Posted on 04/25/2005 7:11:26 AM PDT by murphE
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's 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.
This article is taken from http://www.townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/pb20021211.shtml
"Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church since Vatican II" (113 pages) by Kenneth C. Jones is available at many bookstores.
"Were any of these excommunicated as the result of the actions of the Pope?"
Yes St. Hippolytus was. Both he and Pope St. Callistus ended up being exiled to the same place by the emperor. Eventually both their bodies were returned to Rome and both became venerated as Saints.
It is supposedly Hippolytus's fault that we now have Eucharistic Prayer II, but I think that's a heavy charge to lay on any single man - even a Saint.
I don't think St. Athanasius was excommunicated. I believe you are speaking about the antipope Anastasius Bibliothecarius.
In practice, yes, in most of the dioceses around the world. This is what Cardinal Ratzinger witnessed, and what he regarded as disastrous.
>>>>>>>>>>>WYD?
Yes, World Youth Day. I have seen many interviews with the sorts of seminarians who cheered Benedict's election crediting their vocations to World Youth Day. In addition, the New York Times ran an interesting article two weeks ago or so with a title something like "Younger Catholics move to restore traditional views on sex," citing good statistical evidence of more conservative attitudes among younger Catholics, both in the seminary and without. I have never attended WYD, but I do remember John Paul's magnificent homily from Denver, challenging abortion and the rest of the "culture of death."
I would think that Marcel Lefebvre would need to be reconciled with the Church prior to his death in order to be considered for Sainthood.
No, I'm not holding my breath. I'm supporting the Holy Father with my prayers, as you should be.
If you haven't seen his earlier pieces on the Catholic Church, I highly recommend them:
Is the Pope a Catholic? (December 14, 2002)
Gibson's Passion forced to find sanctuary (February 29, 2004)
Struggle to return to Christian values (April 11, 2004)
"Were any of these excommunicated as the result of the actions of the Pope?"
"St. Hippolytus was..."
Hippolytus of Rome was reconcilled with the Church BEFORE his martrydom. So when he died, he was not at the time considered excommunicated.
Regards
I know and I should have none someone would take offense. I lumped it in the Latin section purely because it is part of the tradition like the Latin, but I know it isn't Latin.
I know and I should have none someone would take offense. I lumped it in the Latin section purely because it is part of the tradition like the Latin, but I know it isn't Latin.
thanks!
John Paul II had little interest in liturgical matters...
When you Serve as long as he served as Pope, having no interest in liturgical matters likely takes an enormous toll.
However, I'm not sure he states it correctly. Didn't you post a link that indicated, by quote, that JPII thought that Liturgical reform was an enormous problem and consequently, undertaking? This article seems to imply he was totally a hands off Pope as it relates to that, and the quote I'm referring to would seem to take the opposite view.
>>...the Kyrie is in Greek!<<
There used to be a lot more Greek in the Roman Mass. Why not bring some more of that back? As it is in the 1962 (or before) missal, the only other time is Holy Week, on Good Friday and Holy Saturday (as I recall). That seems to be not frequent enough to make the message of unity clear. Why not have one of the Propers prayers entirely in Greek, one that changes with each Mass? I've never heard a good answer to this question. I mean, if we can have multiple decades of an entirely new rite imposed on the whole western Church, why not consider whether adding a little ancient Tradition instead might be more beneficial? If the pope does well to speak many languages, why not have the Mass reflect some of the conspicuously missing sacred Greek?
Eastern Catholics would be glad to help with this project, I'm sure. They would be justified in readiness for inclusion. And it would help to encourage study of the Bible in Greek, too. There are nuances inherent in the Greek Scriptures that are not so clear in the Latin Vulgate.
And in regards to music, I don't think you can get more awe-inspiring than the chant and polyphonic works of the Orhtodox.
En arche e ho logos, kai ho logos Theon (Ioannes 1:1)
(well, that's all I can remember off hand)
I began teaching myself Ancient Greek two months ago. I am really looking forward to being able to read the New Testament in Greek (hopefully by the end of the year), and then compare it to the Vulgate.
"I don't think St. Athanasius was excommunicated."
Yes he was, but not by the Pope. Check out his entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
From what I've read JPII didn't have an attachment to the Tridentine, mainly because he was absolutely for Liturgical reform via inculturation. Evidently, he thought that was a more efficient way of spreading the Gospel.
The reason I say that I don't believe JPII was very attached to the Tridentine is that the tone of Ecclesia Dei was somewhat that of a concession to the Faithful who sought it, but not at all a strong defense of the Mass itself.
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