one. The people we are trying to convert represent a mishmash of confusing and self-referential “movements,” some of which have a single member! Some who abandoned the Catholic faith did so in anger over a specific issue or teaching; others just drifted. Some oppose us intensely while others are merely indifferent. Almost nothing unites these groups except that none of them accept our faith.
This can be consoling, but it can also make our task more difficult. The consolation comes from the fact that is this not some strong, united force arrayed against us. If anyone in this non-believing “group” boasts, “We now outnumber you,” I would point out that there isn’t a lot of “we” going on in their supposed movement! Little if anything unites them besides unbelief.
Melanie McDonagh, writing in the Catholic Herald, describes a recent secular movement in England centered around the “Sunday Assembly.” In many ways this assembly mimics Sunday religious services: people sing songs, listen to a secular talk, and share coffee and fellowship afterwards. It turns out, though, that even this group is seeing a substantial decline in attendance. McDonagh writes,
Yet now, it would seem, the difficulties in maintaining attendance turn out to be common to believers and unbelievers alike. According to Faith Hill, writing in The Atlantic, “Sunday Assembly has reported a significant loss in total attendees over the past few years—from about 5,000 monthly attendees in 2016 to about 3,500 in 2018. … After a promising start, attendance declined, and nearly half the chapters have fizzled out ….” If it’s hard getting people to come to Mass when there’s the Body and Blood of Christ on offer, it must be far harder when you’ve got an unanchored community with nearly nothing in common. In fact, some Assembly members are agnostics and others are atheists, so even the absence of religion doesn’t mean unity.
So, it is not really a case of “us versus them.” Rather, it is more that we are against something no more cohesive than a morning mist as the sun rises.
While this may be consoling it also illustrates the difficulty of our response or strategy. Apologetics has always been multi-faceted: Catholic vs. Atheist, Catholic vs. Agnostic, Catholic vs. Mainline Protestant, Catholic vs. Evangelical, and so on. In the current quagmire of highly subjective denominations, the decline in belief resembles more a death by a thousand cuts. While certain commonalities may exist among the myriad varieties of unbelief and designer deities, it has become clear to me that the best thing we can do in response is to be the Church, clearly and unambiguously; we must be clear in our doctrine and identify ourselves as Catholics to others. St. Paul says,
We do not lose heart …. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God (2 Cor 4:1-2).
What we certainly do not want to do is to follow the example of the mainline Protestant denominations, who have comprised nearly every doctrine and moral teaching to please the world rather than God. In the same article, Ms. McDonagh memorably describes some Protestant sects
… [they] slid from non-conformity to Unitarianism and eventually to mere political activism. Unitarianism, in fact, strikes me as the American way of doing agnosticism, or at least deism—a way of being religiously observant without having anything in particular to observe.
What could be more useless than to become the very thing we set out to convert? How can we convert the world by becoming the world? What distinguishes the Protestant denominations and their teachings on moral issues like sexuality, marriage, and the value of life? One might argue that they stand against greed and for social justice. Those are not controversial stands in the liberal West, which loves to trot out such things as a form of virtue signaling.
No, I think that the best and only way forward is being fully, faithfully, and joyfully Catholic. There is still a place for arguments and apologetics, but in the era of competitive atheism and consumerized belief, being “happy customers” of the Lord Jesus and insisting on no cheap substitutes or imitation brands is our best way forward. This may seem bold or hard in an age of never-ending scandal and disappointment with our leaders. However, those are examples of not being Catholic enough or of living in outright contradiction to the Catholic faith. Be Catholic, joyfully. St. Teresa of Calcutta is purported to have said, “Joy is a net of love in which you can catch souls.”
Monsignor Pope Ping!
The dumbest thing I’ve ever read.
The only way forward is to purge all the communists and punish all the pedophiles that populate the clergy.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the Pope’s actively supporting the failed religion/philosophy of marxism including the client change scam.
The Catholic Church is dead. Get use to it
Pope Frankie first.
Great post.
But it’s getting harder to be a good Catholic around here with pieces of garbage taking more and more Disgusting shots at a Pope that we know has many views that just don’t jibe with Catholicism.
We know. You’ve told us a thousand times a thousand times (you people know who I’m speaking of).
After the first 1000 articles, it’s not done to PROVE A POINT.
It’s done out of hatred, likely self hatred or just plain old hatred of the church.
I goaded one of these mooks by agreeing with him and he sent me the most DISGUSTING images of the Pope bowing before the wrong masters.
It’s EASY To find hate.
Not so easy to find love.
We as Catholics know what is expected of us.
You don’t sell a car make for 20 minutes non stop and then try to sell one of its models!
And you don’t bash the leader (great or terrible) forever and then expect people to hear you out on why they should convert from atheism to Catholicism.
And yeah, I know it’s not Catholic to say such a thing, but the few folks that send the most hate towards the Catholic Church under the guise of “no I just hate the POPE, not Catholicism!!” ARE enemies of Christ because after the 10,000th post, it’s just pure hate.
We need to rise above them even though it isn’t always easy.
Hey one of the POS that I was talking about :)
But . . . but . . . adopting “progressive” policies and de-emphasizing those aspects of doctrine and morality that were problematic or offensive to progressives was supposed to make the church more “relevant” and attractive to young people. In fact, caving in to contemporary attitudes with a “me too” approach only succeeded in making the church seem irrelevant and unnecessary.
You don’t sell a car make for 20 minutes non stop and then try to sell one of its models!...
Sorry...I meant BASH a make!!
Like BASH DODGE for 20 minutes and then try to sell a Challenger.
Ciao!
Do you believe you must be as righteous as Jesus to enter Heaven?
The dumbest thing I’ve ever read.
The only way forward is to purge all the communists and punish all the pedophiles that populate the clergy.
Agreed. I’d love to be able to come back to the church. But those at the helm refuse to admit the root cause of the pedophilia issue, let alone address it, and are moving ever-left in their petitions of the faithful.
Leftist ruin all they touch. Catholic church, boy scouts, NFL, the military, and on and on and on...
Sorry, but getting rid of Bergoglio and his minions and declaring him to be in apostasy and hence no longer pope would actually be the valid response. Along with electing a new pope and condemning all of the writings of Bergoglio and his pro-gay, pro-Islam, pro-world religion, anti-human eco-freak (look up integral ecology) circle.
PS, “non-affiliation” does not equate to “no religious belief”.
Catholicism, and its present socialist loving leader,, and all the pedo charges, are reason enough to not want to be bother by y’all.
Only one recourse exists: invalidate Vatican II.........
I was a Catholic....I am now excommunicated....why??? I am divorced and remarried.....if I spent a high five figure amount I could be back in.....how does that honor christ
If the Catholic Church is what it claims to be then they should have the problems fixed very soon and will reopen all of the closed church buildings and build new ones.
No the church heirarchy is corrupt not dead. Short eyed priests, bishops with mistresses, the love of statism and the abandonment of freedom. The USCCB's policy statements read like they were written by the leftmost wing of the Democrat party. The church is very much alive, but in a perverted way.
We do not lose heart …. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God (2 Cor 4:1-2).
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