PJB: An Index of Catholicism's Decline

WorldNet Daily ^ | 12/10/02 | Patrick J. Buchanan

[ninenot]

As the Watergate scandal of 1973-1974 diverted attention from the far greater tragedy unfolding in Southeast Asia, so, too, the scandal of predator-priests now afflicting the Catholic Church may be covering up a far greater calamity.

Thirty-seven years after the end of the only church council of the 20th century, the jury has come in with its verdict: Vatican II appears to have been an unrelieved disaster for Roman Catholicism.

Liars may figure, but figures do not lie. Kenneth C. Jones of St. Louis has pulled together a slim volume of statistics he has titled Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II.

His findings make prophets of Catholic traditionalists who warned that Vatican II would prove a blunder of historic dimensions, and those same findings expose as foolish and naive those who believed a council could reconcile Catholicism and modernity. When Pope John XXIII threw open the windows of the church, all the poisonous vapors of modernity entered, along with the Devil himself.

Here are Jones' grim statistics of Catholicism's decline:

• Priests. While the number of priests in the United States more than doubled to 58,000, between 1930 and 1965, since then that number has fallen to 45,000. By 2020, there will be only 31,000 priests left, and more than half of these priests will be over 70.

• Ordinations. In 1965, 1,575 new priests were ordained in the United States. In 2002, the number was 450. In 1965, only 1 percent of U.S. parishes were without a priest. Today, there are 3,000 priestless parishes, 15 percent of all U.S. parishes.

• Seminarians. Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,700, a decline of over 90 percent. Two-thirds of the 600 seminaries that were operating in 1965 have now closed.

• Sisters. In 1965, there were 180,000 Catholic nuns. By 2002, that had fallen to 75,000 and the average age of a Catholic nun is today 68. In 1965, there were 104,000 teaching nuns. Today, there are 8,200, a decline of 94 percent since the end of Vatican II.

• Religious Orders. For religious orders in America, the end is in sight. In 1965, 3,559 young men were studying to become Jesuit priests. In 2000, the figure was 389. With the Christian Brothers, the situation is even more dire. Their number has shrunk by two-thirds, with the number of seminarians falling 99 percent. In 1965, there were 912 seminarians in the Christian Brothers. In 2000, there were only seven. The number of young men studying to become Franciscan and Redemptorist priests fell from 3,379 in 1965 to 84 in 2000.

• Catholic schools. Almost half of all Catholic high schools in the United States have closed since 1965. The student population has fallen from 700,000 to 386,000. Parochial schools suffered an even greater decline. Some 4,000 have disappeared, and the number of pupils attending has fallen below 2 million – from 4.5 million.

Though the number of U.S. Catholics has risen by 20 million since 1965, Jones' statistics show that the power of Catholic belief and devotion to the Faith are not nearly what they were.

• Catholic Marriage. Catholic marriages have fallen in number by one-third since 1965, while the annual number of annulments has soared from 338 in 1968 to 50,000 in 2002.

• Attendance at Mass. A 1958 Gallup Poll reported that three in four Catholics attended church on Sundays. A recent study by the University of Notre Dame found that only one in four now attend.

• Only 10 percent of lay religious teachers now accept church teaching on contraception. Fifty-three percent believe a Catholic can have an abortion and remain a good Catholic. Sixty-five percent believe that Catholics may divorce and remarry. Seventy-seven percent believe one can be a good Catholic without going to mass on Sundays. By one New York Times poll, 70 percent of all Catholics in the age group 18 to 44 believe the Eucharist is merely a "symbolic reminder" of Jesus.

At the opening of Vatican II, reformers were all the rage. They were going to lead us out of our Catholic ghettos by altering the liturgy, rewriting the Bible and missals, abandoning the old traditions, making us more ecumenical, and engaging the world. And their legacy?

Four decades of devastation wrought upon the church, and the final disgrace of a hierarchy that lacked the moral courage of the Boy Scouts to keep the perverts out of the seminaries, and throw them out of the rectories and schools of Holy Mother Church.

Through the papacy of Pius XII, the church resisted the clamor to accommodate itself to the world and remained a moral beacon to mankind. Since Vatican II, the church has sought to meet the world halfway.

Jones' statistics tell us the price of appeasement.

[Jim Noble]

Paul Shanley was raping boys in the 1950s.

And he has made the accusation that he was raped by a predecessor (as Cardinal Archbishop) of O'Connor and Medeiros, meaning either Spellman (NY) or Cushing (Boston).

There is still much to learn.

[Barnacle]

Declining ? Not fast enough IMHO.

“IMHO”. What does that mean? In my humble opinion?

What’s humble about wishing for the downfall of my religion?

Your remark strikes me as quite arrogant and malicious, especially if you are a fellow Christian.

Navigating the treacherous
waters of liberal culture.

[Quester]

Jesus did not write a 'Bible'. Jesus selected Apostles and used the Holy Spirit to teach through them. Then and now.

Correct. However, the Apostles Jesus selected did pen writings which the Church recognizes as scripture. The Holy Spirit teaches through the Apostles writings now, as He taught through the Apostles when they lived.

[a history buff]

I think your priest friend is onto something.

More so in Europe than in the US, where the church was not that strong, Catholicism had, especially for the clergy, degenerated into an excessively dogmatic and rule bound institution that was so caught up in arcana that it could no longer do the modern world justice. But at the same time, as an institution, it insisted on its prerogatives.

