What I’ve seen it’s the dreaded covid. The churches in our diocese opened up within 4 weeks of the quarantine but 90% of the people did not return especially the elderly. There were those who refused to come because we were required to socially distance and wear masks and then those who were terrified of getting covid.
So even now we’re down about 50% and the elderly have not returned.
On the plus side we have a lot of younger people and their children.
The crazy thing is collections are up and money is pretty much never mentioned in my parish except in the bulletin.
Our church kept up the social distancing of 6 feet between chairs for over a year, and of course the stupid masks. I marveled at how people could arrive for church together in one vehicle, but sit 6’ apart during Mass because of stupid dictates. You can gather that my husband and I didn’t attend in person again until we were allowed to sit next to each other. I didn’t wear and refuse to wear a mask. I shake people’s hands if they stretch theirs out also.
The Church has let me down a few times in my life, but I began to realize that Jesus is the One for whom I am there, not the Popes or the Bishops. Jesus is the One I rely on, and He is Present there. So I go, and we go. I would be utterly lost without Him.
Have to disagree with your conclusion. Our evangelical church found workarounds about communion, distributing both the bread and the wine in disposable cups. Our attendance as soon as the state-mandated shutdown was over rose back up to about 85% of pre-pandemic levels within a few months, and that was a couple of years ago; whereas the Catholic church remained shut down longer and refused communion for a very long time.
Rules is rules; but ours have to be in the Bible to be considered essential, and kneeling to take it on the tongue is not in scripture. It's highly unlikely Jesus demanded to put the bread on the apostles' tongues at the Last Supper. They were lounging around a low table.