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>>They are patently living in sin, like 99% of all other Catholics. The grace was just never there.
>>Arrogance is your stock-in-trade, it appears.
>>Just what is your outrageous assertion supposed to mean?

I confess my arrogance. It's a besetting sin that I need to work on.

However, the statistics are accurate. When you look at the numbers, virtually all Catholics objectively are living in a state of mortal sin.

Start with the issue at hand, Mass attendance. Missing Mass even once is a mortal sin. Now of the 25% of Catholics attending Mass on a Sunday, how many go every Sunday? It's not the exact same 25% every week. What percent make it to Mass 60 times per year?

Contraception: Both Catholic and secular sources agree that 95% of Catholic couples of child-bearing age are using birth control at least some of the time. That's been defined as a "sin against nature and a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious," and those who do so "are branded with the guilt of a grave sin."

Then we move on to sins that are even more ubiquitous. What about pornography? And masturbation? It's virtually impossible to partake of today's media without participating in these sins. How many Catholics have really separated themselves from the pornographic culture?

Then we have divorce and remarriage. This has always been considered particularly grave because you are committing a mortal sin every day and every night that you live together.

Then there's the worst of all: sacrilege. Every Sunday morning, Catholics are lined up by the thousands to receive the Body and Blood of Christ even though they are living in sin and have not gone to confession. The most and the worst sins are not committed on Saturday night, but on Sunday morning.

Who then is left? Not me, let me admit, when I was still attending the Novus Ordo. But at least I hardly ever received communion. Often I was the only one in the church to stay in the pew. I was trying to be good through the Pelagian heresy of my own free will. I was aware that it wasn't working, but I didn't have a better solution. Now I have the grace of the true Mass. And my life has changed, Deo Gratias.