I think the problems began in Europe when the church obviously was delinquent in its pastoral obligations towards the poor, which resulted in the spread of socialism. The first half of the last century was spent watching the Pontiff who did so die, watching the Habsburgs self-destruct after his sheperding bore its fruits, and then watching national socialism in action. It wasn't until the 60s that things had calmed down enough for the necessary day of reckoning. 60 years worth of changes can't be pushed through in a decade, without a lot of dishes being broken.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

The Catholic faith is not based upon interpretations of the Bible. We consider that it existed prior to the Bible, which was written over time during the first century, while the faith already existed.

The Catholic Faith is based upon the teachings of Christ to the Apostles, and the teachings of the Apostles to all the peoples of the world. From there it has been handed down intact by each successive generation of the heirarchy and of Catholic parents.

The Catholic Faith is a Divine Revelation from Almighty God. It is proved by the miracles wrought by Christ and his sucessors, foremost among them Christ's Resurrection from the Dead, but not excluding even so trifling a matter as the annual liquification of the blood of St. Januarius (San Gennaro in Italian) in Naples or the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano. If it were defined by human men, we would be worshipping ourselves and our own opinon.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Probably Cushing, if the accusation is true. Cushing was a Liberal.

[WriteOn]

Pat's view is through the rearview mirror...

[ex-snook]

"The Holy Spirit teaches through the Apostles writings now, as He taught through the Apostles when they lived. "

I understand your point but differ. I don't believe the Holy Spirit would provide so many different interpretations of what the Apostles taught as are apparent today. If the Holy Spirit was providing the teaching, there would be only one interpretation. Right now many are claiming the Holy Spirit with contradictory message. That is not possible.

I do believe Jesus founded a living Church, with Peter as the head and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The Church decided the Canon and will 'bind and loose' on earth. Jesus will still teach through people and not exclusively with a text book. Truth cannot contradict truth. Truth must be one.

[WriteOn]

Find another parish...

[WriteOn]

Why don't you quit whining and take the matter in hand? I must've read 4 of your posts so far that suggest you're shaking in your pathetic boots. The first source of catechesis and education ought to be the parents. The domestic church has to stand firm. If you don't trust the schools, homeschool. If you don't trust your priest find a priest you do trust. Sheesh. Whiners...

[stuartcr]

The consideration that it existed prior to the Bible and then was written down, this can be validated, or is it a matter of faith as interpreted from the Apostles? How does one know that it was handed down intact, say in 875 or 1312AD?

[ThomasMore]

I wonder if in the advent of the invention of the organ, they were questioning the validity of that instrument? I've heard "Bread of Life" by Roc played on the organ by a very talented musician, and no matter how you cut it, it was still the heretical junk I heard played on the guitar.

On the other hand, I heard a classical guitar rendition of "Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All" that was so reverent and splendid it brought tears to my eyes.

[Aliska]

In time, the clerical ranks became the repository for those young men who didn't exactly mesh with women as well.

And I want to dig deeper and know why they didn't mesh with women. Is there something about the way morality was taught that to be attracted to a female in one's adolescence was not only sinful but abnormal? And the Virgin Mary was always held up as an example? What was left for young men other than psychological castration to THINK about their sexual urges which could not be suppressed despite the efforts of zealot spiritual masters to do so?

This is merely suppositioning. Other cultural groups don't seem to have this sexual dichotomy or they hide it better. And yet they have, through the centuries, maintained good standards of sexual morality for their sons and daughters. . . or did they really? Why have Jews, as a whole, had fewer breaches of basic morality than Christians (historically and disregarding the last 50 or so years where everybody in the west went more or less haywire about sex)?

In none of this do I deny that it is sinful to engage in innapropriate sexual relationships.

How did homosexuality gain such a foothold in the west? It is rampant in England, as well, within the context of their Anglian heritage.

The above is intended more as questioning than a personal opinion.

[stuartcr]

How does music become heretical?

[ThomasMore]

How does music become heretical?

The lyrics and intent.

[TomSmedley]

Through the papacy of Pius XII, the church resisted the clamor to accommodate itself to the world and remained a moral beacon to mankind.

The leading Protestant theologian of my generation, R. J. Rushdoony, described the doctrine of papal infallibility as a firewall against modernism -- a firewall that actually held for several generations, until Vatican II. He spoke of this as an achievement that preserved the integrity of the Catholic faith even while the largest protestant denominations were hijacked by apostates.

[Desdemona]

I wonder if in the advent of the invention of the organ, they were questioning the validity of that instrument?

Real musicianship wasn't questioned then either.

I've heard "Bread of Life" by Roc played on the organ by a very talented musician, and no matter how you cut it, it was still the heretical junk I heard played on the guitar.

That's part of the problem with all the stuff written by amatuers. It's still bad, no matter what you do to it.

[ThomasMore]

Real musicianship wasn't questioned then either.

The question then is:

Is the organ, guitar, lyre, harp or cymbal the problem...

or is it the music itself?

[Quester]

I don't believe the Holy Spirit would provide so many different interpretations of what the Apostles taught as are apparent today. If the Holy Spirit was providing the teaching, there would be only one interpretation.

The Holy Spirit will, indeed, give us the TRUE interpretation of what the Apostles taught.

The question is ... are we listening to the Holy Spirit ... or are we listening to men ?

[stuartcr]

I thought you were talking about a classical guitar rendition vs an organ piece, I saw no reference to lyrics, just music. I would think that the intent of the music would be in the musician, not the notes, or the instrument.