Yea, Michael Voris’ wonderful brand of sh*t. But you can tell me there is no stench, if you please.
Religious converge on Vatican amid falling numbers, growing scandals
According to a recent study of religious life in the United States, this decline in membership is expected to continue.
Of the 508 consecrated communities that responded to a survey on the number of men and women who made professional vows in 2023, 438 reported having not a single member who did so, meaning 87 percent of American religious communities had no new perpetually professed members last year.
RELATED: Survey finds most U.S. orders didn’t have a single member take perpetual vows in 2023
At the same time, the image of religious life has been tarnished by scandal.
Most recently are the cases of Slovene Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, a former Jesuit who was expelled from the order last year and who faces allegations of sexual abuse from over 20 adult women, including members of a community he helped found in Slovenia; and the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a Peruvian order whose founder Luis Fernando Figari has been sanctioned by the Vatican for various abuses, and which is currently undergoing an inquiry by the pope’s top investigating duo.
Amid these crises and more, many have called for a reform of religious life, with a specific evaluation of the vow of obedience in light of charges of abuses of power, authority and conscience.
Members and former members of countless orders have complained of suffering physical, psychological, spiritual, and emotional abuse from superiors who manipulate and mistreat underlings on grounds that they are the voice of God for those under their care.